The first stop was the Belen Market, which opens at 4am everyday. I expected it to smell bad, especially near the meat and fish sections, but surprisingly it didn't. With Rosendo we went around the market in Upper Belen and then left for Lower Belen. The water level was rising, so parts of the market were now flooded. We met a childhood friend of Rosendo, who took us on his boat out to see the streets of Lower Belen, also known as Venice although its nowhere quite as romantic. Many of the people who live here are below the poverty line.
Leaving Lower Belen, Rosendo brought me back to the Market to try aguajina - the juice of the aguaje palm tree - at a stall he knew. The grandma selling aguajina there was very adorable. The juice was sweet and tangy and was ice-cold, what I needed after being roasted by the sun in the boat. I bought 2 cups and drank it all.
Its probably not safe to drink at just any stall by the way, because you can get stomach problems.
Then off we went to the hotel, so I could check out with my things (travelling light is an advantage) and because the museum was within 2 blocks of the hostel.
We stopped by a place to get a picture of Rosendo and I printed, for his tourist notebook collection, before heading off to the museum. Rosendo wanted to bring me not only to the museum but also to the San Juan Handicraft Market. I thought that would be a bit ambitious - we had only about an hour before I was due to show up at the airport - but he assured me that it was possible.
Upon reaching the museum, Rosendo went in to look for someone in there to guide us around, while I took photos outside. The guide came, and it appeared that Rosendo had explained my need for speed, as the guy took us on a whirlwind tour of the place. It's not a big museum, only 2 stories of 1 building and the upper storey of an adjacent apartment. We must have gone through that place in about 30 minutes.
A motocarro then took us to the San Juan Market, a small collection of buildings tucked away alongside the road to the airport. Rosendo and I walked around from shop to shop quickly, and I settled on the second shop which I saw, which was somewhere to the right of the entrance. There I bought a few more souvenirs and it was off to the airport.
At the airport, I sat down to write in Rosendo's notebook about the experiences I had in Iquitos, while he checked up on my flight. The airport is hot and stuffy, and it was made worse as there were a lot of people milling inside in the morning. We found out that my flight had been delayed by an hour. Nevertheless I was still expected to enter the departure area at the same time.
Rosendo and I parted. I could tell he was a little emotional, but he didn't show it. I was reluctant to leave Iquitos too, since I had so much fun there.
The wait in the airport and later in the departure area was death by boredom. The departure area is small, although airconditioned, and there is nothing to do. Licensed food vendors walked about with little trays. I thought upon all the things I had done, and got a little emotional myself when it was time to board, and when the airplane was waiting for takeoff. While on the plane, I strained my eyes to try to follow the Amazon River along its tributaries, and the rivers started becoming smaller and more divided, until we reached Lima.
I'm very grateful for all the fun things I did, and visiting Iquitos will always remain as one of the best memories of my life.
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