Iquitos

From Free net encyclopedia

Iquitos is the largest city in the rainforest of Peru. It is the capital of the Loreto Region and the Maynas Province. Located on the Amazon River, it is just 106 meters above sea level even though it is more than 3,000 kilometers from the mouth of the Amazon on the Atlantic Ocean. It is situated 125 km downstream of the confluence of Río Ucayali and Río Marañón, the two main headwaters of the Amazon River. Iquitos has long been a major port in the Amazon Basin. It is surrounded by three rivers: the Nanay, the Itaya, and the Amazon.

Iquitos

Image:Maynas Province Coat of Arms.PNG

Image:Location of the city of Iquitos in Peru.png

Mayor

Juan Carlos del Águila

Population
- Total

400 000

Time zone

UTC-5

Altitude

106 m (348 ft)

Latitude and
Longitude

Template:Coor dms

Official website: www.munimaynas.gob.pe

Image:Amazon at Iquitos.jpg The city is generally considered the largest in the world that cannot be reached by road, only by airplane or boat - unless you're travelling from Nauta, a small town roughly 100km south. Most travel within the city itself is via bus, motorcycle or mototaxi (auto rickshaw). Transportation to nearby towns often requires a river trip via llevo-llevo, a small public boat.

The climate is hot and humid, with an average relative humidity of 85%. The wet season lasts from around November to May, with the river reaching its highest point in May. The river is at its lowest in October.

1 History
2 Economy
3 Education
4 Tourism
5 Universities
6 See also
7 External links

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History

Iquitos was established as a Jesuit mission in the 1750s, and in 1864 it started to grow when the Loreto Region was created and Iquitos became its capital.

Iquitos was known for its rubber industry through the first decade of the 20th century, and there are still great mansions from the 1800s, including the Iron House, designed by Gustave Eiffel. The boom came to an end when rubber seeds were smuggled out of the country and planted elsewhere. The 1982 movie Fitzcarraldo, about the life of rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, was filmed near Iquitos. Image:Spanish building Iquitos.JPG

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Economy

Iquitos has become important in the shipment of lumber from the Amazon Rainforest to the outside world, and it offers modern amenities for the residents and tourists in the area. Other industries include oil and rum production.

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Education

Iquitos is home to numerous research projects that cover the studies of ecology in relation to ornithology and herpetology. Cornell University in particular owns a field station dubbed the Cornell University Esbaran Amazon Field Laboratory. Founded in July of 2001 under the direction of Dr. Eloy Rodriguez as a research facility dedicated to education, conservation, and the discovery of novel medicinal compounds from applied field chemoecology, the field laboratory strives to Survey and catalog the inventory of biological diversity found along the Yarapa River Basin while providing researchers with field experience in the broad range of disciplines necessary for this task. Another main goal is to explore potential 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 the less tangible goods such as the promotion of ecotourism and an ecological aesthetic, and the corresponding benefits to the local communities, and to participating students and researchers.

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Tourism

Iquitos has a growing reputation as a tourist community, especially as a jumping-off point for tours of the Amazon jungle and the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, and trips downriver to Manaus, Brazil - the other rubber-industry city in the interior of the Amazon basin - and finally the Atlantic Ocean, which is 3,360 kilometers away.

A boat tour of Belén is common tourist attraction. Belénis an area of Iquitos that can be accessed by foot in the dry season but is only accessible via boat in the wet season. Many of the homes in this area are tethered to large poles and float upon the rising waters every year, and some homes float year-round. Where the waters begin there are often a few men with their boats who tranport locals and tourists for a small fee.

There is also an open-air market in Belén (a part that doesn't flood). This too is a common tourist attraction. Most notable is the medicine lane, an entire block of the market, on both sides, lined with local plant (and animal) medicines (everything from copaiba to chuchuwasai).

During the 1990s, homosexuals fled the repressive police in other cities of Peru to live in this frontier town. Many now live in Belén.

It is served by the CRNL. FAP. Francisco Secada Vignetta International Airport.

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Universities

Iquitos has two universities: Universidad Nacional de la Amazonía Peruana, the local state university, and Universidad Particular de Iquitos, a private institution. It is also home to El Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (IIAP).

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