About Northeastern Peru
Our lodge is located in the province of Loreto approximately 105 kilometers (50 miles) south of the city of Iquitos. This page provides an overview of the region - content sourced from the Peruvian tourism and assistance service, "iperu".

›› General Information 
›› Overview of Loreto
›› Access Routes
›› A Brief History
›› Geography & Climate 
›› Attractions of the Loreto Province
›› Folklore
›› Handcrafts
›› Cuisine
›› More Information 

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GENERAL INFORMATION
Location: Jungle (Amazon Rainforest), northeastern Peru. It shares borders with Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador.
Area: 368.852 square kilometers
Capital: Iquitos
Altitude: Lowest Point: 70masl / 230fasl (Amelia)
Highest Point: 220 masl / 722 fasl (Balsapuerto)
Distances: From the city of Iquitos to the following cities:

• Yurimaguas - (Province of Alto Amazonas) 388 km (241 miles)/ 4 days by boat.
• Nauta - (Province of Loreto) 115 km (71 miles)/ 14 hours by boat or 2 hours by bus.
• Caballococha - (Province of Mariscal Ramon Castilla) 311 km (193 miles) 2 days by boat.
• Requena - (Province of Requena) 157 km (98miles) / 19 hours by boat.
• Contamana - (Province of Ucayali) 431 km (268 miles)/ 3 days by boat.

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AN OVERVIEW OF THE PROVINCE OF LORETO
Loreto is the largest yet least populated department in Peru. It is covered by dense vegetation and by primary and secondary jungle with low hills and slightly rolling landscape, crisscrossed by the many rivers of the Amazon River basin, which is born at the confluence of the Maranon and Ucayali Rivers.

Iquitos, the capital of Loreto, is the main port city on the Amazon River and the largest city in the Peruvian jungle. Different indigenous people groups like the Cocama, Huitoto, and Bora first inhabited the area. Then came the Jesuit missionaries who founded the city. At the end of the nineteenth century was when Iquitos experienced its greatest economic glory due to the rubber industry. The economic bonanza meant that luxurious buildings like the art noveau Palace Hotel and the Iron House, designed by the famous French architect Gustave Eiffel, were constructed there.

In contrast to these buildings, you find the homes in the Belen neighborhood that are constructed on top of rafts and pylons to protect them from the flooding of the river. One of the best attractions in Loreto is navigating on the rivers and lakes and enjoying the beautiful beaches.

The Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve (2,080,000 hectares), the largest reserve in Peru, is located 183 kilometers from the city and is home to numerous plant and animal species, many of them in danger of extinction like the charapa river turtle, the giant river otter, the black caiman, and the river dolphin.

Likewise, the Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve (58,000 hectares) protects the largest concentration of white sand forests, or varillales as they are known in the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. This happens to be one of the best areas to go for bird-watching. In addition to these national reserves, there are also numerous private reserves, which have been created to satisfy all tastes.

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ACCESS ROUTES
By Land
There is no overland access to Iquitos.

By Air
Regular flights to Iquitos from Lima (1hours 30 minutes) Tarapoto (50 minutes) and Pucallpa ( 1 hour) . Sporadic flights to Iquitos from Yurimaguas (40 minutes) and Leticia, Colombia (1hour).

By River
It is possible to travel from Pucallpa (Puerto La Hoyada, 2.5km/1.5 miles from the city) to Iquitos. By boat via the Ucayali River with stops at Requena and Contamana in a chartered boat, small but fast, built for 10-15 people, hired as a private service. The trip lasts 1 to 2 days, depending on the level of the river. If you elect to travel by "motornave", a larger boat with room for 250 people, the trip then takes longer, 4-5 days, depending on the river current. From Yurimaguas via the Huallaga and Maranon Rivers with a stop at Nauta, the trip lasts 12-15 hours by chartered boat, depending on the size of the motor, or 3-4 days by "motornave", depending on the level of the river.

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BRIEF HISTORY
The first inhabitants of Loreto were small tribes spread throughout the Western slopes of the Andes. When the Spanish arrived, the first information about the area was collected by catholic missionaries, explorers adventurers, and the chronicles of Francisco de Orellana's discover of the Amazon River on February 12, 1542. This discovery stirred the imagination of many adventurers who thought they could find the mythical city of riches, and the souls of the missionaries, who wanted to convert the natives to Christianity.

The missions in the jungle acquired great importance in the seventeenth century, and the Jesuits and Franciscans evangelized many people and founded many villages, helping to open roads, paths, and highways to shorten the distance between the tribes and the comarcas or Indian population centers.
Iquitos, the first port city on the Amazon River, was founded in 1757 by the Jesuits under the name of San Pablo de los Napeanos.

