To end our trip to Peru, we decided we wanted to see the Amazon River. We were initially going to Puerto Maldonado but when we realized it wasn’t on the actual Amazon, we switched to Iquitos. We didn’t really have enough time here to truly experience the Amazon, but we did get a small taste. We grabbed a motocar from the airport and for 10 soles they took us right to our hotel.
We chose to stay in Iquitos, at El Cauchero. It was a great room with a fantastic view.
This was the one stop we left to make our plans until we were there. We read that online tours cost more so once we were in town, we checked with a couple tour guides and made our choice. We went with Amazon Camp day tour. They had sloths, a chance to see piranha and an example of a jungle tribe. Some of the others didn’t offer all of these things in a one day tour, so it was any easy decision for us. It cost 240 soles total, including transportation from our hotel, all the tour stops, and lunch. Our tour left in the morning, they picked us up and then we drove down to the edge of town where we boarded our boat.
From there we stopped at a nature preserve where there were parrots, alligators, turtles, piranha, paiche, and you could buy food to feed them all. It was a fun little stop.
Our favorite stop was Centro De Rescate El Paraiso Del Amazonas. Here we fed monkeys, SNUGGLED A SLOTH, held a boa and a prehistoric turtle. The sloth was absolutely incredible. Soft when we expected coarse, I could have held it all day long.
From here we went to Amazon Camp where most of the tourists were checking in to spend the night. We had a delicious lunch and a small break before we head out to see the BoraTribe. We’ve read that it’s a touristy event. That they don’t actually live this way any longer, just put on a show for the tourists. But, it was still interesting to see how it would’ve been. Be forewarned though, some of the women are topless. We purchased some bracelets afterward and a sloth keychain to bring home for the kids.
After the “show”, it was back to camp to drop everyone off and head back to Iquitos. We were very happy with our day tour! We found a street vendor near our hotel and bought a plate of chicken and rice for dinner.
The next day we got a tour guide to take us through Belen Market. It’s probably the largest market of this kind that we’ve ever visited, similar to markets in Israel, and Southeast Asia that we’ve been to. You could get all kinds of meat, including monkey, alligator, fish, turtle etc.
We grabbed lunch at Ari’s Burger which was delicious. We shared the chicken plate. From there we walked back to our hotel, grabbed our luggage, and took a motocar to the airport. The taxis waiting by the airport wanted nearly triple the rate to take us to the airport, so we waited until we found a ride back for 10 soles again. The airports are small, there’s no need to be there two hours early. There was actually a Priority Pass club in this tiny airport, so we killed time in there with free snacks, soda’s and drinks, until our flight arrived.