The historical city of Iquitoes

The Peruvian Amazon City

Wow, what a city Iquitoes is!  Our first expectations of Iquitoes, located on the banks of the Amazon was once  a small backwater village.....well were we wrong.  With a population of over 500,000 it is the largest city on earth that can only be accessed by water or air.  The city is alive with activity until late at night.

The rumbles of the motor motorcycle rickshaws, the blowing of horns....   and the smells.... in my imagination Iquitoes would be ripe with the musty smell of the muddy river during rainy season, the rotting of  wooden pilings in the river community of Belene, and I expected the smell of rotting fish flesh and human waste.  Instead the "moto cars" were mostly silent as they darted in and around anything in their way.

Those anticipated orders of rotting fish and human waste were not to be whiffed.  Instead the air was fresh and the shore of the river was lined with water flowers.

This homes just off shore rise and fall with the river.  We are visiting in the middle of rainy season so they are now 17 feet above the muddy bottom where they will rest by mid June.

Iquitoes has been around since the Jesuits entered this part of the Jungle to "enlighten" the lives of the native people.  During the late 1800's and the early 1900's thousands of Europeans arrived in the jungle tempted by easy money during the a era know as the Rubber Boom.   These mostly single men brought with them the culture and living conditions of their countries building mansion after mansion.  We are staying at a restored rubber baron mansion the Casa Morey.

 

The view from this window is below. 

 

After dark we took a little walk around town to experience the quiet day time streets transformation.  The early evening took on the appearance of a sunday afternoon in the park as families gathered to visit after the heat of the day had subsided.
Our beds at the Casa Morey called us early  to sleep in preparation for our venture 80 miles down river into the Amazon Jungle.  Check out our home in the jungle at www.muyuna.com because for the next week we will be totally out of touch so until then.....