Iquitos Travel Forum

I'm going to Iquitos for late December and early january, can anyone tell me whether it's better to book a jungle excursion once I'm there or before I go? Thanks!

Best to book beforehand, in my experience. We enjoyed our time (some years ago) at the Explorama Lodge.

It strongly depends on what you want. If you are going to relax and have many (not all) the comforts of home, then book ahead of time with a lodge like Explorama (I hear it's the best of it's kind) or one that is run by westerners.

If, however, you are like me and want to see the rainforest in a savage/wild way, then wait until you get to Iquitos. We had at least 5 guys following, yes following, us at night one night offering to bring us to the jungle. There is no difficulty finding agencies or booking on short notice.

The agencies in Iquitos will generally offer you two choices, one where you there is a little more comfort and one where you're basically camping. I went camping and it was extremely fun.

It should cost you about $40-50 per day after haggling. There are a few questions to ask them though,

-Is this virgin/primary forest?
-Is it in the reserve? (they'll know which reserve)
-Is it on high ground? (Much of the rainforest is "flooded-forest" which is underwater for a good part of the year and has tremendous amounts of mosquitos)

I went to a flooded forest outside of the reserve but it was in the middle of nowhere. It was fantastic since we saw tons of different monkeys/animals--but we camped right near a stagnant mosquito-ridden swamp area.

This is going on too long so I'll cut it short, email me if you have any questions.

Chris

If you want more informations than you have you can contacme willy@tucanlodge.com, I live in iquitos and work as a tour guide (team leader) and work in hole Peru sites.But I live in Iquitos and I Will be here untill february.here you have more informations:www.worldecoadventuretours.com (if you click on guides you will see more about me Willy Huaycama),www.tucanlodge.com,of course Explorama is one of the best and prices one of the highes too, and is about what do you want to do,survival,treking,wild life observation.I can help you if you want...Willy.

I think you'd be pretty safe booking when you get there that time of year. I'll be there at the end of December, too (my 3rd trip this year). I was there a couple of weeks ago and the people coming in from the jungle said the mosquitos were pretty bad right now. I doubt that'll change in a couple of weeks.

I can defintely recommend Explorama (www.explorama.com). I stayed at the Explorama Lodge last May and had a great time. 3 days for a little over $200 was a decent deal with a very professional lodge. Even the other lodges say it's very good, though expensive.