Iquitos is a city in the jungle in the Northeast of Peru, on the banks of the Amazon River. It is the largest city in the world that is not accessible by road - it can only be reached by plane from Lima or by boat. The first thing I noticed when I landed was the shocking heat and humidity. The second thing was probably the lack of cars - they are few and far between, with motorbikes and 'motocarros' (the same as tuk-tuks in Thailand) by far the most common method of getting around. There are some funky-looking old-fashioned buses too, often with no windows.

Iquitos is a popular base for exploring the Amazon Rainforest, which is why I went there - immediately after arriving I headed off to spend four days at a lodge in the jungle (see separate blog entry). When I returned to the city, I got in touch with Julio's cousin Cesar - he had just returned to Iquitos (his hometown) after a year working as an au pair in Germany (as as result of which he spoke English with a German accent, which was funny). We went for dinner at the popular Ari's Burger - an 'American diner' style place on the corner of the main square - and admired the fountain in the Plaza de Armas which looked cool, lit up with blue lights in the dark. Then we went for drinks at Musmuqui bar, where we were joined by Cesar's friend Edgar. They filled me in on the Champions League semi-final matches that I missed while I was in the jungle!

The next morning I wandered around town - Iquitos is a bit of a death trap for pedestrians, with deep holes in the pavement scattered all over the place! There are quite a few beautiful old buildings decorated with patterned tiles that are not being used for anything - they were built during the 'rubber boom' in Iquitos (late 1800s/early 1900s) and now are classified as national monuments so cannot be altered. It seems a shame that they are not used. On the corner of the main square is the Casa de Fierro (Iron House) designed by Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame) and shipped from Paris - quite strange! Down the street there is also an odd statue of the famous Amazonian pink dolphins.

In the afternoon I took a boat to the village of Padre Cocha, down the Nanay River from Iquitos. There was a little market at the dock where I boarded the boat, with stalls selling barbequed fish, sausages, corn and bananas. I went to Padre Cocha to visit the Pilpintuwasi 'mariposero' (butterfly farm) and animal sanctuary, it was great. They breed many different species of butterfly and I saw the different stages of caterpillars (amazing brightly-coloured, patterned, furry and spiky caterpillars), chrysalises and fully-fledged butterflies. They have also rescued a few unusual animals that had been orphaned or abandoned, some of which I had never seen in real life before - a manatee (it lived underwater so I could only it's snout sticking up now and then looking for food), an anteater (bigger than I imagined, with a very long tongue that it was using to lap up milk), a tapir (a funny-looking creature, apparently related to the horse and hippopotamus, with a flexible snout that it waved around), a jaguar and several different types of monkey (the howler monkeys were so loud - they were a little frightening!). Apparently wild animals from the jungle here are sometimes captured and sold as pets which results in baby animals being orphaned or the 'pets' are later abandoned when people lose interest or realise they can't take care of them - the animals that had been rescued by Pilpintuwasi seemed to be well looked after.

There was a nice Spanish couple walking back from Pilpintuwasi to the boat stop at the same time as me so I was able to chat to them in Spanish for a while. Somewhere during the day, I lost my watch, which is a bit annoying because I'd just got a new strap put on it in Lima a few days earlier. Back in town in the evening, I went for dinner at a restaurant on the waterfront but, because it was next to the river, I ended up spending a lot of the time picking flies out of my food and drink!

Later I met up with Cesar and some of his friends for drinks, they were nice guys. We played 'I have never' in a mixture of Spanish and English which was confusing at times but funny. Later we ended going to a gay club - it was a crazy night, I had good fun.

Cesar kindly invited me to go for lunch with his family the next day - his parents were coming in from Lima. I went round to Cesar's grandmother's house in the morning - she was lovely and welcoming and I chatted to her for a long time (in Spanish!) while he was getting ready - I told her about the places I had been in Peru and she told me about places she had been in Europe when she was younger. Cesar showed me some family photos (including one photo of Julio in some tight turquoise leggings at Halloween!). When Cesar's parents arrived we grabbed some motocarros and travelled to a place about half an hour away from the city centre where there was a large restaurant by a lake. I saw lots of little turtles in the lake. For lunch I had ceviche made with 'paiche', a huuuge fish from the Amazon, it was nice. Cesar's mum was very friendly, a lovely lady, and she was intrigued by my trip to China because her family is Chinese - she was excited to hear about the food and see some of my pictures.

When we got back to town, Cesar took me to the Sports Club which was packed with families swimming, playing various sports, having lunch and drinks and dancing. Then we went to visit some more of his friends. Later, while we were walking around town, a big dog jumped on me - its paws were on my shoulders it was so big - I was terrified (I'm scared of dogs at the best of times). I screamed and ran away and it chased me! It was ignoring everyone else on the street and just going after me - it was horrible and I was shaking with fear. The owners of the dog thought this was hilarious and just stood there laughing

On my last day in Iquitos I visited the Belen Market and village on the water with a guide - it was an eye-opening experience! In the market I saw some amazing things that I had never seen before - unusual fruit and vegetables; snails as big as a fist; armadillos, turtles, caiman and many more strange animals being sold as meat (they had been cut up pretty roughly with their feet and tails left on so they were still easily identifiable)! There were catfish the size of cows in the freezer room. There were remedies from the jungle for every conceivable ailment or problem (for example, dolphins' vaginas and turtles' penises for love issues and a special plant to put under your pillow if you had been burgled and wanted to find out who the culprit was in your dreams!). I tried 'ponche' (punch) which is made from eggs whipped with sugar, vanilla flavouring and dark beer, served as a froth in a glass - it was yummy. I also tried the famous local grilled 'suri', a big fat worm - it looked horrible but it didn't taste bad, it felt like it was full of soft butter. I tried some other weird and wonderful things along the way as well - I really enjoyed it.

Then I went for a boat ride around the village of Belen - houses built on stilts in the river. In dry season the water level goes down revealing the riverbed but when I was there the river was right up to the bottom of most of the houses and there were some buildings underwater. Most of the houses were made of wood with roofs made of leaves. There were drop toilets over the river in some places while in other places people were washing in the river and children were swimming and playing - in the same water - that can't be healthy. There were boats going around that operated as shops, selling groceries, and others that were like restaurants, selling food from big pots. It was strange to see street lights sticking up out of the water in places.

Back in town, I had 'patarashca' for lunch at The Yellow Rose Of Texas restaurant - it is a dish of fish cooked in a banana leaf with tomato, onion and spices - absolutely delicious (a flavour similar to Indian curry). Then in the afternoon I went to the Museum of Ethnography - there is not much there but it is interesting nonetheless - photos and life-size figurines of different Amazonian ethnic groups. I also checked out a craft market before heading to the airport.

My flight back to Lima was delayed by three hours and I was at the airport two hours before that so I had a long wait. While I was there I had some yummy 'juanes' to eat - it is a typical Peruvian jungle dish of rice, chicken, boiled egg and olives with herbs and spices all mixed up, rolled into a ball and cooked in a banana leaf.

Iquitos is a quirky place, quite unlike any other part of Peru I'd been to. There seemed to be a small community of ex-pats living there and running businesses catering to tourists - amusingly, they had just opened a 9-hole golf course in the jungle. They seemed to do some good work around town but I was a bit freaked out by the 'chica of the month' feature on their website and their 'Miss Tourism' contest which conjured up images of dirty old men preying on young local girls - I hope that's not the case! The centre of Iquitos felt like a particularly safe and relaxed place. In many respects, it reminded me a lot of Southeast Asia - the climate, the motorbikes and motocarros, and the general chilled-out atmosphere.