Iquitos

Iquitos is the capital city of the Loreto Region in northern Peru. It is on the banks of the Amazon River. Iquitos is the biggest city in the rain forest of Peru, with about 400,000 residents. It is a major port on the Amazon.

Excluding towns on islands, Iquitos is thought to be the largest city in the world that can not be reached by road. One can only get to Iquitos by boat, or by airplane. It is very remote, in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.

Iquitos was founded in 1747 by Jesuit José Bahamonde. Originally it was the home of the Iquito native tribe. About 100 years ago, Iquitos was a very rich town, because of the rubber industry. Today Iquitos relies mostly on tourism, wood industry and local trade.

Iquitos Media

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  Imagem do Fundo Ministério da Guerra, do Arquivo Nacional

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  NASA satellite image showing the Amazon River Basin where Iquitos Metropolitan Area is located. The Amazon River appears on the lower side of the photograph.

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  Nanay River (black) meeting Amazon (light brown), a continuous phenomenon that occurs very close to the northern shores of Punchana, Iquitos.

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  The northeast side of Iquitos in 1987, when the population of Iquitos still maintained its rural aspect in developing as a metropolis.

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  Headquarters of Provincial Municipality of Maynas which is the main political entity that administers the city.

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  A Petroperú filling station near downtown Iquitos. Most service stations in the city have a convenience store.

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  A block of Jiron Prospero, one of the four major avenues of the city with shops along its length.

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  The Belen Market is considered the largest street market in the Peruvian Amazon, and an important commercial and economic exchange.

Other websites

• http://www.munimaynas.gob.pe/ Archived 2005-04-04 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish) (uses Macromedia Flash)
• Iquitos information at biopark.org Archived 2006-01-25 at the Wayback Machine