Iquitos

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Iquitos" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Iquitos San Pablo de Nuevo Napeanos
City
From top to bottom and from left to right: Iquitos Cathedral; Old Hotel Palace; Belen Market; Boulevard of Iquitos; Casa de Fierro; Chapel of Consolation and Saint Augustine Seminary; One of the main ports of Iquitos; Nanay Bridge; Northern Area of Metropolitan Iquitos; Historical Ship Ayapua Museum; José Abelardo Quiñones Avenue.
UTC-5 (PET)
UBIGEO	1601
Area code	65
ISO 3166 code	PE-LOR
Climate	Af
Website	www.munimaynas.gob.pe

Iquitos (

It is known as the "capital of the Peruvian Amazon". The city is located in the Great Plains of the Amazon Basin, fed by the Amazon, Nanay, and Itaya rivers. Overall, it constitutes the Iquitos metropolitan area, a conurbation of 471,993 inhabitants consisting of four districts: Iquitos, Punchana, Belén, and San Juan Bautista.

The area has long been inhabited by indigenous peoples. According to Spanish historical documents, Iquitos was established around 1757 as a Spanish

) and Iquito natives to live here, and they named it San Pablo de Napeanos.

In the late 19th century, during the

. PAC kept indigenous workers in near slavery conditions through use of force and harsh treatment, until an investigation caused a reaction against the company. In addition, rubber seedlings had been smuggled out of the country and cultivated on plantations in Southeast Asia, undercutting prices of the Peruvian product. With the decline of the rubber industry, many workers and merchants left Iquitos.

As one of the leading cities, along with Manaus, during the Amazon rubber boom (1880–1914), Iquitos was influenced by the numerous Europeans who flocked to it. Architecture and cultural institutions established during this period expressed their own traditions. An opera house and Jewish cemetery were among the institutions established.

Later in the 20th century, the city and region diversified its economy. The region exported timber, fish and its by-products, oil, minerals, and agricultural crops. It also derives revenue from tourism and related crafts. In 1999, the city consolidated its four municipalities.

The area was inhabited for thousands of years by

.

Between 1638 and 1769, the Iquitos and other native tribes of the Marañon rivers were obliged to settle down in various Missions (known as reducciones or reductions) founded and run by

missions

, where they were set to work at farming and other pursuits.

Commencing in 1730, the Jesuits took 37 years to found the Iquitos missions along the Marañon River, close to the mouth of the

, Italy on 11 May 1786.

The following is a chronological list of noted Iquitos Missions founded by Bahamonde and other Jesuits:

1. 1730, Santa Maria de la Luz de los Iquitos "town," founded by Father Bahamonde – as recorded in the Archives of the Indies in Spain.
2. 1740, Juan Nepomuceno de Iquitos, founded by Father Bahamonde
3. 1741, Santa Bárbara de Iquitos, founded by Father Bahamonde
4. 1742, San Sebastián de Iquitos, founded by fathers Bahamonde and Bretano
5. 1748, Sagrado Corazón de Jesús de Maracanos (de Iquitos), founded by Father Bahamonde
6. 1754, Santa María de Iquitos, founded by Father Uriarte
7. 1757, San Pablo de los Napeanos, founded by Father Bahamonde
8. 1763 San Javier de Iquitos, founded by Father Palme
9. 1767 San José de Iquitos, founded by Father Uriarte. Later that year the Jesuits were expelled from South America by order of Charles III.

During the Spanish Colonial era, most of the Jesuit missions were under the jurisdiction of the

.

19th century: independence

In the early 19th century, following independence, Peru,

Amazon Basin

, based on each country's interpretation of their colonial de jure titles. The disputed area was populated mostly by groups of nomadic Amerindian natives living in the Amazon jungle. In addition there were semi-assimilated sedentary Amerindians living with a handful of whites and mestizos, dedicated to trading in sparsely populated trading port villages that were found scattered along the river banks of the Amazon Basin. During the colonial era the disputed area known as Maynas had numerous missions administered by the Jesuits of Quito. After the Jesuits were expelled from South America, only a handful of missions survived in the 19th century as isolated trading villages. The Brazilians, by contrast, had a chain of villages along the Amazon River that stretched to its ports along the Atlantic Ocean.

