Iquitos is located in northern Peru along the Amazon river. The best method to travel into Iquitos is by airplane, although you can also take a boat up the Amazon. Travel by automobile is impractical. However, you can take a bus from Lima to the town of Tarapoto (about 29 hours). From there you can take another bus to Yurimuguas (another 2-3 hours). From there you can take a boat to Lagunas and then eventually to Iquitos. These two boat trips will add another day to the adventure.

Iquitos is the largest city in the Peruvian Amazon with a population of around 377,000. It is also the capital city of the Maynas Province in the Loreto Region. Although the original founding date of Iquitos is not known, in 1963 it was proclaimed by law (under President Fernando Belaunde Terry) that the founding year be set as 1864.

Travel up the river. We took a small boat going south of Iquitos up the Amazon river. The Amazon river is a truly enormous river, not just is length, but also in width. There was an ocean bound barge docked outside of Iquitos unloading cargo at Iquitos, having come all the way up the Amazon.

While in Iquitos, I was interested in visiting a history museum for the region. After some checking, my Uncle Percy managed to find a local tour guide who said he knew where a history museum was. So, Vicky, Uncle Percy, and I all hopped into a moto-buggy and the driver was told to take us to the history museum, which was about a 20 minute ride.

To the left is the entrance to the "history museum" suggested by the tour guide. The museum turned out to be a concrete wall along a pathway depicting the myths and legends of the Peruvian Amazon region, as shown below.

Descriptions of some of the painted panels are shown below.