My Experience in the Amazon in Iquitos

Iquitos is one of the places where you can visit the Amazon in Peru. The city is completely surrounded by jungle and it’s the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road, so the only way to get there is by boat or by plane.

MY EXPERIENCE IN THE AMAZON IN IQUITOS

Visiting the Amazon in Iquitos was a very last minute decision because my Amazon tour to Manu in Peru was cancelled at the last minute, due to a landslide. Plan B was to go to the Amazon in Ecuador, but then a volcano started erupting there. Was Mother Nature trying to tell me to not go to the Amazon?

A bit of foreshadowing- the answer was “yes”.

ARRIVAL IN IQUITOS

I had a very bad first impression of Iquitos. On the way from the airport to my hostel, my taxi driver pulled over on a quiet street where a man approached my window to try sell me an Amazon tour. The guy was being really pushy and I couldn’t tell if it was annoying, but harmless, or if something more shady was going down, but it did not feel right. And I was very annoyed and unimpressed that the taxi driver had set this up. Iquitos does have a bad reputation for fake Amazon tour scams.

Luckily, I got rid of him and went to my hostel where the employees confirmed that the man was trying to sell me a fake tour, which could’ve scammed me of hundreds of dollars.

iquitos peru

Apparently it was low season, so it was just me and one other traveler at my hostel, but luckily he also wanted to go to the Amazon because it would make it cheaper and having some company is nice when you’re a solo traveler. We were given 2 options for tours- 1) was quite expensive, and 2) was far more budget and it had the option to try ayahuasca. I was convinced to do 5 days in the Amazon with option #2, due to the price and the ayahuasca.

I had only just heard about ayahuasca a few weeks ago from a very cool Spanish couple on my Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu. They absolutely raved about it, so I was keen to try it.

That night I madly started researching ayahuasca and what to expect.

DAY 1 IN THE AMAZON

The other traveler on my tour was very quiet and strange, so I might as well have been alone.

It took a few hours by boat to reach the lodge in the Amazon.

iquitos amazon

Once we arrived, we went on a jungle trek. The guides only spoke Spanish, which was not preferable because I was very far from fluent, however, the other traveler didn’t speak a word of Spanish. But I wasn’t familiar with Amazonian names and terms, so I couldn’t understand a fair amount. And one guide didn’t really speak Spanish either, since the native language in Iquitos is Aymara, so I literally could not understand a word that came out of his mouth, which created many awkward moments.

We tried all sorts of crazy Amazonian fruit that I had never heard of or seen before, which was cool.

Meanwhile, I was getting annihilated by mosquitoes, despite dousing myself in DEET and wearing long pants and a long sweater in the very hot and humid 40 degree heat. But I was the only one getting attacked, as usual. The mosquitoes alone were almost enough reason for me to skip the Amazon, but I had decided to suck it up for the experience. I started wondering if that was a mistake. The guides said that it was not uncommon for the locals to get malaria multiple times in their life and survive. It’s yellow fever that will probably definitely kill you.

When the other traveler and I booked the tour, we had discussed that it would be cool to camp in the jungle for one night, but after an hour in the jungle, we decided that this definitely wasn’t a good idea.

We could’ve gone to look for caimans after a forgettable dinner of extremely greasy fried plantains and fried eggs, but I couldn’t handle any more mosquito bites in one day.

There was no electricity or light after 7:30pm, so there was no choice but to go to bed. This was going to be a very lonely and long 5 days.

Peru Amazon sunset

DAY 2 IN THE AMAZON

The next morning, we went on a canoe ride with 5 of us in the canoe, making the canoe sit so low in the water that the water was, no exaggeration, about 2 inches from the top of the canoe. One of the guides was using a bowl to scoop water out of the canoe the whole time we were on the water. Knowing that we could capsize any moment, where all these Amazonian creatures were waiting to feast on us, made it very difficult to relax and enjoy. Not that there was much to see anyway.

amazon in iquitos

Later, a few new travelers joined our group and we went to Monkey Island, where we saw monkeys, a toucan, a sloth, anteaters, an anaconda, turtles and parrots.

But the animals weren’t free, which really bothered me. They pulled the sloth out of the tree and the turtle out of the water so we could hold them for pictures. I wanted no part in this because it was completely unethical.

sloth amazon — I refused to hold the sloth that was passed around because I’m sure it was scared and it’s completely unethical

Then we visited a “native tribe”, which was also incredibly inauthentic and touristy. They just wanted us to buy their trinkets.

I didn’t feel like I was in the Amazon and none of it was what I expected at all. The tour was completely unorganized, there weren’t enough activities, there was a major lack of communication, many things were fake and unethical and it was lonely and isolated. It was extremely disappointing, I was really over it and I just wanted to leave.

So I left the next afternoon, after doing ayahuasca the night before and having a bad experience with the creepy shaman, after only 2.5 days of my 5 day tour.

The other 4 people on my tour also didn’t like it.

CONCLUSION

All in all, my Amazon experience was a bust. I think the universe was trying to stop me from going to the Amazon with all the natural disasters that had occurred and cancelled my plans, but I had been very determined to see it. On the bright side, I don’t regret going because it would’ve felt like a huge mistake to miss it.

However, I do very much regret not having the name of the tour company to report and advise against so that other travelers can avoid it, but I was extremely out of it for a few days after the ayahuasca.

But even despite the Amazon tour, I also really disliked the town of Iquitos because it was very seedy, full of crime and it didn’t feel safe or comfortable.

I spoke with a woman who was doing her PhD research about women’s studies in Peru and she confirmed that Iquitos is a very poor and very unsafe place for women. She also said that the Peruvian Amazon, in general, is one of the worst places for women in Peru, with regards to violence against women and a lack of women’s rights, which is due to having some of the strongest machismo culture in the country.

If you decide to go to Iquitos, research the reviews for each tour company and find out how long they’ve been running tours. More reputable companies will be more expensive, but it’s worth it in order to get the most out of your Amazon experience.

Also check out What To Know Before You Go To Peru

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