Because Peru discovered that Ecuador and Colombia neglected to effectively control their Amazonian territories during their colonial era, Peru decided to back its de jure titles with de facto possession by setting up military posts in the relatively isolated trading villages and then flooding the disputed area with Peruvian colonists. The only problem lay with the expanding ambitions of Brazil, since it had slowly settled its part of the disputed area with colonists throughout its colonial era; it had a trading relationship with the Spanish-speaking trading posts and villages along the Marañon River. To neutralize Brazil from impeding Peru's planned colonization project, on 23 October 1851, Peru peacefully settled its disputes with Brazil and both countries agreed to a bilateral free navigation and friendly trade along the Amazon River.^[6]

As a result of the Peruvian-Brazilian treaty, the Peruvian President

This date is marked as the founding of the first fluvial Peruvian port of Iquitos by the government of Peru. A dockyard and navy factorage imported from England was immediately constructed. In time Iquitos grew so much that it was designated as the capital of the Department of Loreto on 9 November 1897. Iquitos also became the seat of a Roman Catholic Apostolic vicariate.^[9] Peru was able to map out and assume de facto control of the majority of the area of the Amazon region under dispute with Ecuador and Colombia. After many skirmishes with Ecuadorian and Colombian outposts, that at times led to war, Peru settled its border with Colombia in 1922 and with Ecuador in 1942.

Beginning in the 1900s, Iquitos became wealthy through its

women and stayed in Iquitos the rest of their lives, founding ethnically mixed families. The immigrants brought European clothing styles, music, architecture and other cultural elements to Iquitos. They established an opera house that featured European classical music.

There were twenty-five different commercial houses dealing with rubber at Iquitos in the year 1900.^[10] These enterprises were founded by influential citizens of the city, some of the most prominent of these people include Julio César Arana, Cecilio Hernández, as well as Luis and Adolfo Morey. The rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald was also active in the city of Iquitos until he drowned in a steamship accident on the Urubamba River in 1897. Rubber entrepreneurs participated in regional politics, and directly as well as indirectly funded the development of the city. A number of successful rubber entrepreneurs held political offices, or had influence over politics in the city during this era. In 1901, Luis F. Morey became a senator for the department of Loreto, which Iquitos was the capital of. Enrique A. Llosa, who had a business relationship with Arana and Luis Morey, became the mayor of Iquitos in 1901. The following year, Arana became the city's mayor,^[11] and in 1903 he assumed the office of President for Loreto's chamber of commerce.^[12] Cecilio Hernández was also elected as the mayor, later in 1906. A census conducted in 1903 by Bentio Lores, the subprefect of the Bajo Amazonas at the time, documented that there were 9,438 inhabitants in Iquitos.^[13]

In 1908, Hildebrando Fuentes, Prefect of Loreto between 1904–1906, published Loreto: Apuntes geográficos, históricos, esdisticos, politicos y sociales which was based on information he collected while in Iquitos. According to Cristóbal Cardemil-Krause, Fuentes writings "make clear the existence of significant tensions between national and private interests. Entrepreneurs in Loreto controlled the area and appeared to create a state within the state, limiting the effects of Fuentes's decisions."^[14] Fuentes also described the practice of Correrias which were slave raids carried out by rubber tappers that resulted in the killing of many indigenous people. Men and older indigenous women were typically killed by the rubber tappers, while children and young females were brought to rubber camps or nearby cities, including Iquitos. The captive children and young females were typically sold at these cities.^[15][16] Fuentes referred to these correrias as "the great crime of the mountain" and in regards to his inability to act against the rubber tappers, he claimed that "[t]hey do all this significantly beyond the reach of authority.".^[17][16] Fuentes wrote that the majority of the indigenous servants at Iquitos consisted of indigenous people captured during correrias, and at times these people were sold in Iquitos for a price ranging between £30 and £50.^[16] Walter Ernest Hardenburg, an American engineer that had a prominent role in exposing the Putumayo genocide, also claimed that indigenous people were trafficked in Iquitos and sold in that city for prices ranging between £20 and £40.^[18]

