Iquitos walking tour & city guide

The city

The riverside Malecón has rubber-boom mansions decorated with tiles. The Iron House is said to have been designed by Gustave Eiffel's company. The Belén district has a huge market and floating houses.

The Amazon

Boats lead to jungle lodges, the Pacaya-Samiria reserve, pink dolphins and butterfly farms.

A day in Iquitos

Visit the Belén market, one of the most colorful markets in the Amazon, and the Iron House. Take a boat along the river to see floating houses.

Most visitors go to jungle lodges for wildlife.

Good to know

Iquitos is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road, only by plane or boat.

Motorcycle taxis are everywhere.

Why it is unique

Iquitos boomed during the rubber era at the turn of the 20th century, when wealthy barons imported tiles from Portugal and iron from Europe to decorate their mansions. Some of these buildings still line the Malecón Tarapacá, a riverside promenade that comes alive in the evening with street food and music. The Iron House on the Plaza de Armas is said to have been designed by Gustave Eiffel's company, though historians debate it.

Belén, the riverside neighborhood below the market, has houses on stilts and floating houses that rise and fall with the river, which can change by more than ten meters between seasons. Nature lovers can visit the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, a vast flooded forest home to pink river dolphins, monkeys and hundreds of bird species.