The LORETO REGION, the biggest department of all Peru, constitutes by itself one fourth of the country, or 368,852 square kilometers of Amazonian tropical wet rainforest. This area is larger than England and Ireland together.

IQUITOS is the principal city of the Peruvian Amazon and is the capital of Loreto Region, located in the extreme North Eastern part of Peru, near the borders with Brazil and Colombia.

Iquitos has an estimated population of 700,000 inhabitants, making it one of the three largest cities on the entire length of the Amazon, along with Manaus and Belen...

About 120 kilometers upstream from Iquitos, the Ucayali and Marañon Rivers join, giving birth to the longest river on earth: The AMAZON RIVER...

From Iquitos, visitors have access to three important natural protected areas: THE PACAYA SAMIRIA NATIONAL RESERVE (2,080,000 ha), the Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo Comunal Reserve (322,500 ha) and the Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve (58,069 ha). Each one of them is distinctive for the heterogeneity of its habitat and they are considered, as the Peruvian Amazon rainforest itself, some of the richest ecological zones left in our world..

The history of IQUITOS is reflected in the architecture of its houses and public buildings, showing disparate influences brought to the Amazon by various European interests during the great Rubber Boom at the end of the 19th century.

Iquitos is also a typical colorful tropical Amazonian city characterized by its friendly, outgoing inhabitants and vibrant street life.

It has all the basic facilities of a major city, with an international airport, excellent hotels and restaurants of all categories. There is a wide variety of restaurants with both international and regional cuisine to serve the most discriminating visitor.

Naturally Iquitos also has internet cafés galore, as well as banks, cash machines, churches, drugstores, hospitals and any other type of service a visitor might wish.

In the area of nightlife, no city can beat Iquitos, where bars, discotheques and big fiesta halls abound and where the people of Iquitos are known for needing no special occasion or motive for a celebration!

In the outskirts of Iquitos there are settlements of different ethnic groups such as the Yaguas (the famous blowgun hunters), Boras, Huitotos, Mayorunas and Jivaros. Some of these groups provide dances and presentations for visitors.

Iquitos also offers the chance to explore the rainforest surrounding it, without abandoning the comforts of a large variety of hotels, ranging from simple hostels to 5 star hotels.

In addition to accommodations in the city of Iquitos, there are also a variety of lodges in the surrounding rainforest, ranging from luxury resorts all the way to camp sites for those who wish to sleep far from any type of ´civilized´ noise.

THE AMAZON RIVER

The AMAZON RIVER was discovered by accident by Francisco De Orellana in 1541, during a Spanish expedition to the jungle of Peru in search of ´El Dorado´, at the mouth of the Napo River, only 100 kilometers downriver from Iquitos. During this trip, Orellana and his expedition came across the famous warrior women called Amazonas, who left them so impressed that they decided to give their name to the river.

The Amazon River is one of the longest rivers on earth, with more water than any other river. Its volume represents a full 20% of the fresh water of the planet and the drainage area of the massive river system is fully ¾ the size of the continental United States.

The AMAZON RIVER is born where the Ucayali and Marañon Rivers join, about 120 kilometers upstream from Iquitos. The distance from its origin to the Atlantic Ocean is about 4000 km. Throughout its length, the Amazon has numerous islands, meanders and branches that penetrate its banks and form many streams and lakes. The river is navigable by ships of deep draft and tonnage following the navigation channels. The river’s depth depends on the width of the riverbed; in Peru it varies between 10 to 30 meters.

The river´s muddy waters are the most important means of transportation all around Loreto Region, where river crafts of many sizes travel, carrying the products of the jungle. The principal activities of the region (agriculture, small industry and commerce) take place on the river banks. This is one of the reasons that the most important cities like Tamshiyacu, Caballococha, Pevas and villages like Indiana, Orellana, Timicuro, etc. have been established along the Amazon River.

The PACAYA SAMIRIA NATIONAL RESERVE was established in 1982 with the purpose of conserving the immense biodiversity of the area. It is the most extensive protected flooded forest area of the Amazon Region (2'080,000 ha) and the second largest protected natural area in Peru, giving shelter to a wide biological diversity as well as a considerable native population that uses its resources.

More than 1/3 of all the species of plants and animals existing on earth live in the Amazon Rainforest, and the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve provides a premiere example of this diversity. The paiche (Arapaima gigas), the largest freshwater fish on earth, is found here, along with more than 250 different species of fish, 102 species of mammals, 69 species of reptiles, 58 species of amphibians, 449 species of birds and 1,024 species of plants.

The Pacaya Samiria National Reserve is located between the confluence of the Marañon and Ucayali Rivers, which are the ones that give birth to the largest river on earth: the Amazon River.

The access to the Reserve is by boat only, and one needs at least 6 days to travel to and explore part of the area.

Private Lodges of tourism companies cannot be established inside the Reserve. However, there are options to visit authorized areas through organized weekly cruises in comfortable boats with all services included, OR doing adventurer expeditions with the native people that live in the Reserve which have the authorization to lodge visitors in their communities and show them the Reserve.

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• Though no roads unite Iquitos with any other area of the country, there are 2 usual ways to arrive here from any part of the world:

• Enter by plane to Iquitos, just 1 ½ hours away from Lima, the country’s capital. Apart from cargo flights, there are currently a minimum of 7 daily round-trip commercial flights between Lima and Iquitos, making this area easily accessible to visitors. OR...

• Traveling by our “river-roads”, like the Ucayali River which joins Iquitos with Pucallpa city; the Marañon River which joins Iquitos with Yurimaguas-Tarapoto city and the extension to the Highlands of Peru; the Napo and Putumayo Rivers from the country of Ecuador (not so frequented yet); and the AMAZON RIVER, our main and most popular route to Brazil and Colombia.

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