In an effort to discourage human trafficking from Loreto to the Brazilian Amazon, government commissioner Joaquin Capello issued a decree in 1900 that required employers to provide a bond for any of their workers that were leaving Peru. This bond was initially set at 200 Peruvian soles and had the intention of attracting employers to transport their workers back into the country once their contracts expired. The bond amount was later increased by Capello's successors.^[19] In 1903, subprefect Benito Lores denounced the continuance of human trafficking in Loreto, he stated that instances of human trafficking were covered up under the pretense of transferring debts from one employer to another. Lores claimed that many of the wealthy residents of Iquitos were transporting indigenous peons and transferring their debts to patrons on rivers in Brazil.^[20][21][22] Once under the custody of their new Brazilian patrons, these indigenous people were interred deep into the forest, far away from the influence of governmental authorities, "where there is no law other than the whip or the bullet."^[21][23] Members of the local business class denied these allegations of trafficking reported by Lores:^[21] and in 1904 several rubber merchants signed a petition addressed to the new Prefect Hildebrando Fuentes which demanded the annulment of Capello's decree from 1900. These merchants argued that the decree was unconstitutional due to it prohibiting the free movement of people. Another argument was that instead of benefitting the affected peons, the decree worsened their situation since patrons charged the bail amount against the peons debt. The petition suggested that local authorities and representatives from the chamber of commerce should establish legislation to regulate the removal of peons from the country.^[24]

The wealthiest Europeans built great mansions in the late 19th century, some of which survive. Casa de Fierro (Spanish for the Iron House) is said to have been designed by Gustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but evidence supporting this claim is scant. After a Briton, Henry Wickham, smuggled rubber seeds out of the area to establish competing rubber plantations in British colonies in southeast Asia and Africa, the boom came to an end. In addition, a 1913 investigative report by Roger Casement, the British consul-general to Iquitos who had investigated labor conditions for natives in the Congo Free State when it was under King Leopold's control, revealed the abuses committed against indigenous workers in the Putumayo River Basin by the Peruvian Amazon Company (PAC), owned by businessman Julio César Arana. Its several British board members and numerous stockholders in London were pressured into making changes in the operations of the company. Many of the British shareholders divested themselves of this company in an effort to force changes. While Arana was forced to liquidate the PAC, he retained access to most of its assets as well as territory and he continued to operate in the rubber industry through the rubber enterprise of Cecilio Hernández.^[25] Casement wrote that he was convinced that "[t]he entire Indian population is enslaved in the montaña and whereupon the devil plant, the rubber tree, grows and can be tapped. The wilder the Indian the wickeder the slavery."^[26]

The army garrison at Iquitos was sent to the Caraparaná tributary of the Putumayo River in 1908 to assist Arana's company in acquiring several Colombian rubber estates through force. This detachment was accompanied by the Peruvian warship Iquitos.^[27][28] According to Victor Macedo, this garrison force consisted of 120 men, 80 of which had perished by 1910, mostly on the Caraparaná River.^[29]

In 1911, more than 237 arrest warrants were issued by judges Carlos A. Valcárcel and Rómulo Paredes against employees of the PAC due to their perpetration of the Putumayo Genocide. Pablo Zumaeta, a brother-in-law of Arana and the general manager of PAC, had an arrest warrant issued against him by Valcárcel on July 29, however Zumaeta requested to appeal it and this warrant was annulled by the Superior Court of Iquitos before the end of 1911.^[30] Zumaeta was permitted by local authorities and the Prefect to remain in his residency in Iquitos while his arrest warrant was active. Once the arrest warrant was annulled, Zumaeta was allowed to return to public life,^[31] he was out of hiding by November 2 of 1911. Valcárcel left Iquitos in protest of the Superior Courts decision to annul Zumaeta's warrant, Valcárcel was also accused by Zumaeta with "revealing public documents". The Superior Court of Iquitos dismissed Valcárcel from his office on the basis that he abandoned his post without permission.^[32][33]

