A \u201cfloating village\u201d in one of the neighborhoods of Iquitos\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
We were up fairly early this morning to fly from Lima to what claims to be the largest isolated city in the world \u2014 which is to say the largest city on earth that cannot be reached by road. \u00a0It must be reached, if it\u2019s reached at all, either by boat or by airplane. \u00a0And, although Iquitos is a Peruvian city, it\u2019s linked more naturally by boat \u00a0\u2014 via the Amazon River \u2014 to Brazil than to Peru.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The season is winter here, but that doesn\u2019t stop the weather from being both hot and humid, as well as very green. \u00a0We\u2019re surrounded by the Amazon rainforest.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are plenty of motorized vehicles on the roads \u2014 our little group, for example, had a passenger van \u2014 but the vast majority of them are either motorcycles or, much more commonly, three-wheeled autocarros<\/em>\u00a0or autotaxis, modified from motorcycles, which are called the \u201cmosquitos of Iquitos.\u201d \u00a0According to Wikipedia, the large conurbation centered on the city proper \u2014 consisting of the four districts\u00a0Iquitos,\u00a0Punchana,\u00a0Bel\u00e9n, and\u00a0San Juan Bautista \u2014\u00a0contains roughly half a million\u00a0inhabitants. \u00a0Our local guide, perhaps thinking of a rather different area, puts that figure at\u00a0approximately 900,000. \u00a0In any event, surrounding communities aren\u2019t connected to the city of Iquitos by paved roads. \u00a0Rather, the rivers \u2014 the Amazon and its tributaries \u2014 are the roads.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
We had a large and excellent lunch after our arrival. \u00a0(So we \u2014 my wife and I \u2014 skipped dinner.) \u00a0Mine included a very good local fish called\u00a0paiche<\/em>, which is evidently\u00a0one of the largest freshwater fish in the world. \u00a0It has a meaty texture that some people compare to steak. \u00a0I also had lots of fried plaintain in two different forms \u2013my Cuban daughter in law would surely be happy at that! \u2014 and fried manioc (commonly known, too, as cassava or yucca), which came in the form of really delicious fries. \u00a0Manioc is apparently the main source of carbohydrates for the peoples of the Amazon region, serving the role held elsewhere by potatoes.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
This afternoon, we visited a small but interesting museum dedicated to the prehistory and the life cycle of the Indians, the indigenous peoples, of the Amazon rainforest. \u00a0After that, we spent time on a steam boat that survives from the nineteenth-century rubber industry and that is now moored as a floating museum.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Iquitos and the surrounding area is the setting for\u00a0the 1982 German film Fitzcarraldo<\/em><\/a>, written and directed by Werner Herzog and starring Klaus Kinski (whereon hangs a tale told by the Wikipedia article to which I\u2019ve just linked). \u00a0I need to see that film again now. \u00a0It rests on a true story about one of the local rubber barons (not to be confused with a \u201crobber baron\u201d).<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Posted from Iquitos, Peru<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 We were up fairly early this morning to fly from Lima to what claims to be the largest isolated city in the world \u2014 which is to say the largest city on earth that cannot be reached by road. \u00a0It must be reached, if it\u2019s reached at all, either by boat or by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Villages](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2019\/06\/Amazonas_floating_village_Iquitos_Photo_by_Sascha_Grabow.jpg\")
<\/a>