Iquitos is a city in Peru, capital of the department of Loreto and the province of Maynas. It has about 438 thousand inhabitants. Capital of the Peruvian Amazon.

Iquitos is known for being the city that can not be reached by land routes. It has the most important river port in Peru and can connect through the Amazon River with other cities of the jungle, as Leticia in Colombia and with several cities in Brazil as Manaus and Belém do Pará until reaching the Atlantic Ocean.

In the first half of the twentieth century, this river route was used by large merchant ships of many foreign shipping companies, mainly the English Booth Line, to trade in various products, mainly wood.

---

The city of Iquitos is located in the north of the jungle in the east of the country. It is the capital of the Loreto region, with almost 30% of the country being the largest and most northern of Peru. The town sits on the banks of a secondary branch of the Amazon River, in front of a large white island called Padre Island, tree-lined. and almost twenty kilometers long. The city is surrounded by a series of rivers and smaller canals.

A short distance away is the confluence of the great Napo River with the Amazon. In this world, communications depend so much on navigation and ground transportation, practically nonexistent outside the city of Iquitos.

In Iquitos there is a zoo recently opened and some interesting buildings, product of the rubber cycle of the last century, like the old mosaic houses in front of the sea, and the first manufactured house of America: the House of Iron, designed and constructed by Gustave Eiffel.

---

Iquitos cuisine, due to its location in the middle of the jungle, is naturally based on the products of the area, it is common to eat meat considered exotic to westerners, such as wild pigs, suri, tapir, small rodents such as majaz, añuje, sachacuy, terrestrial turtle and some small primates.

Among the typical dishes of the region are:
Salad of chonta or palmito (stem of the palm tree also called pona).
Goldfish ceviche: based on fish.
Inchicapi: chicken soup with peanuts, cilantro and cassava.
Timbuche: concentrated broth based on fish and coriander.
Cecina: dried and salted meat or pork.
Patarashca: fish wrapped in leaves of bijao and roasted in fire.
Juanes: Sticky rice dough with chicken pieces, wrapped in bijao leaves and steamed.
Tacacho: prepared with roasted green banana.
Inchicucho: prepared with corn, peanuts and peppers. There is a wide variety of tropical fruits, such as papaya, aguaje (palm fruit whose flesh is purple and orange), taperiba (banana, coconuts, camu-camu, passion fruit and guava).

Traditional drinks are:
Masato: boiled and crushed cassava drink, fermented with chancaca or sugar.
Aguajina: Refreshment made with fruits of aguaje (palm tree).
Chapo: specially prepared with ripe banana. (Capirona)
Shibe: prepared from flour (fermented and toasted cassava).

Short drinks
Huitochado: prepared with the "huito" fruit, sugar and brandy.
Chuchuhuasi: prepared from the bark of the tree of the same name.
Seven Roots: prepared from different crusts such as cumaceba, clove, marujo, huacapurana, huchuhuasi, cocobolo, ipururo, sweetened with honey and marinated in cognac.
Coconachado: prepared with "cocona" fruit, sugar and brandy.
Huarapo: fermented cane juice.
Picada de Piranha: prepared with rum and cocona.

---

Being close to the Equator, Iquitos has a tropical rainy climate, with temperatures ranging from 68 ° F (20 ° C) to 36 ° C (97 ° F).

---