Judge Rómulo Paredes, Pablo Zumaeta and Gennaro Herrera, another prominent citizen of Iquitos, all ran for the mayoral election of Iquitos in 1911, which was held on November 5 and 6.^[34] Paredes emerged as the candidate with the most votes from the election, in response to these results the political faction backing Zumaeta filed an appeal with the Junta Escrutadora, which decided to annul the election. The Junta Escrutadora consisted of five members, two of which, Juan Bautista Vega and Victor Israel, were known associates of Julio Cesar Arana.^[35] In 1912, Zumaeta became the mayor of Iquitos, he served another term in this office in 1914.^[11] Valcárcel issued arrest warrants against Julio Arana and Juan Bautista Vega on December 10 of 1912 however these were also annulled by the Superior Court of Iquitos.^[36] Many of those under the employ of Arana that were issued arrest warrants evaded capture. Two of the most prominent criminals involved in the Putumayo Genocide that were arrested, Armando Normand and Aurelio Rodríguez, escaped from prison at Iquitos in May of 1915 prior to a verdict in their trial.^[37]

In 1912, Hardenburg published The Putumayo, the Devil's Paradise, the editor of this book noted that the English consul-general in Iquitos, David Cazes, should have been aware of human trafficking occurring between the Putumayo River and Iquitos. Judge Rómulo Paredes implicated Cazes with "aiding the guilty parties in keeping from the Peruvian Government an exact knowledge of what was taking place".^[38] The editor also wrote that the twenty-one constables employed by the Peruvian government on the Putumayo River "had all been bribed by the English traders and shut their eyes to what was happening in the jungle." Hardenburg reported that he had witnessed one Peruvian comisario on the Putumayo River, César Lúrquin, travelling on a steamship with a young indigenous Huitoto girl, Hardenburg concluded that Lúrquin intended to sell this child in Iquitos. Regarding Lúrquin, Hardenburg wrote "instead of stopping on the Putumayo, travelling about there and really making efforts to suppress crime by punishing the criminals, he contented himself with visiting the region four or five times a year—always on the company’s launches—stopping a week or so, collecting some children to sell, and then returning and making his “report.”"^[39]

Anthropologist Michael Taussig claimed that David Cazes enterprise, the Iquitos Trading Company, was dependent on Julio César Arana's business.^[40] During Casement's investigation in 1910, he found out that several Barbadian men employed by the PAC had complained to Cazes that they were physically abused by agents of Arana's company: however Cazes did not relay this information to the British Foreign Office. Regarding Cazes, Casement wrote that "[h]e knew a very great deal of the Putumayo and kept it quiet – like everyone else in Iquitos. The Arana influence was too strong – and he was a trader and sold to them."^[41] Cazes was also aware of the newspaper publications of Benjamin Saldaña Rocca, which publicly denounced Arana's company for perpetrating atrocities against indigenous people, he did not forward this information to the British Foreign Office either.^[42] Prior to November of 1911, the Beatriz steamship, owned by Cazes's company, was chartered by the Peruvian government to transport Peruvian soldiers and supplies to the Putumayo River as well as transport rubber from the Peruvian Amazon Company on that river to Iquitos. On November 27 of 1911, Roger Casement wrote that Beatriz arrived at Iquitos with 41 tons of rubber, he noted that no freight was charged by the government for the transportation of this rubber. Casement was informed by Cazes that this was in accordance with an agreement between Arana's company and the Peruvian government.^[43]

