Belen Floating Community

On Thursday, I set out to venture around the city of Iquitos. I walked down to the plaza de armas, took some photos and came across the Iron House, which is a iron building designed by Mr. Eiffel himself, designer of the Eiffel Tower. Back in the 1800s, this house was built, taken apart and shiped here and resembled during the big boom of the rubber era. Its an interesting building but they turned it into a restaruant on the top level and a pharmacy on the bottom level. I kept walking around the corner and came across the Yellow Rose Texas BBQ joint, owned and ran by a man from Texas. I actually ran into Mr. Texas himself. He was a proud man who bragged of his restaurants and ´newly´opened sports bar, ranked best in Sports Illustrated in 19??? named Margaritaville. And has it patented...and started to mumble something about Jimmy Buffet. Well, I wasnt impressed and asked if he had advice about what to do so he gave me a few places to visit. He told me to come back for more info, but i think im alright to figure it out on my own.

First i wanted to head down to the Belen floating community and Belen Market. This is the poor community where all the houses float on wood logs. As i was following the map Mr. Texas gave me, a guy on the street stopped me and started talking in english. He is a guide and asked if i want him to show me around. He wasnt going to charge me, so i said alright. His name is Victor. I told him i wanted to go to the Market and he told me i was going the wrong way, ok, so we turned around and i followed him. Before we got to the market, he told me to take off my watch and turn my bag around to the front side. Many robberies have happened to tourists.

At first there were the typical things at every market, fruit, vegs, meat, whole chickens. Then the deeper we went, the more crazy things got. He showed me a huge jungle rat they had that people eat. A huge fish that can get up to 6 meters. even poor little turtles and thier eggs were layed out on a table. then there was a bucket of huge maggot like worms on the ground. They collect these from the trees and eat them. He tried to get me to touch one, but i kept walking...ick.

We came to the medicine section and it was nice to have someone explain what some of that stuff is used for. Its crazy, bottles of all sorts of liquids, plants, and sticks. They have a cure for everything there.

We kept walking and at the end of the market started to head down to the water where the belen floating houses began. Another guy came up to us and asked if i wanted a canoe tour around the houses, When he lowered his price, i agreed, first making sure my new tour guide was coming with me. Of course! SO in the canoe we went. He showed me the mayors house, if you wanted to live there, you first went to talk to the mayor and he found a house for you. And you dont have to pay anything to live there. Most these people dont have a regular income. they are the hunters or farmers that can only sell what products they have. 20,000 people lived in this community. They even had a school and church that were up on stilts. Either houses are on stilts or on logs and raise with the level of the water. He showed me one house that is the popular discotec and is surrounded by canoes on saturday nights. It was extremly poor and dirty area.

From there we walked back through the market toward the Plaza de Armas. We stopped along the way and sat and he told me many stories of history about the jungle and this area. Its an interesting place, many things can happen in the jungle and its a dangerous place. But it can also be a magical and healing place as well.