Iquitos: Back to Land

When we arrived at Iquitos, I was tired and ready for a few days on land. We had spent way too much time on the river and I was craving decent vegetarian food that wasn't made of plantains and wanted to just enjoy a nice air conditioned room (remember, it was really hot, but it would also rain every now and then). So you can never really step out without your rain jacket.

We checked into a hotel that we randomly found, as we hadn't done any research. But we headed to the restaurant "Dawn on the amazon" for this meal:

A meal with fresh guacamole after forever!

Sam, one of our travel companions and I wanted a very specific vegetarian pizza at Chez Maggi, Iquitos. Not knowing how to explain to the waitress, we drew her a circle on our notebook and indicated the toppings on each side. The pizza was perfect! Mine is the cheese-less side, with mushrooms. Sam's is the cheesy side, minus the mushrooms. Say that in Spanish, now!

Pizza at Chez Maggi

Riding the local bus from Quistaquocha

Las Boras - a day trip on the boat from Iquitos

The floating village of Belen

How will they bring this out?

The market at Belen

Interesting ways to buy oil. I like the variety.

Just like India

Another vegetarian meal

Mamey - the local version of sapota

We discovered Iguana Haus shortly after our first day. They had excellent air conditioned, clean rooms for 40 soles, with wifi and kitchen. We cooked several meals here. We decided to fly to Lima from here on as time was running short and our visa for Chile would be expiring soon.

So we walked around the airline companies and finally bought tickets to Lima for USD 170 for two people. Not a bad deal within a few days notice. We just hung out with Sam and Law and eventually met Cat for the first time! We'd go on to meet Cat later in Peru and go on the Inca Jungle Trek with her and almost eight months later, she'd come to India and stay at our place in Bangalore! Travel friends are so much fun!

Vegetarian food to try out at Iquitos:

• Dawn on the amazon
• Yellow Rose Texas
• Pizza Chez Maggy will make Pizza whatever way you like
• There is a veg resto on Jr. San Martin between Jr. Prospero and Ramirez Hurtado
• Rest. Vegetariano Darshan on Jr. 2nd De Mayo between Av. Elias Aguirre and Av. Miguel Grau - near plaza 28 de Julio.

Sightseeing:

• We went to Las Boras and Quistacocha. Las Boras is an Amazonian tribe which tourists can see and interact with the tribe members. I dont think we'd go specially for this, but if you have time to kill, why not?
• Quistacocha is a big zoo and entertainment park. Okay to go. Kids will enjoy.
• Belen - the market is very interesting. The floating village is okay, but gives a very different perspective on how people live. I would recommend going as a group.