During the Peruvian Amazon Company's perpetration of the Putumayo genocide, the company's steamships occasionally trafficked indigenous people to Iquitos, where they were sold. Walter Ernest Hardenburg wrote that every steamship that left the Putumayo carried "from five to fifteen little Indian boys and girls, who are torn, sobbing, from their mothers’ arms without the slightest compunction"^[44][45] Casement implicated several other rubber businesses with trafficking indigenous people on their steamships for the slave trade in Iquitos, specifically Wesche & Company and the Khan Polack Company, which were both operating on the Ucayali River. He emphasized that these companies were just as responsible for the propagation of a slave market in the region as the armed raiders carrying out slave raids against the indigenous people. The reason being that these two companies supplied the raiders and transported groups of enslaved indigenous people to Iquitos or towards rubber extraction camps.^[46] The head of Wesche & Company, Emilio Strassberger,^[47] was elected as mayor of Iquitos between 1912–1913.^[11]

Rubber from plantations in Asia was soon produced at lower cost, undercutting that of South America, and rubber declined in importance in Peru. Iquitos continued to operate as an important trading port in the Amazon basin. It exploited its timber, oil and mineral resources for export and processing, along with agricultural and other products.

Among the unique communities formed by the 19th-century immigrants to the rubber boom was one of Sephardic Jews from Morocco. Many of the men married native women and made families in Iquitos. They established a synagogue and the Jewish cemetery. In the first generation, some of the women or children converted to Judaism, but by the end of the 20th century, four or five generations later, most descendants were no longer practicing Jews. Most were reared as Catholic.

In the 1990s, a descendant of a Jewish settler undertook serious study of Judaism. He began to revive the practice of Judaism among his family, friends, and other Sephardi descendants. After years of study, with the help of a sympathetic Conservative rabbi in Lima and another from Brooklyn, New York, eventually a few hundred people studied, practiced as Jews, and converted to Judaism. (Formal conversion was necessary according to Halakha as their mothers were not Jewish.) Many of the converts have emigrated to Israel under its Law of Return. A documentary was made about this community in 2010. Emigration of Peruvians from this Iquitos community has continued; about 150 emigrated in 2013 to 2014, see "Peruvian Jews in Israel" for more.

On 13 August 2012, a special

In 2021, it was announced that a large (100 MW/100 MWH) solar and storage power facility would be built at Iquitos by 2026, replacing as much as half the diesel burned to produce electricity in the city.[50]

Iquitos Metropolitan Area is located. The Amazon River

appears on the lower side of the photograph.

Iquitos is located in northeastern Peru, northeastern Loreto Region, and in the extreme south of the

. It is approximately at coordinates 03 ° 43'46 "S 73 ° 14'18" W to 106 metres (348 feet). It is the most northern Peruvian city.

It is surrounded by the Port of Iquitos, formed by the Amazon, Nanay and Itaya rivers. The city is situated on the left bank of the Amazon River, which provides a characteristic economic life, including trade and transport.^[51] The Itaya and Nanay rivers limit the physical expansion of the city in that direction; new development is growing toward the south and there is a slight population density in Downtown Iquitos. Close to Iquitos are a number of lagoons and lakes; Moronococha Lake is a boundary to the city on the west. These features make the city seem like a huge, faux river island.

Geologically, the city is settled in a

Climate

Iquitos experiences an equatorial climate that is a

, but a wetter summer. Because the seasons are not sensitive in the equatorial zone, Iquitos has only two seasons.

The

Winter offers a drier, sunnier climate. Although July and August are the driest months, they have some periods of downpours. Sunny days and good weather are common. Rainfall is more abundant here than in Ayacucho, Cusco, or Lima.

Iquitos also has microclimates: rain or drizzle may be present in some areas of the districts, while other parts of the city are slightly cloudy or clear. The temperature may vary. The urban climate is slightly warmer than the natural climate, and would be reflected by the thermal sensation. It suffers from a phenomenon called urban heat island, when the city's heat has difficulty dissipating during the night hours due to absorption by buildings and pavement.

The main natural hazard is

.

Other natural hazards are heat waves where temperatures can reach over 37 °C (99 °F) with a heat index of 45 °C (113 °F) which is caused by the low humidity on clear days. Cold waves are also curious in Iquitos: cold air from the tip of the continent driven by the dynamics of the atmosphere, comes to town and causes a drop in temperature, moderate rainfall and thunderstorms. The trade winds also come to cause gales reaching 60 km/h (37 mph). In October 2012, Iquitos experienced high temperatures and heavy thunderstorms.

