Our final point of interest is Iquitos, which would seem like a normal town in many ways (if you ignored the floating portion of it that we just discussed) except for the fact that everything in the town had to be brought in by either boat or plane. Iquitos is generally considered the most populous city (at a whopping 371,000) in the world that cannot be reached by road. Travel within the city is generally done by combi or moto (aka – bus or a half motorcycle, half golfcart contraption), and to travel outside the city you generally take a boat. It has an average relative humidity of 85%, meaning
that the heat there is pretty miserable. The city made its mark during the rubber boom, and a lot of the buildings from that period, like this one, can still be found throughout the city.
Eventually seeds to the rubber trees were smuggled out of the country and Peru lost its edge over the rubber competition, so nowadays the economy of Iquitos is supported mainly by the lumber industry, as well as oil, tourism, and beer. That last economic tidbit is important, because there are not many brands of beer in Peru, and there is one brand of Cusqueña that is made only in Iquitos, and I have been informed that it is far superior to the other brands. Ironic, since you can rarely find it outside of Iquitos and most people don’t really feel the need to journey this far into the jungle for a beer.
After the canoe tour we made our way to the market, where you can find
delicious fruit smoothies for breakfast and then pick up some caiman (a type of alligator) for dinner on your way home. We actually did end up trying the caiman later on at a restaurant, but let’s hope it wasn’t the caiman from this picture. I’m guessing the ground in an Amazonian market is slightly less clean than bottom of a cowboy’s boot, although slightly cleaner than straight elephant dung.
When we first arrived, we had every intention of trying a bunch of different local restaurants, but we would inevitably find ourselves here, at the Yellow Rose of Texas. One of the main reasons for the restaurant’s magnetism was the air-conditioned dining room, where we spent much of one evening watching a football game and enjoying the sweat-free environment. But what really brought us back was the food. This restaurant is owned and operated by an American ex-pat who has lived there so long that he once served as the director of tourism for Iquitos. We had many chats with him, and found out that he grows a lot of his ingredients on his farm outside of town. He also has his very own smoker, which explains the perfection of the BBQ ribs that
are served there. The food is so good that, despite the heat, we ordered the chili on more than one occasion. It was soooooo good. And the place is full of Austin and UT memorabilia, which cracked me up. The servers all wear UT outfits, there are Keep Austin Weird stickers everywhere, and even the smoker is burnt orange with a white longhorn emblem.
Our other favorite hangout was the riverwalk. Oh yeah, there is a riverwalk on the Amazon, which I believe makes it about the most extreme riverwalk. Ever. Aside from that, it is also a great place to sit and have a cold drink while watching the sunset.
And so, to conclude my jungle saga, I’ll leave you with a few pictures from our time in Iquitos.
