Belen Market & Floating City 2-3 Hour Private Tour

Kelwin is an amazing guide. He was warm and friendly, and really takes the effort to look after his customers during the tour. He is knowledgeable about Iquitos, the Amazon river, and the Amazon forest and took the time to explain everything to us with lots of interesting details and anecdotes. All in all, a really fulfilling tour and we will certainly choose him again when we return.

I had a few days in Iquitos and found Kelwin through TripAdvisor. I was impressed by the number of reviews he has collected, including some rather sincere and detailed ones. I thought I would engage his services for the Belén market tour, balsas/floating houses, and the Quistococha Zoo. My confidence in him was well-placed. He is very knowledgeable, particularly about Belén as he is a local. We wandered around the market, took a boat across the Itaya, strolled through the floating houses (at this time of year all planted squarely on terra firma) and then a tuk tuk to Quistococha. For me, the floating houses were probably the highlight of the tour. The area is definitely impoverished (though no more than some of the villages in which I work) but even as an outsider I could see glimpses of a real sense of community, especially on a Sunday, and even a latent ingenuity. The market is obviously a must-see for visitors to Iquitos. Kelwin obviously knew many of the vendors and I was grateful for the introductions but I never felt compelled to buy anything (although I will probably return in a week and may well consider picking up some things to bring back home). I am generally a sucker for zoos, but the Quistococha Zoo was less fascinating than the other legs of the tour. A few of its denizens were missing in action, the aquarium was closed for repairs, and it was sometimes difficult to see the animals in their cages. I hope that these deficits in the zoo are addressed soon, but I would still recommend it to animal lovers. To sum, I'd highly recommend putting your trust in Kelwin and will likely look him up for another tour when I'm next in town.

Had a great time with Kelwin around Belen Market. A very friendly guy with a lot of local knowledge and many good conversations around Iquitos. Belen Market can be done alone but with Kelwin it was a much nicer and in depth experience. Would highly recommend his services.