Life In A Water Town

Idee Montijo takes you to a place rarely visited by outsiders, to where villagers living along the mighty Amazon River adapt to its ever-changing depths that for months drowns entire regions.

This is Belén, a floating town on the outskirts of Iquitos, Peru. No outside roads lead to this region, so the area is only accessible by boat or by plane. Some 60,000 residents live in Belén (Spanish for Bethlehem) in homes that float on balsa-wood logs or stand on stilts to keep homes and families dry during the Amazonian monsoon season. While the homes lack proper sanitation, consistent power, and clean water, they provide a place of refuge for those trying to make their way to a better life.

Many of Belén’s residents once lived in the Amazon forest but have come here to engage in trade and business. These floating homes often shelter multiple families who contribute to the household. In this intensely crowded community with almost no services, residents are at constant risk for disease, poverty, and social problems, though they persist by hunting, trading, and producing to keep their families fed.

Sitting in an Iquitos sidewalk cafe, I worked through the photos I’d taken and took immediate notice of this subtle image of a Belén resident possibly sorting her morning chores. I wrote a narrative about her in another platform that, to me, felt compelling and relatable for anyone: “She awakens each day to a neighbor’s morning clamor. In sleepy stumble, this neighbor feels his way to his hut’s back door, then relieves himself into the seasonal flood-water between their dwellings. Her bony and wrinkled feet grace the wooden floor as she slips from her hammock. She smiles to greet her new day, thankful to see it. Hoping the river’s flow soon brings cleaner water, she gathers faded clothing into her bright green basin and carefully places it on the un-tethered boards planking the two homes. Decades ago her hopes were more grand; a concrete home, gas stove, water from a faucet. But time slips and life here has reshaped her hopes. In her content wisdom she understands that no one escapes an eventual return to basics.”

Peru’s Venice

Belén has been called the Venice of South America, though the comparison stops at flooded passageways. Italy’s opulent city of Venice, with its historic and impressive architecture, is a world apart from humble Belén’s haphazardly constructed wooden homes.

Just beyond this crowded neighborhood, Belén’s buzzing jungle market sells everything from real snake oil to sandals and bush meat. Many vendors offer ready-to eat snacks like grilled suri.

Suri is a fat 2-inch larva of the palm weevil and is often prepared on the grill, fried, or eaten raw. For centuries native Peruvian populations have consumed suri as an important source of protein, minerals, and vitamins A and E.

Getting around in the flood season is simple enough; hop into a flat boat and don a paddle — then hope for a favorable wind.

During the flood season, flat boats become an extension of a home’s floor plan where homes are constructed with all manner of available materials.

Fauna of the Flood

Flood season brings all ground-dwelling creatures to shelter in the sub-structure framework. Chickens, cats, dogs, little mice and everything nice.

Even animals living in local wildlife sanctuaries are situated on higher ground to avoid the extended wet conditions that arrive with the Amazon’s flood seasons.

If You Plan to Visit

Planning a visit to Peru’s Iquitos region? Be prepared to explore a world unlike anything you’ve experienced. In the very early 1900s, Iquitos became highly relevant in the rubber trade bringing wealth which provided a means for advanced construction using imported ironwork and glazed tile in the city’s landmarks and prominent buildings.

This region of South America is for rugged travelers. Secure a trustworthy guide service and travel inconspicuously to this region to enjoy an immersion of Eastern Peruvian culture.

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All text and images here © Idee Montijo 2021