Earthquakes in the city are very rare and very deep. Iquitos is located in Region 3 of Systematic Regionalization Map of Peru, which means that the city has a low coefficient seismic value, although the 2011 Peru earthquake, which occurred southeast of Contamana, was felt in the city as a small and unexpected jolt.^[51]

Due to its location in the Peruvian Amazon, Iquitos has a green landscape with a vast variety of life. The flora is varied with great presence of 850 species, including 22 species of palms and orchids, who provide the attractive forest within the urban landscape of the city. Lilies are also present. The extensive forests seated within the metropolitan area host fauna including 130 species of mammals, 330 species of birds, 150 species of reptiles and amphibians, and 250 species of fish. Within the city, inhabiting the rock dove (Columba livia), especially in the Square 28 de Julio. Also recorded is the transient presence of bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas) who come from the Atlantic Ocean, traveling 3,360 miles to reach Iquitos.

The floodplain forest of Iquitos is the peculiar ecoregion which surrounds the city, and is characterized by a

. Immediately, this cycle repeats.

The great biodiversity that the Iquitos Metropolitan Area houses and protects is paramount, and that is intrinsically related to its urban planning, which puts a limit action in areas where farms should not be built. Because of this, the appearance of

informal settlements

is seen as a risk.

Natural reserves and zoos

The importance of the existence of nature reserves is a priority in Iquitos for ecosystem protection.

The

Polioptila clementsi

) is an endemic species of the reserve and is considered a symbol of Iquitos.

serpentarium

, an aquarium, a nursery and an artificial beach called Tunchi Beach.

The

.

Demography

Historical population

Year	Pop.	±%
1808	171	—
1842	200	+17.0%
1860	300	+50.0%
1862	431	+43.7%
1864	648	+50.3%
1876	1,475	+127.6%
1903	9,438	+539.9%
1928	22,575	+139.2%
1961	57,772	+155.9%
1964	76,400	+32.2%
1972	110,402	+44.5%
1981	178,738	+61.9%
1993	274,759	+53.7%
2007	370,962	+35.0%
2012	457,865	+23.4%
2015	471,993	+3.1%

In 1808, Hipolito Sanchez Rangel, the bishop of Maynas, reported that the village of Iquitos had 171 inhabitants and on 8 June 1842, the date when the town was elevated to a district, it had just over 200 inhabitants.

In 1860, according to Paz Soldan, the town had only 300 inhabitants. Two years later, the population increased to about 431 inhabitants and in 1864, there were 648 people, predominantly mestizo due to the presence of families from Borja, Santiago, Santa Teresa, Barranca and others, who fled away from the attack on the Huambisas and Aguaruna native and destroyed the villages.

According to Genaro Herrera, in 1866, Iquitos had a population of 648 people. For 1876, again the same author reports a population of 1,475 inhabitants.

In 1903, in the middle of the

, Iquitos had 9,438 inhabitants (census of Benito Lords), of which 542 were foreigners, most of them from Spain (95) Brazil (80), China (74), Portugal (64) and as many from Italy, England, France, Ecuador, United States, Russia, Switzerland and Morocco.

Currently, Iquitos has emerged as the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon. Counted by the census of 2007 with 406,340 inhabitants.

Iquitos is a

. The municipal government is responsible for planning development and territorial order within its jurisdiction and promoting strategic coordinace within the district order. It is responsible for

public education

, correctional institutions, libraries, public safety, urban planning, regulation of all types of transportation, municipal tax collection, maintenance of public roads (asphalt, cleaning, etc..) and gardens, promoting culture and preservation of architecture and public places, among others. The Municipal Manager is responsible "to direct, coordinate, monitor and evaluate the technical, financial and administrative of the Municipality".

The MPM has support bodies formed by the General Secretariat, the Office of Institutional Image, Administrative Management, Revenue Management and the General Office of Information. The line agencies are

Social Development

, Economic Development and Municipal Services. The MPM organizes the Municipal Ombudsman Service of Child and Adolescent.

