Iquitos, Port city in Loreto Region, Peru
Iquitos is a city on the Amazon River in Loreto Region, Peru, surrounded by dense rainforest. Wide riverside promenades run along the waterfront where boats dock and vendors sell fresh fish and tropical fruit.
Missionaries founded a small settlement in the 18th century that later grew into a trading hub. The rubber boom brought wealth between 1880 and 1910, visible today in buildings from that era.
In the Belen neighborhood, houses stand on floating platforms that rise and fall with the river level. Families use canoes as transport between homes and move through waterways as others would through lanes.
The city is only reachable by plane or boat, with no roads connecting it to other parts of the country. Visitors looking to explore the rainforest can find boat tours along rivers in the area.
The Casa de Fierro, a building made of prefabricated iron parts, was designed by Gustave Eiffel and shipped to South America. Today it stands on the Plaza de Armas and serves as a café and reminder of wealth from earlier times.
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