Travel to Iquitos

rom Nuevo Rocafuerte heading towards Iquitos. This expedition goes 1,140 km along the Napo River and the Amazon River. The Napo River is one of the most important tributaries of the mighty Amazon River. The source of the Napo comes from small streams flowing from the Cotopaxi and Antisana volcanoes. Normally, there is only 1 cargo ship every 10 days.

Yurimaguas, Peru to Iquitos

Yurimaguas has daily cargo ship trips to Iquitos that take 2-2.5 days to arrive (except Sundays or on holidays). Getting to Yurimaguas is non trivial, because its airport no longer has flights. Yurimaguas is 3 hour by bus from Tarapoto.

To get Yurimaguas, first you have to get Tarapoto, a large city that has daily flights from Lima on Star Peru (the airline). You can get Tarapoto by bus from Lima (about 20 hours) or Chiclayo in northern Peru (about 18 hours). From Loja, Ecuador, you can take a bus to Pedro Ruiz, a town in Peru, where you can get Chachapoyas or Tarapoto. Tarapoto and Moyobamba are known as "The Orchids Valley".

It takes around 4 days to get to Iquitos from Lima. It takes around 4 days to get to Yurimaguas from Quito, Ecuador.

Pucallpa, Peru to Iquitos

Pucallpa has daily cargo ship trips to Iquitos that take about 4 days to arrive (except Sundays or on holidays). You can get Pucallpa from daily flights from Lima on Star Perú or by bus (20 hours).

Peru/Colombia/Brazil border to Iquitos

It just so happens that if you continue down the Amazon from Iquitos, the point at which the river leaves Peru is at both the Brazilian and Colombian borders.

Tabatinga (Brazil) or Leticia (Colombia) has Monday to Saturday cargo ship trips to Iquitos, that take about 3 days