Iquitos: the Amazonian city with no roads out

The world's largest city unreachable by land, Iquitos sits in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest, accessible only by plane or boat.

Boats and moto-taxis remain the primary way to get around.

The Belén district, built on stilts that adapt to seasonal river floods, remains nicknamed the 'Venice of the Amazon'.

A short walk away, the Belén Market sells Amazonian fish, exotic fruit, and medicinal herbs used by local indigenous communities.

The Casa de Fierro, an iron building designed according to tradition by Gustave Eiffel, was transported piece by piece from Europe during the late-nineteenth-century rubber boom.

Toward evening, a boat excursion on the Amazon River allows you to observe pink river dolphins in the waters surrounding the city.

During the rubber boom of the late nineteenth century, Iquitos suddenly became extremely wealthy, attracting European architecture and materials transported with great difficulty along the river to the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

The Belén neighborhood undergoes radical transformation between dry and rainy seasons: when the river rises, entire streets become navigable only by canoe.