The mayor was Adela Jimenez, an architect, chosen by the National Jury of Elections to fill temporarily to Charles Zevallos who was suspended for health reasons. Jimenez was the first woman to hold the office of mayor provincial and Iquitos. Current mayor is Francisco Sanjurjo Dávila.

The political geography of Iquitos consists of four districts or

that is created according to the state of its district.

Metropolitan area

The city is the urban core of Iquitos Metropolitan Area. It is a conurbation consists of four districts that are heavily populated in the city, while rural areas become more so away from the downtown. The Iquitos District is the urban origin of the city and the metropolitan area. Moronacocha, which has 85,000 inhabitants, could become the fifth district of Iquitos.

Iquitos is composed of four districts.

• Iquitos (Iquitos District: 163,594 inhabitants)^[56] is the main district of the city, and is the most visited by tourists. The center of Iquitos, located in the heart of the district, is best known, and it has most of the activities of economy, culture, entertainment, art and commerce of the city. The Plaza de Armas is the tourist point of departure for most tourists, along with the Casa de Fierro, the Iglesia Matriz, the former Palace Hotel, the Boulevard de Iquitos, the Malecon Tarapaca and the Amazon Library.
• Belén (Municipality of Belen District: 74,551 inhabitants) is one of the districts of the city known mainly for its intense commercial activity and the Belen Neighborhood, called the "Venice" by iquiteños. It is located on the east side of Iquitos and was created on 5 November 1999.
• Punchana (Municipality of Punchana District: 85,179 inhabitants)^[56][57] is the northern district of Iquitos and was created on 17 December 1987, and is characterized more by its port activity and Bellavista-Nanay market. Punchana capital has a small district capital called Villa Punchana. 90% of the district is composed of urban land, while 10% is rural. In the history of Iquitos, Punchana started as a small hamlet and the name of the district is due to a kind of wild agouti, which was cared for in a breedingground at the beginning of the 20th century.^[58]
• San Juan Bautista (Municipality of San Juan Bautista District: 124,143 inhabitants), colloquially known as San Juan, is the largest district of Iquitos, and which is constantly expanding to the south of the city due to the arrival of new families to the city —also embraces remote areas beyond the urban Iquitos, such as the Quistococha Resort and Zoo.^[59] Before promoted as a populous district in the presidency of Fernando Belaunde in the 1960s, the district was a sparsely populated road. Currently, several human settlements are in the "expansive" border areas. In this district, there are several tourist spots such as the San Juan Craft Market, the beaches of Santa Clara and St. Thomas, and Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve (located in the Iquitos-Nauta Highway).

The metropolitan area of Iquitos is also organized by another system subdivisions, less known by the local colloquialism.

• Downtown Iquitos houses the historical extension of Iquitos, and its main shopping and entertainment movement. This includes closely eastern union between Iquitos and Belen districts.
• North Iquitos comprises Punchana and northern Iquitos.
• South Iquitos comprises mostly San Juan Bautista, sectors such as Terminal and much of its length south.
• West Iquitos comprises the western parts of the Iquitos District as Moronacocha.
• East Iquitos would be hosting in all the Belén District, and the eastern part of Belén.

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Iquitos is the main center of commerce, tourism and industry in the Amazon rainforest with the world. As gateway to the Peruvian Amazon, the economy of many parts of the region come to Iquitos for sustainable control. The Economic Development Management of the Provincial Municipality of Maynas is responsible for regulating and regulate trade, business development and employment, tourism and rural production both Iquitos District as whole Maynas Province. Meanwhile, the

of Iquitos is headed by economist Victor Manuel Valdivia Barberis.

The city is a major center for

between Peru and the United States, the gross exploitation of timber has decreased considerably.

According to Rolando Arellano, president of Arellano Marketing, describes the Iquiteño consumer to have greater preference for a "Western model with a more modern orientation than the Peruvian-Andean lifestyle".

With projects of large

, which serves as a strong link between the urban and rural economy.

Companies located in Iquitos include Amazónica,

, among others.

