Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
(5 days & 4 nights per person s/d US$1095/1990)
On the Río Napo, 157km from Iquitos,
this simple lodge has 30 rooms with shared cold-shower facilities. The highlights are
guided trail hikes in remote primary forest, bird-watching, an ethnobotanical garden of
useful plants (curated by a local shaman) and a visit to the nearby Canopy Walkway (half-
hour walk). Because of the distance involved, you spend the first and last night of a five-
day/four-night package at the Explorama Lodge. Another Explorama property, Ex-
plorTambos Camp, is a two-hour walk from here. It's a self-declared 'primitive' camp
sleeping a maximum of 16: ask when booking if you fancy staying at the camp, which has
better wildlife-watching than at any of the lodges.
Flycatcher Tours
( 065-24-1228;
www.flycatchertours.com
;
Putumayo 155, Iquitos; 7-day wilderness
adventure per person US$999)
This outfit, formerly Amazon Adventure Expeditions, is
recommended for providing lengthy excursions into the jungle. These are true (guided)
adventures where you can catch your own food and survive in the wild for up to two
weeks. The operator has a basic lodge, the Yarapa, 220km from Iquitos, a starting point
for trips out to its wilderness camp, 450km from Iquitos on the Aucayacu tributary. Prices
are tailored according to distances traveled and time spent.
ADVENTURE TOURS
Pevas
Pevas, about 145km downriver from Iquitos, is Peru's oldest town on the Amazon. Foun-
ded by missionaries in 1735, Pevas boasts about 5000 inhabitants but no cars, post office
or banks (or attorneys!); the first telephone was installed in 1998. Most residents are
mes-
tizos
or indigenous people from one of four tribes. Pevas is the most interesting town
between Iquitos and the border and is visited regularly (if briefly) by cruise boats travel-
ing to Leticia. Independent travelers are a rarity.
The main attraction in Pevas is the studio-gallery of one of Peru's best-known living
artists,
Francisco Grippa
. Grippa handmakes his canvases from local bark, similar to
that formerly used by local tribespeople for cloth. The paintings on view are the outcome
of Grippa's two decades' observation of Amazonian people, places and customs. You
can't miss the huge house with its red-roofed lookout tower on the hill above the port.
