Iquitos is an important port city of the Amazon and
Peru’s largest jungle town. It is located in the Amazon basin at the
confluence of the Nanay and Itaya rivers, about 3,700 km upstream from
the Atlantic Ocean and 1,030 km north-northeast of Lima.
Surrounded by water on one side and thick amazon rainforest on the rest,
the only way to reach Iquitos is to either fly there, or travel by boat,
which takes a full week of floating along the hot and humid Amazon. With
a population of 422,000, it is the largest city in the world that is
inaccessible by road.
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The area was inhabited for thousands of years by natives and nomadic
hunter-gatherers, who lived in small seasonal settlements close to the
rivers, before European missionaries arrived and settled the local
population around the rivers Nanay, Amazonas and Itaya.
Some say the city was founded by the Jesuit missionaries in the 18th
century; others claim that it actually was not founded until nearly a
century later. In any case, the city did not start attracting settlers
until the beginning of the 19th century when rubber was discovered.
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Thousands of immigrants from around the world, mostly young single men
who hoped to make their fortunes in rubber, came and settled here. The
rise of the automobile and related industries had dramatically increased
the worldwide demand for rubber.
Some men became merchants and bankers, and made their fortunes that way.
Many of the European men married indigenous women and stayed in Peru the
rest of their lives, founding ethnically mixed families. The immigrants
brought European clothing styles, music, architecture and other cultural
elements to Iquitos. The city became wealthy through its rubber industry
throughout the rubber boom.
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After 1912, rubber production dropped drastically, and the city’s
population declined. Iquitos still bears traces of the extravagant taste
of the rubber barons: mosaic tiles in Italian-style palaces, the
bustling riverside walkway or the Iron House, a famous residence
designed by Gustave Eiffel that was built from metal sheets and carried
by hundreds of men through the jungle.
Those great homes are now faded monuments to the city's glory days, and
just blocks from the main square lies the shantytown of Belén district,
where families live in a ramshackle wooden houses on the banks of the
river. Some are propped up by spindly stilts, while others float,
tethered to poles, when the river rises 6m or more. |
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Although unreachable by roads, the city is not without vehicles.
Motorcycles and motocarros - a motorcycle with a small, rickshaw-like
passenger cabin in the back – dominate the streets, whizzing manically
around as if “an American style biker-gang had taken over a city”. Such
is the noise and chaos.
Over 250,000 tourists came to visit Iquitos in 2012. For most visitors,
the lure of the Amazon rainforest, that encroaches the city on all
sides, is the primary attraction. Iquitos has a relaxed, intoxicating
feel that's likely to detain you for a couple of days at least. |