Isla de los Monos (Monkey Island)

This by far topped our list as one of our most favorite aspects of our Peru trip! Who doesn’t want to go to an island dedicated entirely to rehabilitating monkeys and the monkeys love nothing more than climbing all over the guests? Isla de los Monos (Monkey Island) provided just that.

First of I should begin by saying there are now two Monkey Islands near Iquitos. One of them is them is great and the other is awful. So make sure you’re getting to the right one. The correct one is about 45 minutes away via boat while the bad one is only about 10-15. So if you get there really fast you’ll know you’re at the wrong one. The close one used to be called Las Boas and they do not take good care of the animals there, many of the animals have been bought or hunted illegally and end up with lots of issues of being sick and dying. Please avoid this one! Tourists are often tricked into going here because they aren’t aware of the difference so be sure to educate yourself before traveling.

The best time to visit the monkeys is in the morning as by around lunch time the sun really starts beating down and the monkeys try to hide more to avoid the heat. You can visit the website here for more information.

Before you begin your trip, be sure to contact Gilberto (the manager) at Monkey Island if you are planning to take public transport to get there. The stop for the collectivo boats is on the opposite side of the river as the island and you’ll need him to meet you there with a boat to take you across the river. Just plan to call in the morning before you leave or the evening before. Here are the phone numbers on their website to try, you may have to try a couple times before you get an answer:

Office Number: (51 – 65) 235887

Cell phone numbers:      (51) 965 841 808 /                   (51) 965 841 807 /                        (51) 987 610 985

To get to the real Isla de los Monos you’ll need to take a taxi to Puerto de Productores (Producers Port). Do NOT go to Port Bella Vista-Nanay which is where the other Monkey Island is. It looks very sketchy but go through the little market area and out the back towards the river. Walk down all the stairs and ask/look for a collective boat going to Mazan. This boat takes 45 minutes and is 15 soles per person. However, a word of caution, be prepared to wait until the boat is completely full of passengers. That means if you’re among the first to board you may have a long wait ahead of you- we had to wait 45 minutes alone just for the boat to fill up! In retrospect we may have just rented a boat privately that would take us there directly. However, I’m not sure how much that would cost. You could ask at your hotel or possibly at the port itself. If you do hire your own boat, be sure to specify which Monkey Island you want to go to and mention Gilberto’s name, the manager of the real Monkey Island.

Once you’re on the boat make sure to get off at the Mazan stop- this was the first stop for us and you can ask the other passengers around you if it’s Mazan. If you called ahead, there should be a boat waiting for you there already that has the Monkey Island sign in orange on top of it. Climb on board and set out for another 15-20 minutes to cross the river. The cost for this round trip service is 20 soles.

Entrance cost to Island is 20 soles per person (Around $7). You’re free to give additional donations as well if you’d like. One of their employees will walk with you around the island to offer explanations of some of the different monkeys and their stories. But for the most part you can go wherever and stay as long as you’d like. When we showed up in the late morning there we had almost the whole place to ourselves with maybe only 4 other tourists there. When we were getting ready to leave about 8 more showed up. So really it’s not crowded and the monkeys are a ton of fun.

Be sure to completely zip up and bags you have with you and empty your pockets completely. Pablo had his sunglasses on and the monkeys quickly stole those and bent them up. I used my phone for photos but made sure to have a secure grip at all times and we were fine with our GoPro and camera as well. It was so much fun!!!!! Playing with the monkeys, holding them and just watching them climb all over us. We learned that they love grapes as one of the workers gave us some to share with them and they went crazy.

If you’re in Iquitos this is definitely a recommended day trip at the top of the list!! It’s way better than a zoo where you just look at the animals, here you’re interacting with them hands on. We stayed for probably about an hour and a half but could’ve stayed longer as well (it started to get hot). Pack some water with you and bug spray to keep the bugs away and head out to see the wonderful work this group is doing to rescue these animals!