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Capital: Lima
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This was my second visit to Peru. After more than a month crossing Peru from north to south in December '93 and January '94, I came away from my first visit with a love - hate relationship with that country. Love, for Peru offers much more than any other South American country in many ways. The history of its several ancient pre Inca cultures and the numerous archaeological sites and museums associated with them are just fascinating. Peru clearly ranks as one of the cradles of mankind along with the Nile, Mesopotamia, the Indus and the Yellow River. Peru also has great natural resources and offers a remarkable variety of landscapes from the desert coast through the high Andes to the lush tropical forest of Amazonia. Peru is truly a fascinating country... But... today's Peru is wasting its tremendous potential through mismanagement largely due to a history of military dictatorships which have caused severe social inequities, high levels of common crime, a tradition of corruption and chronic guerrilla resistance to government. Lima and several areas of the country are not safe and Peru's remarkable historical sites have become tourist traps where the two price system is the norm. It is really a pity for the tourist industry would be a gold mine if the Peruvians could get their act together. |
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Atlapedia CIA Country Reports pe Lonely Planet pe Traveldocs perou | ||
Before leaving Montreal, I had planned to get to Iquitos from Quito by bus as far as Pucallpa in order to visit Cuenca and Loja again in Ecuador and to see parts of Peru I had not visited yet. El Niño changed that plan by destroying almost every road and half of the bridges along the way!
I had no choice, I had to fly and the only way was to go far south to Lima and then north up to here. It was expensive and I did not see a thing until I got to my hotel, the Libertad, here on calle Arica.
I was pleasantly surprised to find Iquitos quite different from the touristic cities and sites of the coast and highlands. I discovered that this was Amazonia and that it was a world of its own no matter which country it was in.
Iquitos is a small city (about 300 000) with a past of great wealth during the "rubber baron" years at the end of the last century. By 1910 or so, the new Malaysian rubber plantations were producing latex more cheaply and Iquitos went into decadence until the discovery of oil in the '60's.
Today, the capital of Loreto department is no longer a boom town. It's a busy but pleasant place with a touch of the frontier atmosphere characteristic of Amazonia. Of course it has its Plaza de Independencia with a great church and a monument like all South American towns.
Some of the elegance of the rubber years can be seen along the Malecon also called The Boulevard. This esplanade faces the wide Amazon River that flows into the Atlantic some 3700 kilometres east of here.
This monument looks like a picture frame and it is just that. Tourists are supposed to use it to frame their photos of the Amazon behind me. Naturally, I skipped that! You will see plenty of pictures of the Amazon on the next page. The orange, government run, Hotel de Turistas can be seen behind the frame. Luckily, there were very few tourists around.
A little ways along the Boulevard, this building, covered with expensive hand made azulejos imported from Portugal, is a relic from the glorious rubber years. Note the motorcycle rickshaw in the left foreground.
This building on the corner of Arica and Lores is a bit run down now but it is easy to imagine the elegance it must have had when it housed the wealthy Morey family at the turn of the century.
The rubber barons made so much money exploiting the latex gatherers that one of them imported this prefabricated iron house piece by piece from France. It is reputed to have been designed by Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame.
Now, people have to work to make a living, as does this young man, Carlos Ruiz, who opened a cybercafe in Iquitos. There is another one I know of so he has to compete on price and service.
Below left is one of the three dozen or so bronze sculptures, glorifying the original inhabitants of these lands, to be found in a museum on the Malecon. On the right, one of their descendants, selling a huge live beetle in the handicrafts market, also on the Malecon.
The Amazon basin is extremely rich in plant life but the animal realm is represented mostly by fish, birds, and insects of which there is a substantial variety. Land animals are scarce compared to Africa where large herbivores such as elephants, hippo, rhinoceros, giraffe and a variety of equidae thrive off the grasslands.
You can go on a jungle tour but your best chance of seeing a jaguar is to visit a zoo as I did in Quistococha a few kilometers south of Iquitos. This fellow did not like being photographed, he came at me aggressively and took a swipe at the wire fence where I had poked my camera.
The puma was more placid as he looked at me from his high perch with blazing eyes but cool indifference.
I'm not much of a bird watcher but this pair of loving parrots were so colourful that they were worth a shot.
