Iquitos Iquitos, capital of the northern district of Loreto, lies very isolated in the rainforests of the Amazon lowland area. Iquitos, population 350,000, can only be reached by river or by air, no matter what James Redfield wrote in The Celestine Prophecy. There are no roads connecting Iquitos to the outside world. Iquitos is a quiet, friendly and colourful city. It used to be one of the rubber-capitals of the world, and part of this fame still displays in the colonial houses and the elegant boulevards. Colonial building in downtown Iquitos In the Belén district, facing the Amazon river, you can find a labyrinth of floating houses. It is a centre for an incredible variety of Amazon products like fish, fruit, vegetables and herbal medicines. Iquitos is a good base for making excursions into the Amazon jungle. View at the Amazon River from Iquitos Banana trade at the floating market in the Belén district Street in downtown Iquitos