Our trip to the airport was kinda scary. The guy at the hostel was convinced it wouldn’t take too long to get to airport, so we pushed things a little. But we got stuck in a massive traffic hold up, and when we got to the counter, it was like 40 mins before take-off. One nice thing about Peruvian domestic airlines? They change timings without letting you know. Thankfully, we got the good end of this – our flight was delayed without our knowledge, giving us ample time to grab some breakfast.

The flight was pretty amazing – usually flying above stuff, all you get to see is clouds. But as our plane was descending, I got to see the mighty Amazon. Looking down, it does impress upon me, what a diverse landscape Peru is. We started out from the mountainous Andes, and ended up in the forested Amazon.

Iquitos is a town in the middle of the Amazon river, and it was quite a trade town. Before the rubber boom in Malaysia, it used to be a huge rubber boom town. This was reflected in the architecture of the town. There were lots of cool, abandoned buildings in the downtown of Iquitos, with very elaborate designs. It’s almost as if you wandered into a early-twentieth century theme park.

In Iquitos, we stayed in the La Casa Fitzcarraldo, which was where the film about the rubber baron of Iquitos, Fitzcarraldo stayed during filming. It is run by Walter, who lives there, and consists of about three rooms and one bungalow. Rates start at about 60 USD for the small room. I highly recommend staying here. It is about 5 mins by motokar to downtown, but it was an oasis of calm from the bustling and noisy Iquitos. The grounds of La Casa Fitzcarraldo is pretty amazing. They have several pavilions  surrounding the beautiful pool, and even a three-storey treehouse. The rooms are also very comfortable, and come with a huge breakfast.

After settling in, we headed to downtown for a short walk, and also settled our trip to the Amazon with Dawn on the Amazon. After that, we settled in La Noche restaurant on the Promenade for dinner, jungle juice, and sunset on the Amazon. I had grilled fish, which had a texture closer to chicken, and we just sat and enjoyed the sunset before going back to our guesthouse.

Amazon River

Elaborate buildings of Iquitos

Camu Camu juice

Sunset on the Amazon

Grilled fish

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