IQUITOS AND PACAYA SAMIRIA

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Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest and the capital of Loreto that neighbors Brazil to the east and Colombia to the north. Located on the Amazon river, this city can be reached only by plane or boat if you have more than 2 weeks to kill. Only the small town of Nauta can be reached by car and it is roughly about 62 miles south. It is from this city that most Pacaya Samiria excursions start.

Iquitos was known for its rubber industry through the rubber boom of the first decade of the 20th century; it attracted thousands of immigrants from around the world, mostly young, single men who hoped to make their fortunes in rubber. The rise of the automobile and related industries had dramatically increased the worldwide demand for rubber. Many of the European men married indigenous women and stayed in Peru the rest of their lives, founding ethnically mixed families.

The wealthiest of them built great mansions in the late 19th century, some of which survive. Casa de Fierro (Spanish for the Iron House) was designed by Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower. After rubber seeds were smuggled out of the country and began to be cultivated in quantity elsewhere, the Peruvian boom came to an end.

Iquitos is now popular among adventurers due to its unique location and natural appeal. There are countless of options once you arrive in Iquitos and all you need is the will to experience and desire to detach yourself from reality. It is truly an amazing place to visit.

Tourism in Iquitos – See Slideshow below

Eco-tourism

Iquitos is home to the prominent Peruvian conservation research organization, Project Amazonas. It has three biological stations on tributaries of the Amazon, which sometimes allow visitors. Scientists, students, and tourists fly into Iquitos, where they transfer to boats for the remainder of their travel to the Project's research stations.

Flooded City of Belen

A boat tour of Belén is a common tourist attraction. Belén is a community east of Iquitos that can be accessed by foot and moto-carro, both in the dry and wet seasons. Many of the homes are tethered to large poles, from which they float upon the river's rising waters every year; some homes float year-round. Where the waters begin, there are often a few men with their boats who transport locals and tourists for a small fee. Belén's open-air market is also a tourist attraction. Most notable is the medicine lane, Pasaje Paquito, an entire block lined with vendors of local plant (and animal) medicines, who stock everything from copaiba to chuchuwasai.

Ayahuasca

Ayahuasca tourism has increased in Iquitos in recent years. Some Westerners seek traditional shamanic experiences by using the visionary Amazonian medicinal tea. Although some reputable curanderos who can provide a safe context for such experiences, others do not have the specialised training or skills. Tourists are advised to use caution in such pursuits.

Pacaya Samiria

To be able to enter, you must request permission from INRENA and pay the corresponding fees. Comprising a large part of the provinces of Loreto, Requena, Ucayali, and Alto Amazonas, it has an area of 2’080.000 hectares making it the largest in the country and in South America. The entrance to the park is Comunidad of 20 de Febrero (15 hours by boat or 4 hours by chartered boat).

Inside the reserve, there are three river basins: the Pacaya River basin, the Samiria River basin, and the Yanayacu-Pucate River basin. There are also numerous lakes, gorges, canals, and oxbows. Its huge biodiversity includes 527 bird species, 102 mammal species (among them the pink dolphin), 69 species of reptiles, 58 species of amphibians, 269 fish species, and 1024 species of wild and cultivated plants.

Furthermore, there are diverse protection and natural resource management projects like the one aimed at repopulating the taricaya and the charapa river with turtles in the artificial beaches of the reserve. It is truly amazing to watch the final stage of the process, the freeing of the newborns into the rivers, gorges, and lakes of the reserve. The level of involvement of the local population is remarkable.

We will visit 3 main villages in the Yanayacu-Pucate basin where we will see the local population live in a 100% self-substainable environment to which we will be able to contribute. Each member of the family has a role that directly affects the dynamics of the economy of the area.