Belén Canoe Tour

Location:
Iquitos, Peru

Boating

By Kris Dreessen

During the rainy season in Belén, houses built on stilts or rafts rise and fall with the Amazon river. Water creeps up to doorways and families get around in wooden canoes. Closer to shore, residents carry their satchels, book bags, groceries and sacks of rice along a series of rickety wooden walkways to steer clear of the river. Belén is home to upwards of 5,000 of Iquitos' poorest residents, who live in simple homes and shacks off the main land. Water is their front and back yard, bathtub, swimming hole, wash basin, latrine and transportation.

When the water level drops during summer, the river takes away some of the refuse. What's left behind is stuck in the muck. Belén is sometimes called the "Venice of Peru" for its size and countless passageways accessible only by boat. It's easy to hire a local canoe guide's services for tour in the Belén market at the shore. Dozens of paddlers are waiting for passengers at Puerto Itaya, at the end of Ugarte.

Allow at least an hour to paddle through the flooded streets and past the rows of houses, bakeries, churches and bars—many are run out of private homes, or even windows. Bananas, bread and other wares are also sold right from boats and canoes. Students attend elementary and secondary schools—which are built on concrete pillars—in shifts. Wave hello as they pass by on their way to class. Kids often jump off higher floors of homes or decks into the river for a thrill, or swim past the canoe. Belén is crowded, but the jungle is just beyond. Outer edges of the village are beside lily pads, birds and big patches of bright-green reeds. In open water, dozens of canoes, small fishing boats and colectivos, or collective boats that function like water buses, weave around each other aimed for different destinations. The collective boats often carry a roof full of plantains or other cargo.

Because life in Belén is so open and homes often don't have curtains or screens (or sometimes four walls), taking a canoe tour is an intimate experience and look into Belén life.

Travel Tips: It's best to go during the daytime.

Price Description: A guide and canoe varies from $1.50 per hour (about 5 nuevo soles) to $10 (about 32 nuevo soles). Ten is very high. Ask what the going rate is around town and then negotiate, or know when to walk away. Another way to pay a reasonable fare is to offer a guide a reasonable price to avoid haggling. Hire a canoe in the Belén market, at Puerto Itaya, at the eastern end of Ugarte.