Iquitos from Cuzco

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Day 15 - CUSCO - LIMA - IQUITOS

Does the alarm ring at 4 in the morning? This can't be or yes? We have the first flight that will take us to Iquitos from Cuzco at 7.40 in the morning making a stop in Lima, so we have booked a taxi through the hotel at 5.30 in the morning that will take us to the airport of Cuzco for 10 soles.
We have breakfast at 5 o'clock in the breakfast room of Casa Andina Cuzco Plaza and a few minutes before the agreed time we leave for the airport of Cuzco.
The Cusco airport is about 15 minutes from the city center, counting that there is not much traffic so we stand in the check-in line at 5.40 in the morning.


There is quite a line, so until 6 we can't check our bags and go to the boarding gate. From this moment on everything is much faster.
They do not force us to take off our boots, we do not need to take out the liquids, they do not tell us to take a laptop out of our backpack. We are going to be seated at our boarding gate in less than 5 minutes waiting to arrive at Iquitos from Cuzco.

Soroche Pills cartel at Cuzco airport

At first it seems that the flight is going to leave late, since we do not board at the scheduled time, but after a good push in the air, in the end we land just at the appointed time.
We have the following flight from Lima to Iquitos at 10.30 in the morning and you have to give us time to collect your bags and check them again since we booked the tickets separately, leaving us much cheaper so not together.
In addition, this flight from Lima to Iquitos has a small scale, so from a flight of 1 hour and twenty, which is usual for a flight from Lima to Iquitos, we will have a flight of 2 and a half hours.
Peruvian flies 3 times a day from Lima to Iquitos, one first thing in the morning that goes straight, another, which will be the one we take at 10.30 that makes a stopover and another in the afternoon that is also direct.
Our choice, although we have to make a stopover, has been at 10.30 to spend less time at the airport and at the same time to know something about the city of Iquitos.
After 1 hour 5 minutes we are landing in Lima and without wasting much time we go straight to pick up our luggage to check it again.
The check-in and move to the next boarding gate we do it practically running since the control lines are endless. This is to arrive at an airport and not have a minute to rest.
In the end the flight changes doors and we board a little later, but we are finally on our way to Iquitos from Cuzco, making a brief stop in Pucallpa.

Flight from Lima to Iquitos

We are one step away from fulfilling another great dream, know the amazon.
After 2 flights and a delay of 1 hour in the second we arrive at the city of Iquitos from Cuzco, we collect our backpacks and just go outside: heat stroke and 10 people around us offering us taxis and motorcycle taxis.
After 3 minutes of negotiations we agreed 15 soles for a rather dilapidated taxi and we set off to what will be our hotel in Iquitos, La Casona, before starting our Amazon adventure and the day we return to Lima.

Transportation of La Casona

Iquitos is different. Iquitos has a life of its own right outside its streets. It has nothing to do with what we have seen so far on our trip to Peru.
Iquitos is color, under a blue sky, dotted with clouds that brings memories to our trip to Kenya and Tanzania, where we saw the most beautiful skies we have ever seen.
We arrive at the hotel after 2:30 in the afternoon and check in quickly enough to be able to go out to eat something before the restaurants close.
We go to a restaurant next to the hotel where we eat a couple of menus, water and coke for 31 soles and return to the hotel to take a shower and rest for a while.
The shower has seated us wonderfully, it seems incredible the change of time we are having since yesterday we arrived in Cuzco del Valle Sagrado to today that we have reached Iquitos from Cuzco.
Before 5 in the afternoon we go to the Plaza de Armas de Iquitos that we have half a block (as they say here) from the hotel.

Iquitos Arms Square

Iquitos streets

As we go through the streets of the city, we continue to think what we said before, Iquitos is different.
It seems anchored to a past in which you enjoy the good things in life like walking, sitting ... Just living. And that way of life excites us.

Walking through Iquitos

Here there is not so much tourism as in the rest of the places we have visited in Peru and we cannot say that we have met many except in Machu Picchu. We almost did not meet anyone and it shows, after this last part of the trip that has been much more touristy.

Walking through the streets of Iquitos

After taking a walk through the Plaza de Armas and the surroundings we go to one of those places that have always remained in our minds as dreams: the Amazon.

Views of the Amazon from the Iquitos promenade

It seems incredible that we have it in front of us.

We take a good walk along the river promenade, along the Malecon, stopping at every moment just to see life go by, without more ...

Houses on the riverbank

We ended up sitting on a terrace facing the river where we had a couple of milkshakes for 16 soles, while enjoying an incredible sunset.

Sunset on a terrace of Iquitos

When there is little to 7 in the afternoon, we take a last walk through the city, now with the calm of the moon and get lost in the neighborhood of our hotel, La Casona, without a fixed course.
We ended the day having dinner on the boardwalk a sandwich and some fish rinds plus water and beer for 32 soles enjoying the red moon over the Amazon.
Today was the key day here in Peru for that red moon ...

Iquitos

Day 16 - IQUITOS - MUYUNA LODGE

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