Mosquitoes in Iquitos

A third of Peru is Amazonian rainforest – a fact that most of us don’t register in the glories of Cusco, Machu Picchu and Nazca – and Iquitos is the undisputed capital of the Peruvian Amazon. Its claim to fame is that it is the world’s largest city NOT to be connected by road – though you can sail all the way to the Atlantic! Iquitos' roads themselves though are buzzing with three-wheelers and motorcycles (more of the Made-In-India theme)

Stepped out of Iquitos airport into clammy, tropical weather (it’s been a very long time). I was splurging on the last leg – with an all expenses paid trip to a remote lodge 160km downstream on the Amazon. So I had a guide waiting to pick me up at the airport, drive me around town and then deposit me on the riverboat, Amazon Queen. We would have a leisurely saunter down the Amazon (some 40km) before transferring to a speedboat to zip through the next 120km in a couple of hours – my final destination being the ExplorNapo Lodge on the Rio Napo, a tributary of the Amazon.

Iquitos itself is quite unremarkable – except for a couple of points. Firstly, the airport is open only early morning and late evening – because there are many vultures around during the day (I don’t mean the touts!). Hence the 0545 start. The airport also has a fair few shells of abandoned planes (presumably hit by vultures!) - that don't exactly inspire confidence...Secondly, most of Iquitos is flat, very few buildings above 1-2 stories – and that’s because the ground is too soft for deeper foundations. Architecturally, there are a number of ‘wild west’ style mansions with huge wrought-iron verandahs – built by the lumber barons of Iquitos…

Setting afoot on the Amazon Queen, I must admit a thrill at the prospect of actually steaming down the Amazon. Shridhar-style, that’s Ganga-check, Yangtze-check, Mae Khong-check, Amazon-check – that’s a number of the world’s great river systems covered…Of course, any notions of travelling into the unknown were dashed fairly quickly - most of my companions on the AQ seemed to be well-heeled middle-aged American tourists from places like Fort Wayne, Indiana!

Iquitos is where the Amazon begins its journey and it’s already around 2km wide. I was amazed at the extent of gunk floating in it – tree trunks, water hyacinths, leaves. Although we did see the occasional lumber boats, pushing along a thousand logs, the riverbank didn’t give any indication of the widespread deforestation in these parts – it was just an unbroken stretch of green. There is the occasional village or mission (the missionaries were quite active here). We also passed Indiana – the largest mission in these parts (rather fitting given the origins of most of the mid-west American tourists!)

After a couple of hours, most of the tourists got off the AQ, leaving me with just one other fellow tourist – Gurmeet Pawar, a Brit Indian with a strong cockney accent. Americans and their stereotypical crassness – when they got off, one of them asked Gurmeet if he was going further. When he said yes, she then asked him if he was going back to his village!! Gurmeet’s best English accent came out – “I live in London!” Still, I found it quite amusing thinking of the two of us - persons of Indian origin - in a boat up the Amazon!

The last hour of the journey was really nice – we continued along the Amazon for a bit and then turned left onto the Rio Napo, a tributary (only 1km broad!). We continued down the Napo for around 40 min before turning right onto a narrow waterway. Ten minutes later, we were at Explornapo Lodge. The lodge itself is quite basic – with shared bano facilities and no electricity. My room has a macchar dani though (mosquitoes in Iquitos)! The place has its own pet macaws and capybaras but seems to be primarily infested with a lot of Americans from various Hicksvilles. Of course, there is also a large group of volunteers who have come out here to distribute books to schools in riverine communities. Well, it’s a typically drowsy afternoon here at the Explornapo – but there’s a boat ride and piranha spotting/fishing coming up this evening…