During a large part of the nineteenth century, the department of Loreto was kept apart from the rest of the country mainly die to the lack of access routes ad the distance from the capital. It was only at the beginning of the 1880's, when rubber fever hit, that the zone started attracting attention. From being a small village, Iquitos experienced a notable increase in its population becoming a modern city with great economic importance. With the end of rubber fever in 1914, the region was hit hard until the 1970's with the discovery of petroleum and an increase in logging that gave new life to the regional economy. Today, Loreto continues to exploit petroleum, but the main economic activities are logging, trade and ecotourism.

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GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE
The Department of Loreto is covered by dense vegetation and by primary and secondary jungle with low hills and slightly rolling landscape, crisscrossed by the many rivers of the Amazon River basin, which is born at the confluence of the maranon ad Ucayali Rivers. Loreto is the largest yet least populated department in Peru. The weather in Iquitos is hot and rainy all year long. The average annual maximum temperature is 31 degrees C (88F) and the minimum is 21 degrees C (70F). The dry season, (July - November) and the flood season (December - July) feature particular differences in the plant and animal life as well as in the climate.

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ATTRACTIONS OF THE LORETO PROVINCE
Nauta
115 km / 71 miles from Iquitos (by river). It is located on the left bank of the Maranon River, seven miles from the confluence with the Ucayali River.

Founded in 1830, it is one of the oldest population centers in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. Due to its strategic location as a linking point between the Maranon and Ucayali Rivers ( so see the two rivers unite is an extraordinary sight), it has gained importance, and has become the main trade and communication center. There are basic tourist services in Nauta.

Amazon River
The Amazon River springs up more than 5000 meters above sea level (masl)/16,404 feet above sea Level (fasl) in the snowy mountain peak of Mismi in Arequipa and crosses extensive amounts of tropical jungle in an approximate 4500 km / 2796 mile route. It has more than 500 navigable tributaries, an average depth of 50 meters / 164 feet, and a width that varies from 4 to 6 km / 2-4 miles. A large part of its meandering has no definite course; it has formed a complex of smaller rivers that constitute a network of canals with numerous islands. It is a river with the largest water flow in the world and makes up an enormous hydrographical network, unique for its size and huge amount of water. The Spaniard, Francisco de Orellana, discovered the river in 1542. It is most accessible from the city of Iquitos where the Amazon River Tourist Corridor is located, in a huge animal and plant life biodiversity and where different types of boating expeditions take place, including a visit to the source of the Amazon River and a trip to the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve. Some excursions even reach as far as the borders of Colombia and Brazil. It is also possible to visit Boras, Yahuas and Witotos de Pucaurquillo indigenous communities as well as some farming communities. Nearby, there are tourist lodges to suit all tastes, from the most comfortable (air-conditioned rooms) to the most rustic. These oases in the middle of the jungle represent a launching point for hikes to seek out medicinal plants, visits to indigenous communities, and bird watching expeditions. Likewise, it is possible to take a walk on the canopy walkway, a bridge suspended over the tops of trees where you can appreciate the beauty of the Amazonian fauna.

Pacaya Samiria National Reserve
183 km / 114 miles southwest of Iquitos. The shortest route is Iquitos – Nauta by highway and then a trip on the river from Nauta to the village of Communidad 20 de Febrero ( 15 hours by boat or 4 hours by chartered boat). To be able to enter, you must request permission from INRENA and pay the corresponding fees.

Comprising a large part of the provinces of Loreto, Requena, Ucayali, and Alto Amazonas, it has an area of 2,080,000 hectares making it the largest in the country and in South America.. It is the most extensive area of protected floodable forest (vareza) in the Amazon Rainforest. It is bordered by two large rivers: the Maranon in the North and the Ucayali - Puinahua Canal to the South. Inside the Reserve, there are three river basins: The Pacaya River basin, the Samiria River basin, and the Yanayacu-Pucate River basin. There are also numerous lakes, gorges, canals and oxbows. It has an annual monthly temperature between 20 degrees C (68F) and 33 degrees C (91F) and an annual rain fall of 2000 to 3000 millimeters, which allows for its huge biodiversity: 449 bird species, 102 mammal species ( among them the pink dolphin), 69 species of reptiles, 58 species of amphibians, 256 fish species and 1024 species of wild and cultivated plants. The reserve is a refuge for various endangered species like the Charapa turtle (podocnemis expansa), the spider monkey (ateles sp.), the giant river otter (pteronura brasiliensis), the red macaw (Ara macao), cedar trees (cederla odorata) and others.

Furthermore, there are diverse protection and natural resource management projects like the one aimed at repopulating the taricaya and the charapa river with turtles in the the artificial beaches of the reserve. It is truly amazing to watch the final stage of the process, the freeing of the newborns into the rivers, gorges, and lakes of the reserve. The level of involvement of the local population is remarkable. On the edges of Pacaya-Samiria on the banks of the Maranon and Ucayali rivers more than 42,000 people live, grouped in ninety-four communities and another 50,000 inhabit the 109 villages in the buffer zone. Almost all of them making a living from fishing, farming, or hunting and gathering.

