Iquitos

We finally made it to Iquitos late yesterday afternoon, after a very long day spent at airports. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 0700 but at the last minute we were told it was cancelled and we had to pick up our bags, which had been checked, and stand in line to book another flight, which might not happen until the next day.  After standing in line for about 30 minutes Dale somehow got us to the front of the line with a flight booked for 1500 hours.  That meant a long wait but we at least had a flight. Two hours later we smiled gleefully as we passed our original line with people still waiting. 

The 1500 flight was delayed and we were concerned that we would not make the connection in Lima. There is no direct flight from Cusco to Iquitos so we had to fly back to Lima first.  You should have been there to see us literally running through the airport to catch our flight. I didn't know I could run that well. 

When we arrived in Iquitos the heat and the humidity hit us like the proverbial "tonne of bricks", reminiscent of our trips to Miami to visit Dawn.  In the past 24 hours we have had thunder, lightning, pouring rain, and sunshine, and through all this the high humidity, which leaves you dripping with sweat in just a few minutes. Makeup doesn't stay on and hair becomes frizzy making it difficult to look good but I have a feeling that no one is looking at me anyway. 

We checked into our hotel, the Casa Morey, which was built over a hundred years ago by a rubber baron. The bottom fell out of the rubber industry quickly as it was easier to harvest rubber from rubber plantations then to go into the jungle for it.  For years the former mansion was used for various purposes until four years ago it was turned into a hotel

The rooms are huge with maybe 20 foot ceilings and there has been a good effort to retain some of its former elegance. Our room is on the ground floor opening onto the pool.

Iquitos is only accessible by air or water. There are no roads into the area. There are cars but the main mode of transportation is via mottocarros, similar to the tuktuks in Cambodia. The pedestrian never has the right of way, not even in a designated crosswalk. 

During the height of the rubber boom many palatial buildings were constructed and today they still stand, a reminder of better times. The area is rundown.  Paint is peeling, tiles are cracked, sidewalks are full of holes and it is impoverished. 

There are foreigners, but not as many as in Cusco.  Some come strictly as tourists, others for "the medicine", "the cure", referring to ayahuasca, which is a brew you drink to find enlightenment. The brew is a psychedelic made from a jungle vine and there is mention of shamans and ceremonies, and finding your true self. We listened to four young guys talking about it at a restaurant. Sounds a bit like the 60s hippies and LSD. 

There are also a lot of single middle aged men and I am not sure what they are looking for but i could guess. There are the usual markets, souvenir vendors and people trying to sell you Amazon tours.  

Iquitos is on the Amazon, which is currently low. The rainy season will soon begin and by spring the Amazon will arise another 30 to 35 feet. The photo shows homes that will be floating homes when the water rises.  

When the sun sets, the verdant landscape that one looks out onto, becomes this inky blackness, lit up only by the occasional streak of lightning. It is quite eerie. Tomorrow we leave for two nights in the jungle. I cannot imagine what that will be like but I will blog about it when we return to Iquitos.