Iquitos
| Iquitos | |
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Coordinates: 3 ° 45 ′ S , 73 ° 15 ′ W
Iquitos on the map of Peru
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| Basic data | |
| Country | Peru |
| region | Loreto |
| province | Maynas |
| City foundation | 1764 |
| Residents | 144,463 (2017) |
| - in the metropolitan area | 377,609 |
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| Detailed data | |
| height | 106 m |
| City structure | 4 districts |
| Waters | Amazon , Río Itaya , Río Nanay |
| prefix | 65 |
| Time zone | UTC -5 |
| City Presidency | Adela Jiménez (as temporary substitute for) Charles Zevallos (2011-2014) |
| Website | |
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With 144,463 inhabitants and 377,609 inhabitants in the metropolitan area (2017 census), Iquitos is the largest city in the tropical rainforest of the South American Andean state of Peru and the capital of the Loreto region and the Maynas province . The city is cut off from the outside world by road and can only be reached by plane or by boat across the Amazon . The city lies between the Río Itaya (in the south) and Río Nanay (in the north), which flow into the Amazon. Iquitos lies 125 km below the confluence of the two main source rivers of the Amazon, Río Ucayali and Río Marañón .
Coronel FAP Francisco Secada Vignetta International Airport is in the San Juan Bautista district .
history
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The city was founded around 1750 as a mission of the Jesuits . Originally it was a defensive bastion against Indians who resisted conversion . The small settlement with 1,500 inhabitants developed enormously from the outbreak of the rubber boom , which began between 1870 and 1880. For the next 30 years, Iquitos was regarded as the center of rubber production and trading. While the Indios were forced to work on the plantations and were treated like slaves , the "rubber barons" made considerable profits and corresponding fortunes during this time. This boom ended abruptly when the Briton Henry Wickham managed to smuggle seeds of the rubber plant from Brazil to Asia. As a result, plantations were established in Malaysia whose rubber was much cheaper and easier to harvest. As a result, Iquitos was economically almost bankrupt for decades. Attempts to explore new business opportunities such as growing tobacco and bananas failed, as did the ideas to use the Barbasco (a toxic, liquid composition that the Indians used for fishing) as an insecticide or to send exotic animals to zoos around the world to sell.
In 1900 Iquitos became the seat of an Apostolic Prefecture , which was elevated to the Apostolic Vicariate in 1921 . Since 1945 it has been called the Apostolic Vicariate of Iquitos .
The discovery of oil and its extraction as well as the timber industry made Iquitos a modern city since the early 1960s. Since the 1980s tourism has also developed into an important economic factor. You can visit the restored houses from the boom times with their Art Nouveau facades. Iquitos is also a starting point for tours into the rainforest. Since the entire area around Iquitos has been developed today, “real” jungle can no longer be experienced within a radius of almost 100 kilometers. In contrast, the Pacaya-Samiria nature reserve is a popular destination for ecotourism .
Districts
The city of Iquitos is spread over four districts:
climate
Since Iquitos is close to the equator, the climate there is tropical and rainy, with temperatures from 20 ° C to 36 ° C. The average temperature is 28 ° C with very high humidity.
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Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Iquitos
Source: wetterkontor.de
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Road traffic
Road connections exist exclusively in an island-like area enclosed by the jungle. Nauta, about 100 km to the south, and Mazán , located north of the Río Napo , are accessible via a road.
Iquitos in film and literature
In 1981 Werner Herzog shot his film Fitzcarraldo here with Klaus Kinski in the lead role, which captures the typical jungle atmosphere well. Herzog set a special accent with the use of the local amateur actor Huerequeque.
The Peruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa , who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010 , placed the city of Iquitos and the province of Loreto with his novels La casa verde (German title: The green house ) and Pantaleón y las Visitadoras (German title: The captain and his women's battalion ) A monument.
Sports
On February 19, 2007, the Slovenian Martin Strel reached the city as part of his Amazon swim through. The ultra-long distance swimmer began his swim through on February 1, 2007 in Atalaya, Peru and finished it on April 7, 2007 in Belém, Brazil . The total distance covered is 5268 kilometers.
Attractions
The imposing Church of Iquitos stands on the Plaza de Armas. The Catholic church is also the tallest building in the city. At the eastern corner of the Plaza de Armas, the Casa de Hierro, the Iron House, was built, a building made entirely of metal designed by the French architect Gustave Eiffel .
The Belén (German: Bethlehem) district on the banks of the Amazon is partly built on stilts. This is where the city's impoverished Indians live.
Culinary specialties
The cuisine of Iquitos is characterized by the special location of the city on the Amazon or in the Amazon basin and therefore offers, in addition to the usual Peruvian dishes and a large variety of tropical fruits, some special dishes: fish dishes, paiche ( arapaima ) or the piranha ( piranhas ) come in many variations. Plantains and yuca ( cassava ) are offered as a side dish, but also as an intermediate dish called tacachos . You can also get - mostly grilled - alligators , Suri maggots (larva of a kind of weevil ) from wooden skewers and various insects, preferably ants. Turtles and turtle eggs are popular with locals.
The grilled weevil (suri) maggots
Grilled piranha
Turtle foot as main course
native people
The situation of the indigenous inhabitants, descendants of the Indian tribes in the Amazon, is precarious due to soil exploration, clearing of the forests and tourism. Smuggling and border conflicts with Ecuador are also restricting the indigenous habitat. CETA, a center for the cultivation of indigenous languages and culture under the Jesuit priest Joaquin Garcia Sanchez, gives voice and help to the indigenous inhabitants.
Flora and fauna
Images from Iquitos
Malecon Tarapaca
View towards Belen
Fruits in the market
Iquitos Airport
View of the river
sons and daughters of the town
- Simone Breton (1897–1980), French suffragette and gallery owner
- Mario Peña (1952–2008), Peruvian politician
Individual evidence
- ↑ Resolucion-JNE-suspension-de-Charles-Zevallos editorial = Scribd fechaacceso = 11 de septiembre de 2012.
- ↑ La primera alcaldesa de Maynas editorial = La Región fecha = 12 de septiembre de 2012 fechaacceso = 13 de septiembre de 2012.
- ↑ No se harán cambios radicales editorial = La Región, fecha = 12 de septiembre de 2012, fechaacceso = 13 de septiembre de 2012.
- ↑ Peru: Loreto Region - Provinces & Places . www.citypopulation.de. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
- ↑ Perú: Perfil Sociodemográfico (PDF, 27.4 MB) Instituo Nacional de Estadistica e Informatica (INEI). August 2018. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
- ↑ Martin Strel's website about his swim through the Amazon
- ^ Report on the BBC website from April 7, 2007: "Slovenian completes Amazon swim". Retrieved July 18, 2011
Web links
- Information system about bio and environmental diversity in the Peruvian Amanzonas area; Data about the Amazon, databases, training material, photos, map ... (Spanish)
- Iquitos - the strangest city in the world stockpress.de, accessed on January 8, 2011
- Maynas Province Official Website (Spanish)