The Isolated floating town of Belen
While on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca, located at the heart of Taquile island: 45 km offshore from the city of Puno, My friend Kalinka and I were having a conversation around the dinner table with the host family. Then we were suddenly joined by a couple of Spaniards Alberto and his Friend Anna. That was the start of an unexpected friendship that led the 4 of us to a great adventure within the Amazonian jungle.
After spending a couple of days in Taquile, exchanging our Instagram accounts, and enjoying the international company, we eventually went separate ways with Alberto and Anna. It didn't last long before getting our first message from them, updating us that they reached Iquitos, and they thought maybe we could finally join them for another trip for three days in the vast compact forest of the Amazon.
As an always source of pleasure, I want to share my unique discovery throughout my photographs with you after coming back from the wilderness to Iquitos. The only major city on earth isolated from the rest of the world and surrounded by the Amazonian rain forest. Interestingly, there are not so many options available to get there, except either via boat, which takes around three days or faster via plane from Lima, taking max 3 hours!
The night we got to the city, it was dark, and for a first glimpse, it felt crowded, with an insane number of motorbikes sharing the streets with fewer cars that their owners managed to bring to this chaotic city.
Ultimately, we called it a night after an exhausting rid throughout the Amazonian river. The next day, Kalinka and I decided to move from the hostel where we spent the first night to a closer place near the city center. With the idea in our mind to be fully immersed by the vibrant atmosphere of the city, where a story of colonialism was full of greed: wealth for the few and enslavement of the many. The story of a long-past age that is now in decline. Nowhere is this story more evident than in the architecture of Iquitos. Even though around 400.000 inhabitants of the city, the majority live in severe poverty, yet the place feels alive and colorful, except for one site, Belen. We noticed that every time we ask how to get to that part of town, people tend to warn us that we should be careful, explaining how dangerous it is to hang out there as a foreigner, and we need somebody from that neighborhood to accompany us. Of course, such warnings didn't help; by contrast, It made me even more curious to know what that place looks like and how people there are different from those we already met. We decided to find someone who can guide us throughout the mystery behind the maze of Belen.
After a few attempts, we met one of the locals who used to live in Belen. He suggested getting one of the traditional wooden boats that we used to see along the Amazonian river, which will give us an even better perspective of the place and the option to get out of the boat and walk in-between the alleys.
Early afternoon our boat takes off, with four people on board: me, Kalinka, the captain, and one of his friends joining his family in Belen.
What hits you first on your way towards the floating city, is how packed the houses are on top of each other. Next, there were plenty of homes built on balsa wood, so when the water from the Itaya River is high, the village technically floats for much of the year.
On the other hand, Residents of more permanent concrete structures vacate the lower floor to an upper level during the rainy season.
Similar scenes exist in Morocco, Argentina, Tanzania, or Nepal, where I had the chance to visit a few slums. Every time the same question comes to mind, what possibly went wrong with humanity is to let families and kids living and growing up in such harsh circumstances?!!
Images that stick in your mind, and triggers the idea of the unfairness and brutal reality of our modern society. One of those enlightening moments triggered me again, the moment I reached Belen. This time the impact was at another level because conditions are even tougher and almost impossible to imagine that humans can adapt to such a harsh & inhuman environment!!
Looking alongside the river, you see boats packed with different kinds of goods, merchandise, and even vehicles, aka motorbikes. A river that has become essential to the lives of the locals, to the point of neglecting the danger to live in a breeding environment for germs and disease.
After getting enough photos from the boat, we decided to join the mainland and get closer to people and their lives. That changed my perspective of witnessing mere chaotic structures from the neighborhood, almost thinking that's unlivable, slowly being comfortable & familiar walking around and interacting with the locals, who are so curious to what I'm doing in there while holding my camera, and trying to seize every moment of that experience.
As it started to get late, we needed to reach out to our boat to make life easier for our guide to go back to the city center before dark.
On our way back, feelings of tremendous fascination & deep thoughts on how rough/harsh life can get to some communities, yet people always adapt and try to find comfort in what is supposed to be an impossible/unbearable life for others.
As Winston Churchill said once: Facts are Stubborn things!
Not every floating town is a romantic one. Belen proves it. Belen is a fact!
