Any tips on seeing the Peruvian Amazon?
I want to go REALLY cheap, and pretty rugged (somthing like a bungalo). I’m going to be booking a tour to Machu Picchu from Cuzco, so I was probably thinking Manu. I’m prefer to see more wilderness then plans. Any suggestions?
Hi - I went to Iquitos in 2006 and had a great time. I flew in with LAN Peru, because Iquitos has no roads going to it - it is cut off from all other cities except by air and the river Amazon itself.
I travelled to a luxury lodge (which I got a discount price for) and it was very nice, we then had trips out on the river to try and see river dolphins, a tree top walk (that was cool) and a small jungle trek. We also met with local people and bought some souvineers they had made. Iquitos was a lively town and plenty of european and american hippy types seem to be hanging out there (I think the police are a bit casual about the drugs and drink, etc).
Anyway a flight with LAN is probably your only option for Iquitos. I flew from Cusco via Lima. LAN were excellent, all very new planes, polite staff and everyone had a fold down tv and watched ‘candid camera’ type programs during the flight - but the view from the window was better as we flew over the Andes and it went from mountains to jungle with long snaking rivers below us.
The lodges are far down the river from the city, as there are many rubber/banana plantations around Iquitos so to see real jungle you have to get far away. Indeed there are little bungalows with mosquito nets where you can spend all night listening to the sounds of the jungle… I have put some useful links below. Have a good time.
July 10th, 2009 at 1:17 am
Hi - I went to Iquitos in 2006 and had a great time. I flew in with LAN Peru, because Iquitos has no roads going to it - it is cut off from all other cities except by air and the river Amazon itself.
I travelled to a luxury lodge (which I got a discount price for) and it was very nice, we then had trips out on the river to try and see river dolphins, a tree top walk (that was cool) and a small jungle trek. We also met with local people and bought some souvineers they had made. Iquitos was a lively town and plenty of european and american hippy types seem to be hanging out there (I think the police are a bit casual about the drugs and drink, etc).
Anyway a flight with LAN is probably your only option for Iquitos. I flew from Cusco via Lima. LAN were excellent, all very new planes, polite staff and everyone had a fold down tv and watched ‘candid camera’ type programs during the flight - but the view from the window was better as we flew over the Andes and it went from mountains to jungle with long snaking rivers below us.
The lodges are far down the river from the city, as there are many rubber/banana plantations around Iquitos so to see real jungle you have to get far away. Indeed there are little bungalows with mosquito nets where you can spend all night listening to the sounds of the jungle… I have put some useful links below. Have a good time.
References :
A list of Jungle Lodges
http://www.andeantravelweb.com/peru/hotels/jungle_lodges/index.html
LAN airline
http://www.lan.com/cgi-bin/country_selector.cgi
Wikipedia on Iquitos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iquitos
Iquitos News
http://www.iquitosnews.com/
July 10th, 2009 at 1:52 am
Traveling to the Jungle is as expensive as going to Cuzco (around US $ 500 per person). You have 2 choices: Manu & Iquitos
http://www.chilenos.ru/UserFiles/image/MAPAS/mapa_de_sudamerica_fisico_BIG_1250×1609.jpg
I you look at this map, you’ll see that Cuzco y far away from Iquitos, is in Iquitos that 2 great rivers join together (Marañon and Ucayali) and form the Great Amazon river. The Ucayali river starts aroun Cuzco and heads north for like a 1,000 miles before reaching Iquitos.
The Manu reserve on the other hand is east of Cuzco just as the mountains end, that is why this is called HIGH JUNGLE, it’s near Puerto Maldonado on the Madre de Dios River which joins the Beni River (Bolivia) then heads north-east to form the Madeira River and ends up in the amazon in the middle of brasil.
http://www.paises-america.com/mapas/mapa/peru.jpg
At Manu you will find more wilderness surrounding you, at Iquitos you have the chance of seeing the biggest peruvian city in the jungle the go to a lodge inside the jungle. To the Manu you can go either by road or by plane, from Cuzco to Puerto Maldonado, to iquitos you go only by plane.
References :