MERCADO DE BELÉN

A floating and popular district that can be reached by canoe during the rainy season from El Huequito up the Itaya River, or on foot from the center along the Malecon Tarapaca. Don't hesitate to go into the alleys, especially the Paquito passage, where you will find all sorts of medicinal plants (including the liana used to prepare ayahuasca). During the rainy season, the dry land disappears. The streets become canals and vehicles are replaced by boats that the kids row with a steady hand. This is undoubtedly the most photogenic time of the year for tourists. Belén is an active commercial center, acting at the same time as a port, a market, a living area (there is even a floating discotheque!) and a meeting point between fishermen, farmers and traders unloading their products of the forest from their dugout canoes. With its houses on stilts, Belén is the exact portrait of an Amazonian port as our western imaginations conceive it: agitated, noisy, interloped, a little ghostly, a little unreal, but always fascinating... In dry season, the place will make you feel very different: colorful and lively, but also very dirty.

To visit the lower part of the mercado, for the safety of your belongings, choose a local guide who will know how to lead you as it should be. Above all, be discreet with your camera. As for all the markets, the visit is more interesting in the morning.