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ABOUT IQUITOS
Much of Iquitos's appeal is derived from the fact that it's the starting point for excursions into the rainforest, but the town is an interesting place in its own right. Many of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century buildings are decorated with Portuguese azulejo tiles, some of which are brilliantly extravagant in their Moorish inspiration, and the Casa Kahn , on block 1 of Sargento Lore, is a particularly fine example.
On the the Plaza de Armas , you'll find the unusual, majestic Casa de Fierro (Iron House), now home to a restaurant but created by Eiffel for the 1898 Paris exhibition and shipped out by one of the rubber barons; outside, in the shadow of the Mamey trees, lurks an unexpected statue by Rodin. On the southwest side of the plaza is the Iglesía Matriz , the main Catholic church, whose interior paintings depicting biblical scenes are by the Loretano artists Americo Pinasco and Cesar Calvo de Araujo.
One block southeast of Plaza de Armas are the two best sections of the old river front, El Boulevard and Malecón Tarapaca. The section that divides the two is gradually disappearing through erosion, and there's some major restoration going on here. El Boulevard is the busier of the two areas, especially at night, full of bars and restaurants and with a small amphitheatre where some kind of entertainment occurs most nights, from mini-circuses to mime, comedy and music. The Malecón Tarapaca boasts some fine old mansions, presently used by the military, at the points where it meets Putumayo and Sargento Lores; another, at Tarapaca 262, with lovely nineteenth-century azulejo -work, is presently one of the town's better bakeries. Also on Malecón Tarapaca is the Prefectura de Loreto mansion, home to the Museo Amazonico , devoted to the region's natural history and tribal culture. The collection includes some unusual life-sized human figures in traditional dress from different Amazon tribes; each fibreglass sculpture was made from a cast that had encapsulated the subject for an hour or so. There's also a gallery devoted to previous prefectos of Loreto, some oil paintings, a few stuffed animals and a small military museum. On the corner of Napo and Raymondi you'll find the Casa de Barro, made from mud and wood, where Fitzcarrald stored his rubber.
Iquitos History
IQUITOS began life in 1739 when Jesuit José Bahamonde established settlements at Santa Barbara de Nanay and Santa Maria de Iquitos on the Río Mazán. It was a particularly daunting task, as the missionaries here faced the task of converting the fierce Iquito Indians, renowned as marksmen with their long poison-dart blowpipes. There are only one or two families of the Iquito tribe left, living way on the upper Río Nanay, and these days the region is better known for the Yaguar, Bora and Witoto tribes, whose handicraft can be seen virtually everywhere you turn in the modern city.
The original town was founded in 1757 under the name of San Pablo de los Napeanos, but the present centre was established in 1864. By the end of the nineteenth century it was, along with Manaus in Brazil, one of the great rubber towns. From that era of grandeur a number of structures survive, but during this century Iquitos has vacillated between prosperity - as far back as 1938, the area was explored for oil - and the depths of depression. However, its strategic position on the Amazon, which makes it accessible to large ocean-going ships from the distant Atlantic, has ensured its importance. At present, still buoyed by the export of timber, petroleum, tobacco and Brazil nuts, and dabbling heavily in the trade of wild animals, tropical fish and birds, as well as an insecticide called barbasco, long used by natives as a fish poison, Iquitos is in a period of quite wealthy expansion.
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