Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
rubber-boom days, to beautify the city. It's the only surviving one of three different iron
houses originally imported here. It looks like a bunch of scrap-metal sheets bolted togeth-
er, was once the location of the Iquitos Club and is now, in humbler times, a general store.
Azulejos
Other remnants of the rubber-boom glory days include
azulejos,
handmade tiles imported
from Portugal to decorate the mansions of the rubber barons. Many buildings along Rai-
mondi and Malecón Tarapaca are lavishly decorated with
azulejos
. Some of the best are
various government buildings along or near the Malecón.
HISTORIC BUILDING
Belén
At the southeast end of town is the floating shantytown of Belén, consisting of scores of
huts, built on rafts, which rise and fall with the river. During the low-water months, these
rafts sit on the river mud and are dirty and unhealthy, but for most of the year they float on
the river − a colorful and exotic sight. Seven thousand people live here, and canoes float
from hut to hut selling and trading jungle produce. The best time to visit the shantytown is
at 7am, when people from the jungle villages arrive to sell their produce. To get here, take
a cab to 'Los Chinos,' walk to the port and rent a canoe to take you around.
Belén mercado
, located within the city blocks in front of Belén, is the raucous,
crowded affair common to most Peruvian towns. All kinds of strange and exotic products
are sold here among the more mundane bags of rice, sugar, flour and cheap household
goods. Look for the bark of the
chuchuhuasi
tree, which is soaked in rum for weeks and
used as a tonic (it's served in many of the local bars).
Chuchuhuasi
and other Amazon
plants are common ingredients in herbal pain-reducing and arthritis formulas manufac-
tured in Europe and the USA. The market makes for exciting shopping and sightseeing,
but do remember to watch your wallet.
NEIGHBORHOOD
Activities
Golf
Amazon Golf Club
( 963-1333, 975-4976; Quistacocha; admission per day incl club rental S60;
6am-6pm)
Amazing as it may seem, you can play a round or two on the nine holes of the
only course in the entire Amazon. Founded in 2004 by a bunch of nostalgic expats, the
2140m course was built on bushland just outside Iquitos and boasts, apart from its nine
GOLF
