The next morning, we woke up early because the hostel owner (who I will now refer to as Katoo) had told us he would take us to the market to get breakfast. And here began our first misadventure in Iquitos. Being the foreigners we are, we had forgotten to unpack our valuables from my purse before we left for the market. We arrived to the market, and I realized that we were not at a supermarket like I had expected (again, classic foreigner mistake, but were in Mercado Belen, a slum that housed Iquitos' largest food market....and I was carrying not only my camera, sunglasses, and wallet, but also Ane Kine's sunglasses, camera, and wallet.
The area in which we were (Belen) is essentially a giant slum on the edge of town that spans the river. The entire city of Iquitos is poor, but Belen is the area in which urban poverty is at its worst. The people who live in the district live in shantytowns or in run-down houses along the river, which are often flooded in the rainy season:
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| Shantytown in Belen district along the river |
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| shantytown in Belen district |
The market is a huge place where people from nearby villages come to sell fruits, fish, turtles, chickens, and all sorts of herbal and native medicines. The smell of all the raw fish and meat was too much for me, as was the sight of the entire bodies of chickens and fish and turtles laying out on the tables. If I wasn't a vegetarian before that, I certainly would have been after. There were also a lot of stalls welling all manner of native medicines for all kinds of sicknesses, pains, and even for bug bites! Here are some pictures of what the inside of the market looks like:
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| Here you can see an example of all the native medicines you can buy. All those bottles on the right are full of different mixtures of plants and other things that are supposed to help with all kinds of sicknesses. Ane Kine bought a small bottle called "sangre de la selva" (blood of the jungle) that was supposed to be the best natural remedy for mosquito bites. It actually really worked!! |
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| Just to give you an idea of the meat section of the market: these are whole chickens and chicken feet for sale. |
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| Turtles for sale in the market. In the back are some chickens. The yellow round things are eggs in different stages of growth. These were ALL OVER the market so they must be very popular in the local diet. |
That should give you some perspective and context on the area and the market.
We walked through the market, me clutching my purse to my side. We got to an intersection where one of the paths exited into a slum. That was when a group of about 4 or 5 men ran up behind me, yanked on my purse so hard that the strap broke, and ran off with it. If you have ever been robbed, you will know it is a very scary experience. However, luckily I was not hurt and my passport was safely back at the hostel (as was Ane Kine's).
Immediately all the old women selling fish in the market began beating their giant knives on the tables and yelling, trying to get someone to stop the men, but they were gone. The women all crowded around me, apologizing, and saying that not all people in Iquitos were like that. One woman knew the man who had grabbed my purse, and told us his name was Dogu Dogu. They all seemed very angry that this had happened and genuinely wanted to help us. They pointed us int he direction of the police station, which is where we went next.
Let me first say this: the police in Peru are notoriously corrupt and inefficient. A lot of the national police officers have very little education, and are therefore under qualified. Often to get them to do anything requires a bribe. To get them to go look for Dogu Dogu we had to pay them $200. We all spent 2 hours in a tiny room trying to make a police report. At first, the officer assumed I didn't speak Spanish and was trying to talk about how stupid foreigners are. When I informed him I could in fact speak Spanish, needless to say he was surprised. Int he police report, I had to describe all of my belongings that were in the bag, what brand they were, how much $ I had in there exactly, all my cards and ID's, and what my bag looked like. I had to say how I had gotten the money to buy my camera, where I had bought the camera, who had bought it. I had to say my address in the US. And we had to provide a description of the robber. When we arrived (and had paid the bribe) and told the police the guy's name, they went off to his house (and said that they knew who he was). Then, when we were making the report, the police claimed not to know who he was. None of us had gotten a good look at him, but we estimated him to be about 25 years old. The policeman then said No Dogu Dogu is 22 so you are lying. Clearly they knew exactly who he was and were trying to protect him so that they could go make a deal with him (he pays them $, they don't arrest him). Furthermore, throughout the whole time, the police were constantly blaming us for the robbery, and taking no responsibility in themselves to police the area and keep tourists safe. They kept saying that it was "not their job". Oh and in order to get the police report, they told me I had to go to Banco de la Nacion, pay 7 soles, and then come back, even though they had a printer in the office.
This whole experience made me appreciate what we have in the US in terms of the police/the legal system. Although the US definitely has its problems, it is nothing compared to the systemic and rampant corruption of the police in Peru. However, this is one of the things you have to understand when living in a developing country like Peru, and particularly when travelling in a region that would definitely be classified as "third world". And I don't mean to attack or demean all Peruvians or all people in Iquitos. They are the victims here too. The rampant poverty that drives people to robbery and the bribes and ineffectiveness that they have to put up with with their own police are clearly at play here as well. It is an unfortunate situation in many ways. And, apparently, crime is on the rise in Iquitos. This is bad because tourism provides much needed revenue for many people. I can only hope that the situation will improve eventually.
Sorry if this was kind of a depressing post. But I feel the need to tell about all of my experiences, good and bad. I also feel a responsibility to show people the level of poverty that exists in Peru, and to uncover the injustice and corruption that the people suffer from there.
I promise the next post will be more happy!
