Iquitos

Introduction

Drijvende huisjes bij Iquitos

© Raf-Ellen

Iquitos is a city in the northeast of Peru and with over 400,000 inhabitants it is the largest city in the Peruvian rainforest. It is also the largest city in the world which can only be reached by boat or plane! The city is the capital of both the Loreto Region and Maynas Province.

Sights and Activities

Tapiche Ohara's Reserve

Scientists, photographers, and nature lovers in general will enjoy a trip to Tapiche Ohara's Reserve (District of Tapiche, Province of Requena, Region of Loreto). The 1,540 hectare reserve, accessible only by waterway, is located 340 kilometres up river from Iquitos on the Tapiche River. The reserve comprises several types of lowland Amazonian forests, including igapo, varzea, and terra firme. The reserve spans both sides of the Tapiche River east of the Ucayali River and is home to different endangered species such as the Jaguar, Red Uakari Monkey, Giant Armadillo, the Tapir, the Amazonian Manatee, Harpy Eagle, Cedar, Mahogany and others. Inside the reserve, there are bodies of water and swamps including lakes, canals, oxbows, aguajales, and restingas. It has annual temperatures ranging from 25 °C to 33 °C and an annual rain fall of about 3,000mm, permitting an immense variety of species to thrive in the area.

jungle_fluo orange frog

© joenstock

Weather

Iquitos has a tropical climate with hot and humid conditions year round. Temperatures hover around 30-32 °C during the day and 20-23 °C at night. Rain is common in all months, but June to September is slightly drier than average. August is the driest month with around 165mm of rain, as opposed to over 300mm in May, the wettest month.

Getting There

By Plane

Coronel FAP Francisco Secada Vignetta International Airport (IQT) has regular flights to/from Lima, Pucallpa, Cuzco and Tarapoto.

By Land

Although Iquitos can not be reached from places further afield, there is about a 100 kilometres of road between Iquitos and the town of Nauta to the south.

By Boat

Both slow and fast ferries connect Iquitos with the triple frontier area with Colombia at Leticia and Brazil at Tabatinga, from where you can connect further to cities like the central Amazonian Manaus and Belem on the Atlantic Ocean, over 3,000 kilometres away. The slow boat to the triple frontier takes a few days, the fast one about 10 hours.
There is also a cargo ship connection to Ecuador once every 10 days and once a week a ship goes to Pucallpa in Peru.

Getting Around

By Public Transport

The most common way to move around town is by motocarro, a motorcycle with a small, rickshaw-like passenger cabin in the back.

Sleep

Upscale

You can use the form below to search for availability (Travellerspoint receives a commission for bookings made through the form)

Learn

Iquitos has four universities: Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana (UNAP), the local state university; Universidad Particular de Iquitos (UPI), Universidad Científica del Perú (UCP), Universidad Peruana del Oriente (UPO) three private institutions. It is also home to the Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (IIAP), the Institute of Investigation of the Peruvian Amazon.

Keep Connected

Internet

More and more hotels, resorts, airports, cafes, and retailers are going Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity), becoming "hotspots" that offer free high-speed Wi-Fi access or charge a small fee for usage. In Peru, by far the easiest way to check your e-mail and surf the Web is to drop in at the Internet cabinas (booths) that can be found in virtually every city and even small towns. Connections are usually fast, and the service is as little as S/2 per hour.
Aside from formal cybercafes, most youth hostels and many hotels nowadays have at least one computer with Internet access.

Phone

See also International Telephone Calls

Peru's country code is +51. Emergency numbers include 105 (Police), 117 (Ambulance) and 116 (Fire).

In all towns and villages that are not too small, it is no problem to find public telephones for national and international calls. Many public phones can be expensive, and an attractive alternative is a Locutorio, or "call-center". Typical rates include .2 Nuevo Sol/minute for calls in the country, and .5 Nuevo Sol/minute for most international calls. Phone cards are cheap and easily available from shops or vendors who hang around pay phones. You'll often see people with a bundle of mobile phones who act as pay phones, they'll be shouting 'llamadas'. Telephone booths are primarily used for making local calls. Calling to other countries from Peru is expensive.

If you have an unlocked cell phone you can buy local SIM cards. Movistar and Claro are two of the phone companies in Peru. You can buy your sim card from these companies and buy a phone card also.

Your best, cheapest bet for making international calls from Peru is to head to any Internet cafe with an international calling option. These cafes have connections to Skype, Net2Phone, or some other VoIP service. International calls made this way can range anywhere from 5¢ to $1 per minute -- much cheaper than making direct international calls or using a phone card. If you have your own Skype or similar account, you just need to find an Internet cafe that provides a computer with a headset.

Post

Check the Serpost website, the national postal service (a private company), for more information about prices and options regarding the sending of postcards, letters and parcels. The post service is relatively efficient and post offices can be found in most cities and (larger) towns. Post offices generally are open from 8:00am to 8:00pm Monday to Saturday and some are open on Sundays from 9:00am to 1:00pm. Postcards are available from street vendors and shops at any touristy area, and stamps are generally available as well, though sometimes only at the post office itself. It takes at least 10 days to send a postcard to North America and prices start at S/5.5. To Europe it is S/7.8 and it takes even a bit longer, around 2 weeks. For little extra money, you can choose 'expresso' services. For large parcels and quantities, you can use both Serpost or companies like DHL, UPS, TNT or FedEx, which are faster and offers the same prices, though it is still relatively expensive.

External Links

• Official Governmental Website