Finally I was ready to leave Lima. I was entering a new stage of my trip:. summer, amazons, Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia are ahead !!! Yeah!
I flew from Lima to Iquitos to save at least a week. The flight was a bit pricey but short and fun! Otherwise it’s a long bus ride to Pucalpa and then a 5-day boat ride to Iquitos. We flew over the Amazons and that’s when you appreciate the enormity of the jungles, amazons and rivers running though it.
As soon as we landed I knew I would not need my down jacket, jeans, long sleeve and socks here!!! Yeah!! Summer finally had arrived for me too!!!!!!!!!!
Iquitos is a big city in the Peruvian amazon. It had its glory days during the rubber boom of the 19th century. There were lots of rich people here who did not know what to do with their new monies. For example, there is an Iron House here that was designed by Eifel who also designed Eifel Tower that’s in Paris. This house was disassembled and shipped from Europe in those days… There are lots of former palace-type of buildings decorated with Portuguese tiles… that are in the state of decay these days… The money is just not there anymore…
Most tourist who are here, are going to the jungle tours from Iquitos and also here to try the Auyashka ceremony… Auyashka seemed to me too commercial here, advertised all over... or it was just not there for me... There is place and time... Iquitos turned out to be too noisy and a huge city in the amazon… It was difficult to find a quiet place to chill due to the noise from the numerous tuc-tuc-kinda motos, motorcycles and scooters… There were literally thousands of them… Everybody uses them there for transport and its also serves as a taxi. There were only a few cars that I have seen on the roads in Iquitos..
My diet in Iquitos consisted mainly of exotic amazon fruit ice cream, and a variety of fruit exploration. I just could not stop… there were so many fruits that I have never seen or heard of before!!!
In Iquitos I visited the rescued animal orphanage were I was able to play with variety of animals from the region... Most of these animals were brought to the orphanage by police who confiscated them from the illegal possession or attempted sales on the animal markets...
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