Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest, with a population of 370,962. It is the capital of Loreto Region and Maynas Province. It is generally considered the most populous city in the world that cannot be reached by road.
Located on the Amazon River, it is a mere 106 m (348 ft) above sea level even though it is more than 3,000 km (1,864 mi) from the mouth of the Amazon at Belém in Brazil, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is situated 125 km (78 mi) downstream of the confluence of the Ucayali and Marañón rivers, the two main headwaters of the Amazon River. Iquitos has long been a major port in the Amazon Basin. It is surrounded by three rivers: the Nanay, the Itaya, and the Amazon.
The city can be reached only by airplane or boat, with the exception of a road to Nauta, a small town roughly 100 km (62 mi) south. Ocean vessels of 3,000 tons or 9,000 tons and 5.5 metres (18 ft) draft can reach Iquitos from the Atlantic ocean, 3,600 kilometres (2,200 mi) away. Most travel within the city itself is via bus, motorcycle, or auto rickshaw (mototaxi, motocarro or motokar). Transportation to nearby towns often requires a river trip via peque-peque, a small public motorized boat.
The climate is hot and humid, with an average relative humidity of 85%. The wet season lasts from around November to May, with the river reaching its highest point in May. The river is at its lowest in October.
Iquitos was established as a Jesuit mission in the 1750s, and in 1864 it started to grow when the Loreto Region was created and Iquitos became its capital. It is currently the seat of a Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate.
Iquitos was known for its rubber industry through the rubber boom of the first decade of the 20th century, and there are still great mansions from the 1800s, including The Iron House (Spanish: Casa de Fierro), designed by the famous Gustave Eiffel, the Eiffel tower fame. The boom came to an end when rubber seeds were smuggled out of the country and planted elsewhere. The 1982 movie Fitzcarraldo was filmed near Iquitos. Though there was a rubber baron called Carlos Fitzcarrald, the fictional Brian Sweeney Fitzcarraldo in the film is wholly a product of director Werner Herzog's imagination.
Iquitos has a growing reputation as a tourist community, especially as a jumping-off point for tours of the Amazon rainforest and the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, and trips downriver to Manaus, Brazil - the other rubber-industry city in the interior of the Amazon basin - and finally the Atlantic Ocean, which is 3,360 km (2,088 mi) away.
Iquitos is also home to the prominent Peruvian conservation research organization, Project Amazonas and its three biological stations on tributaries of the Amazon. Scientists, students, and tourists fly into Iquitos, where they transfer to boats for the remainder of their travel to the Project's research stations.
A boat tour of Belén is a common tourist attraction. Belén is an area east of Iquitos that can be accessed by foot and moto-carro both in the dry and wet seasons. However, many of the homes in this area are tethered to large poles and float upon the rising waters every year, and 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
There is also an open-air market in Belén (in a part that doesn't flood). This too is a common tourist attraction. Most notable is the medicine lane, "Pasaje Paquito", an entire block of the market lined with local plant (and animal) medicines, stocking everything from copaiba to chuchuwasai.
Ayahuasca tourism has increased in Iquitos in recent years, with Westerners seeking traditional shamanic experiences using the visionary Amazonian medicinal tea. Although there are some reputable curanderos who can provide a safe context for such experiences, others do not have the specialised training or skills. Look for hotels and hostels in iquitos peru :
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