Iquitos: Belen market & Tahuayo Lodge

We got our connecting flight to Iquitos yesterday and were met at the airport by one of the representatives from the Amazon lodge we will be staying at. We were taken to our hotel for the overnight stay, which is owned by the lodge company: Tahuayo Lodge. Paul, the owner of the lodge who I have been corresponding with for the last few months, kindly bumped us up to the best room, despite the fact we’d paid for the most basic.

We were greeted with river side Amazon views, a huge bed and a massive Jacuzzi bath. Also to welcome us was a large dead cockroach which Paddy kindly removed over the balcony. We had a mooch around town , which was largely dead, recovering from New Year’s Eve the night before.

There were men in all states of drunken abandonment sprawled around the town. The buildings are a mix of basic rectangles and Spanish architecture, most however are painted vibrant, fun colours. There are also a vast number of floating houses all along the river.

We went back to our hotel and sat in the noisy little bar next door, soaking in the river atmosphere and people watching. A round of drinks cost less than £2. For dinner, Pedro, a guy from our hotel took us to a little local joint serving meat skewers, rice and salad. The 3 of us ate for about £5 and we were given Inka Cola to drink, the Peruvian soft drink of choice, which basically tastes like cream soda/ green Fanta (for those of you who have been to Asia).

Pedro told us about life with his three girlfriends and how those who live in Iquitos can’t afford to fly to Lima, so they catch a boat for 5 days and then a bus for 26 hours.

Shattered after a long journey, we ended up in bed at 9pm. As I was drifting off to sleep, I was disturbed by a strange vibration in my pillow. On inspection, this turned out to be ‘non snoring’ Paddy’s extremely loud snores. To make matters worse, he was snoring on his side, so I knew there was no escape. After prodding him several times with my foot, to no avail, the only choice was to leave. I snuck off down the corridor and found a room with a key in the door, but unused. So, like Goldilocks, I made myself comfortable, locked the door with the key I’d found, turned on the aircon, got out and extra blanket and went off to sleep in my nice quiet room.

I woke up at 4am and saw the door was ajar. I turned on the bedside lamp and saw the key had gone. Someone had come in to the room, found me in there, taken the key and left. I wasn’t sure whether this was a good or bad thing. Was I going to be in trouble for using an extra room without paying? It was too eary to worry about such things, so I just went back to sleep. Noone said anything when I went down for breakfast but someone definitely caught me.

In the morning we went for a look around Belen Market. Notorious for selling black market goods from the Amazon it has a reputation for being dangerous and unpleasant. I actually found it excellent and real opportunity to mix with locals in their day to day life. The market is a hive of activity and colour… and smells. Coriander one minute, stinking fish the next, then maybe a bit of sewage.

We saw a huge arrange of goods for sale, many illegal and just plain wrong, including alligator and turtle meat, a gorgeous but sad looking baby owl, jaguar paws and baby sloth, just taken (illegally taken) from the jungle, currently residing in a plastic bag with a small hole. It was slowly moving around inside and it was fairly unpleasant to watch.

As we were walking around the market, we were approached by a young guy offering be our guide and show us around the floating villages. This is the stadard practice of finding a guide in Belen market. We accepted as he seemed nice and we did want to visit. His name was Carlos, he was 30, with pretty good English. He showed us around the remaining parts of the market, then down to the rivers edge and hopped on to a little motor boat to explore Belen’s floating village.

Carlos and his son, Carlos Andres:

We travelled around the ‘Venice of Peru’ as Carlos called it, for several hours. Down hut-lined streets that are now flooded with water, as it is the rainy season. In the summer months, the water recedes and the streets are visible again. The houses were wooden made huts, with several little rooms cordoned off inside, housing a whole family. The families use the river for their every need; washing, cleaning clothes, toilet, fishing, swimming.

Carlos took us to his house and introduced us to his family and baby son. He said if they don’t have enough money to eat, he goes fishing to bring back food and in to the Amazon to bring back bananas. Peruvians LOVE bananas. The woman from our hotel told us they eat them breakfast, lunch and dinner. The most popular dish is mashed bananas with bacon, barbequed. You couldn’t make it up.

After our tour, we headed back through the market and Carlos introduced us to several local people. We went in one ladies house and she allowed us up to the top floor, so we could view Belen from above. Quite a sight.

We left Carlos and headed back to the hotel as we were due to depart for our Amazon Lodge trip. We travelled for 4 hours down the Amazon on a motor boat with another family, down various tributaries, until we came to our lodge, deep with the jungle. On route we listened (and danced) to my ipod, a random assortment of Sam Cooke, JLS, Phil Collins and Oasis among others. Something for everybody.

The lodge is called Tahuayo on the Tahuayo tributary (pronounced Ta Why You). It is extremely well run and blends well in to the natural surroundings. As it is currently high season, river wise, the river is quite high. The lodge is raised up high on stilts and there are walkways all around the ‘complex’. We are in room 17, one of 2 ‘best’ rooms. It is huge, with a massive king size bed, a couple of singles and a private bathroom. To top it all off, we are also have electricity, which the other rooms do not. Requesting the best room well in advance clearly does pay off. Paddy is currently banished to one of the single beds for snoring. Hopefully I won’t have to leave the room again tonight.

The insects are raging outside the room. One sounds like squelchy humping, some make a high pitched whistling sounds and then there are the chicadas on top of that. As the evening wears on, different animals will come out to play.

The 7pm calling drum has just gone for dinner, so we are off to see what is on offer.

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