In the coming years, companies like

, among others, will be available.

Education

Iquitos is home to numerous research projects on ecology related to

.

The field lab strives to survey and catalog the biological diversity found along the Yarapa River Basin. It provides researchers with field experience in the broad range of disciplines necessary for this task. Another major goal is to explore value-added derivatives of biodiversity. This includes both tangible returns, in the form of new discoveries in the biomedical and related sciences, as well as less tangible goods, such as the promotion of ecotourism and an ecological ethic. They work to ensure benefits to the local communities, and to participating students and researchers.

Iquitos has four universities: Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana (UNAP), the local state university; Universidad Particular de Iquitos (UPI), Universidad Científica del Perú (UCP), Universidad Peruana del Oriente (UPO) three private institutions. It is also home to the Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (IIAP), the Institute of Investigation of the Peruvian Amazon.

Iquitos has a personality very different from the rest of Peru and even different from other South-American Amazonian cities. The streets of Iquitos are dominated by more than 25,000

or motokars, known in the rest of Peru under the name of mototaxi, and for foreigners as auto rickshaw or tuk-tuk, providing taxi service. The buses are large vehicles made of wood with direct routes.

Iquitos is widely regarded as the largest inland city that is inaccessible by road. Air and river transport are the main means for entry or exit of people and goods to the city, since the cost of living in this city is generally higher than the Peruvian standard. It is considered that Iquitos is the second most expensive city in Peru after Cusco. A proposed road link to Sarameriza, to be completed by 2021,^{[needs update]} would connect Iquitos to the country's road network.^[60]

The city has renewed

for operations across the region.

Cityscape

Architecture

Hotel Palace

(built from 1908 to 1912) by Samuel Young Mass, located on the first block of Jiron Putumayo, in an area known as the Malecón Tarapacá.

Iquitos has architecturally significant buildings in a particular range of structural remnants were built during the rubber boom of the 1880s. The buildings are mainly

Historically, the first native inhabitants of the settlements built their houses of sticks and leaves and other natural resources, which were tailored to protect against the climate, wildlife and other hazards.^[63] The styles of housing in those settlements were huts and cocameras, used as large communal houses. Other notable conventional architectures are characterized by their firmness and isothermal conditions; they are categorized into three types of home: quincha —built with posts and giant cane—, rammed earth —resistant and isothermal—, and adobe —irm with the same isothermal condition.^[63][64]

The rubber boom of the 1880s caused a severe change in the architectural style of Iquitos. Foreign and

Culture and contemporary life

Iquitos has a vibrant, unique, complex and diverse

and mythology. Currently, its culture is undergoing an impetuous transition to a contemporary level to preserve their traditions with innovative art movements.

One of the main factors of the traditional cultural energy of Iquitos is Amazonian mythology, which has a range of characters, identified by folklore in imaginary beings. Many of the legendary beings, with appearances motivated by local geography, have powers and influenced much in agriculture and worldview of Iquitos. The dance and music, a mix of indigenous and mestizo heritage are closely related to the meanings of mythology, and also with the life of the citizen and Amazonian villager.

The complex cultural life of Iquitos consists mainly of native iquiteños,

ethnicities. The term "charapa culture" generally refers to social, cultural and artistic movements of Iquitos.

Iquitos has a unique culture that is strongly felt, as the following quotes says:

We are in the city of the alteration of the senses. [...] What is striking me is the ease with which iquitenses [sic] engage in conversation with tourists, with a warmth and naturalness that is rarely seen in my native place.

— Max Palacios, in his blog Amores bizarros.

Although I'm a veteran of several South American adventures, Iquitos appealed to me as a quirk – a jungle city seems a contradiction and this would be my first Amazon visit to include the cosmopolitan luxuries of a real bed and shops. I'm fascinated at the very audacity by which such a city exists, thousands of kilometres from anywhere and with no roads to get there.

— Jade Richardson, in an article titled "In an urban jungle"^[65]

Nothing more appropriate to think of a fantastic city as a city of

idiosyncratic

essence of the city.