Day 72 - Iquitos, Peru

We are now officially at the half way point of our trip which feels weird on the one hand it feels like we have been away for so long but on the other a little bit of us is sad that we are into "day left" territory! 

Today is the first of our two day Dawn on the Amazon tour. The plan is to visit Belen market and the floating market and then do a three rivers tour. 

We get picked up by out guide Julio and grab a motocarro (tuk tuk) to Belen market. There are thousands of motocarros in Iquitos. There is not a second goes by without at least three passing you in the street. It give the place a really hectic vibe and reminds us of being in Asia. 

The market is absolutely huge and sells everything you could possibly imagine but majors in food, mainly fish, bush meat (which is illegal but they don't care) and vegetables. 

Fresh out of the river this morning. The chickens stink. The food can't be that hygienic after being left out in this heat for a lot of the day. 

One of the naughty stalls has caught and subsequently chopped into pieces a caiman. This is so fresh snot is still dropping from its nose. 

And here is the rest of him. 

Vultures are never far away. 

Poor little turtles and the biggest snails I have ever seen. 

Next we head down to the water. Luckily it is wet season so it's not that far. In dry season the river retreats so far that it is a good 15-20min walk to it. 

Time to jump on a boat and explore the floating markets and where people live. 

This is a great experience as we get to see how people really live and work. What strikes us is what a happy and content place this is. Everyone greets us and waves as we go by. It's also not touristy in the slightest. We didn't see one other tourist which surprised us

(even in the market). 

The kids in particular seem so happy. Mind you, they do have the best play ground in the world to play in. They are all swimming and jumping in the river. They must have immune systems made of iron. 

After we have nice surprise pulling up to a bigger boat, like our one from Laos. This was our boat for the rest of the day and the three rivers cruise. 

We set off and it is so peaceful. We head up river out of the town. The soft wurring of the engine and the sound of the birds and wildlife makes it very hard to keep our eyes open. Our guide points out loads of species of birds along the way including osprey's, kingfishers amongst many others. 

It is so hot now that it is definitely time for the legs to come off of my trousers! As they are 'north farce' they probably won't go back on! 

We stop for a lovely lunch in the middle of nowhere. So peaceful. We have a local dish called Tamala for lunch made from corn, egg and chicken wrapped in a giant leaf. Fairly tasty. 

After lunch we do some dolphin spotting and manage to see loads. The most coveted of which is the pink dolphin which we manage to see quite a few times. It is so pink!! It's like Mr Blobby pink. 

What also strikes us is how industrial the town is. It is the workhorse of the amazon with all the local people working the river in some way either fishing, farming at the side of it, transporting goods down it or working in the timber mills. 

We head back down river towards the amazon, past Iquitos again. 

They are building a huge place on stilts here. 

We reach the amazon and we know the exact point we cross into it due to the change in colour of the water which turns really brown. 

After a bit more dolphin spotting we head back to shore to get a tuk tuk home. 

It's been a good day but we have now become river snobs too! It doesn't compete with the Mekong and Halong Bay mainly because it is so flat here you don't get the great scenery of those other places. Definitely worth seeing though.

After a shower and cool down in the hotel room we head for dinner at Dawn on the Amazon cafe and are back in for 9pm ready for bed. We just can't be outside for more than an hour without dripping in sweat!