Iquitos Mosquitos

Our LAN Peru jet pushed away from the terminal right on schedule and we were on our way to Iquitos some 1000 kms NE of Lima. Looking out our window from 35000 ft, the entire country seemed to be covererd in a thick blanket of cloud and it wasn´t until we began our descent 90 minutes later that some breaks in the clouds below revealed a vast expanse of green stretching as far as we could see, broken only by the huge winding rivers that took circuitous routes through the jungle. On of these may have been the Amazon itself though the Amazon Basin contains a huge network of tributaries, many of them major rivers in their own right.

We were passing over just a tiny section of the mighty rainforests of Peru, Ecuador,Columbia and Brazil where the Amazon cuts its path for nearly 4000 kms before it spills into the Atlantic. I must admit that watching this vast expanse of forest below, made it hard to believe that man´s encursions could have any significant impact on this gigantic greenspace. We have all heard tales of the dforestation of the Amazon forest, but it seems almost beyond belief that this giant could really be negatively affected by our efforts. Even thousands acres and millions of trees would be such an insignificant fraction of this gargantuan biosphere that it seems impossible to believe the dire threats we´ve all heard. I´m sure that lots of people would argue with me on this but I would suggest that they take a flight over the Amazon before acception all the warnings about destruction of the Amazon forest. (Susan did and Susan does disagree with Robb´s views on this topic.)

We were met at the Iquitos airport by the representative of Explorama Jungle Lodges and along with several others boared a rickety old but for our journey into town. We were staying one night in Iquitos and then heading down river to Ceiba Tops Jungle Lodge some 45 kms away.

Iquitos is a city of about 375,000 people situated at 3.7 degrees south of the equator, so we expected it to be hot and humid and we certainly weren´t disappointed. It is the largest city in the world that is not accessible by road, air and water being the only modes of transport to this frontier town. Iquitos owes its existence to the rubber boom of the late 19th century though it serves as base for supplying villages along the river and a growing centre for petroleum exploration to the north.

The road from the airport was lined with run down looking buildings, their corrugated iron roofs and in some cases over-grown with vegetation The one road running into the centre was alive with three-wheeled motorcycle taxis, motor bikes, and very infrequently, a car or bus similar to the cerca 1960´s vehicle we were in. As we were to learn in the next few minutes, there are thousands and thousands of these two passenger taxis roaring around the city in what appears to be mass confusion, though somehow they seem to get where they are going. When Susan asked our guide if there were a lot of mosquitos in Iquitos he replied ¨Only the ones that need gasoline¨. And these little motor taxis were reminiscent of hordes of buzzing mosquitos.

We slowed to a crawl as we approached the hotel where our hotel was located. There was a procession of some sort wending its way through town and we could only proceed at its snail´s pace. We were in no particular hurry however and it was certainly very interesting to find ourselves in the midst of this hectic mob.

Our hotel the Dorada Plaza - Iquitos´best - turned out to be an oasis in the cacaphonous bustle of the city. Thick sound -proof glass on all the windows kept out virtually all the loud noise from the main square in front of the hotel. We were also amused to see throngs of young people gathering outside the hotel, peering expectantly through the large glass doors. When we had arrived at the airport there were similar throngs of people and even a school band playing - all this to welcome an apparently famous Peruvian rock star and heart throb...Pedro something-or-other. He was giving a concert in town that night. We got a closeup at the very handsome young man sitting in the lobby surrounded by his entourage and body guards. It brought back memories of when we flew from New Zealand to Australia in 1978 with Billy Joel and his band on the same plane.

After checking in we walked around the streets nearby. The constant buzzing of the taxis packed into the streets, the choking exhaust fumes and the almost-overpowering heat, made us think we had taken a wrong turn in space and time and had ended up in Bangkok in 1978 when we had visited that most hectic of cities. This idea was reinforced when we sat down at a street-side cafe for a bite of dinner. This greasy spoon establishment was open to the noise, fumes and peddlers on the street, similar to the restaurants we had frequented in Thailand. Sue had a fish burger and I had a hamburger, which, although it tasted fine, may have been the cause of my soon-to-be health problems.

We were picked up at 8:30 the next morning to board one of Explorama´s river launches for the 45 minute trip downstream, for the start of our grand Amazon adventures.