Allpahuayo-Mishana National Reserve
The entrance is 26.5 km/16 miles from Iquitos on the Iquitos-Nauta highway (30 minutes by car). Leaving from the Bellavista Nanay Port, it takes 2-3 hours depending on the size of the boat motor.

This reserve of barely 58,000 hectares protects the largest concentration of white sand forests or "varillales" known in the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. Here live numerous one of a kind species of plants and animals. Protected here is also a specimen of forests flooded by the black waters of the Nanay River, unique to the Peruvian Amazon Rainforest. This reserve contains an enormous and peculiar biological wealth and numerous endemic plant and animal and restricted distribution species stand out, many of them still without scientific classification. Up to now, there have been more than 1780 plant species, 522 butterfly species, 155 species of fish, 83 species of amphibians, 120reptile species, 476 bird species, and 145 species of mammals registered; the most important ones among them are the equatorial sakis (Pithecia aequatorialis) and  the black titi monkey (Callicebus Lucifer). New Plant and animal species are continually being discovered. Among the birds, there are dozens of noteworthy species living in the white sand forests, unknown in Peru until just recently. In the last five years, four new bird species have been described by scientists associated with white sand forests. Three are ant eating species (Herpsilochmus gentryi, Percnostola arenarum, and Myrmeciza castanea) and the other eats flies and other insects (Zimmerius villarejoi). There is a fifth one that now has a scientific description (Poliptila clementsi). To these, we have to add another dozen bird species that were unknown to Peru until recently like the beautiful pompadour cotinga (Xipholena punicea) and the saffron-crested tyrantmanakin (Neopelma chrysocephalum).

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FOLKLORE
Folklore in the jungle is a mixture and fusion of different ethnic groups and cultures, not only from the aborigines but also from other regions on the planet. The style is very expressive, and the oral tradition of myths and legends maintained for centuries and demonstrating their interpretation of life, love, the earth, and their close relationship with the water and the mysterious jungle stand out. As part of their stories and beliefs, many trees possess mother or living spirits that can be either good or evil and have their origin in a diversity of creatures: men, women birds, snakes, fish or the wind.

The musical tradition of the Amazonian villages is filled with rhythms and melodies that are a product of a mixture of races, especially that of the Andean and coastal regions of Peru. There is also a notable influence of Brazilian, Colombian, and Ecuadorian music.

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HANDCRAFTS
A large variety of artistic objects are offered such as ceramics with geometric drawings, painted textiles, and a series of decorative and utilitarian items made for the resources found in the area.  With these, the Yaguas, Huitotos, Boras, and Ocainas peoples symbolize their ideas about life, perpetuating their cultural and spiritual views. Peruvian law forbids and punishes any extraction, transportation, commercialization and exploitation of any plants or animals, alive or dead, and/or objects made out their parts, unless authorized by IRENA.

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CUISINE
The following list Typical dishes of the region:

• Ensalada de chonta o salad palmito - Heart of Palm salad
• Cebiche de dorado - fish based cerviche
• Inchicapi - Chicken soup with peanuts, cilantro, and cassava
• Timbuche - Concentrated broth made from fish and cilantro.
• Cecina - Dried and salted beef or pork
• Patarashca - Fired roasted fish wrapped in banana leaves.
• Juane - Rice seasoned with palillo, a Peruvian spice akin to tumeric, and chicken wrapped in banana leaves.
• Tacacho - a dish of mashed and kneaded green, roasted bananas with fried pork rinds. Generally, it is combined with cecina.
• Inchicucho - prepared with corn, peanuts and aji ( hot pepper).

There is a large variety of tropical fruits like papaya, aguaje (purple palm tree fruit with orange pulp), taperiba ( known on the coast by the name of (mango ciruelo ), bananas, cocona, camu-camu, passion fruit, and guava.

Traditional drinks and juices:

• Masato - a drink made of cooked, smashed, and fermented yucca, with molasses or sugar.
• Aguajina - Juice made with aguaje, a palm tree fruit.
• Chapo - Juice of ripe bananas
• Shibe - Juice prepared with fermented and toasted yucca.

Cocktails:

• Huitochado - made with the "huito" fruit, sugar and cordial.
• Chuchuhuasi - cordial made from a bitter and astringent root, very popular in western Peru.
• Siete Raices - made with bark from different trees like the Brazilwood tree, clove vine, breadfruit, huacapurana, chuchuhuasi, rosewood, and ipururo, sweetened with honey and macerated in cordial.
• Coconachado - made from the cocona fruit, sugar and cordial.
• Huarapo - fermented sugar cane juice.
• Pirana bite - made with rum and cocona.

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MORE INFO?
For more comprehensive information about this and other areas of Peru, please see: www.peru.info/eng/loreto