I took a flight to Iquitos in the Amazon. Iquitos is only accessible by plane & boat. When I arrived it was 7pm at night & the wall of sweltering heat hit me as I got off the plane. I was so excited to be in the Amazon although I’m technically on the outskirts it’s as close as I had time get. Mt first impression was…”OMG it’s really dirty & everyone is sketchy”…funny as that remained my impression for the next 3 days. I stayed in a hotel with cable the first night then in the morning I caught a tuk tuk to my floating hostel. The roads a jam packed with motor bikes & the town has a very wild wild west feeling about it.
Tuk Tuk's of Iquitos & Camiri
Once again so excited! A floating hostel (with dogs!!)yay! I walked cautiously over the floating boardwalk to the main hostel. Marcel greeted me & showed me to my room…along another floating boardwalk.
Camiri Floating Hostel. My room & a permanent resident
That afternoon I tagged along to go to the famous Belen markets where the locals go to buy pretty much everything to support their daily lives. This is what I wanted to see!!!
The markets are large, some under cover because it rains a lot. I walked thru the “butchery”, big carcasses of all types of animals with flies buzzing around & children sleeping next to them.
Then up to the witches markets; this is where you can buy assorted venom’s, anaconda skin, leopard fur, monkey hands & of course San Pedro & Ayahuasca & many other love potions & magically (illegal) tonics. I was awe struck…this is fucking crazy!!!! The best street was yet to come though…the illegally caught assorted meats road.
Dried meats & Fish.
Belen Market Vultures watching the streets Ayahuasca Leopard Skin
So imagine a dirty street lined with stalls, covered with tarpaulins & on those tarpaulins hundreds on vultures. Then look at the ground, it’s filthy with rubbish & meat waste, wet & muddy, bikes everywhere, smells damp & unpleasant, then you see a caiman skin in the gutter... on this street you could buy anything that they had fished out of the Amazon river & more. The more being monkeys they steal from their families & turtles they kill inhumanely because they are so hard to kill. This was an experience. I hate to say it but everything I ate in the 3 days I was there came from Belen markets…it was tasty & I didn’t get sick.
Caiman Turltes & Gizzards & Eggs Potions Monkey hands& snake skins
The harsh reality is that the people of the Amazon have done this for years; it’s their way of life. Yes they probably are getting greedy but the majority of the food caught is for locals, the love potions & tonics on the other hand are for tourists. I questioned my morals many times whilst in Iquitos & out of curiosity broke some too… I tasted a Turtle. But this is what travelling is all about. I wouldn’t try it again but now I have an opinion. (the caiman was good too J)
My experience of Iquitos & the Amazon River was truly eye opening & amazing. (I did see more than the markets) It is such a beautiful part of the world that is being destroyed daily to make way for Industry & farm land. Please if you do anything in your lifetime go the Amazon Jungle.
Views from Camiri Hostel. A storm brewing & a breath taking sunset.
