When researching activities to do in Iquitos, there are really only a handful of suggestions that repeatedly come up. Our main reason for traveling to Iquitos was to use it as a launching point for our Amazon jungle tour. But along the way I also came across information on a rescue center where you can pet and feed manatees! I’m really not a big zoo person at all, but whenever there’s a chance for direct interaction with creatures, I seem to be there! Just check out our experiences swimming with whale sharks in Cancun and playing with monkeys on La Isla de Los Monos, also in Iquitos.
I love manatees and someday I’d like to make it to Florida where you can actually snorkel and swim with them. But in Florida you can’t touch them in the wild, while in Iquitos you can feed them directly! Manatees are an endangered species but this doesn’t mean they are not hunted in the Amazon. When authorities catch poachers who have captured a manatee often times that manatee is in poor health and needs help recovering. This is where the rescue center comes in.
They are a small but mighty group who actually help rescue much more than only manatees. We took the brief tour of their facility and saw otters, birds, turtles and monkeys as well. I was inspired by their work with the locals to educate them on the needs to protect these creatures. For instance, turtles and their eggs are a common food in Peru. But they are harvested so much that it’s threatening the population. Rather than telling people not to eat turtles at all (unlikely to happen), the center helps teach that you should never take a full nest of turtles, always leave some behind so that they can re-populate. They also focus on teaching children as much as possible as they know this is the next generation who will be caring for the wildlife. There are many beliefs in spiritualism among nature and they use this to their advantage. They have a man-made “tree” sculpture that actually “talks” to the children and educates them about responsible use of the environment. This helps to reach the kids on their own level in a way they are accustomed to.
The place is really not all that large and really not much more than an hour is needed. The tour is around 30 minutes and then we probably spent another 20 or so feeding and interacting with the manatees. It’s 20 soles per person to enter and then I think it was around 5 soles to buy the food for the manatees. Manatees are vegetarian so you’ll be feeding them lettuce type leaves. We bought two portions of food as we didn’t have enough with the first one!
The manatees were quite comfortable coming up to be pet as long as there was food for them. Their whiskers were absolutely adorable! And it was funny to see they don’t have teeth (don’t need any since all they eat is leaves!) but instead have one big hard gum to much with. It was such a fun and different experience, it probably won’t be the most thrilling or exciting point of your trip but I definitely would not pass it up if you’re in the area!
Note the center has a couple different names and I’m not entirely sure of the difference between them all. The sign there says CREA. The center opens at 9:00am and closes at 3:00pm. On Mondays they are only open Noon-3:00pm so be sure to plan accordingly for when you visit. We went firs thing in the morning and were the first ones there. This was nice so we didn’t have to wait for any other groups to finish feeding before we could. Here are some helpful directions to find this place:
Located at IIAP on the Iquitos-Nauta road. It is easy to find and almost any motokarro taxi driver will know where it is. It should take around 45 minutes to get to the Manatee Center. It’s past the airport so you could try to time this just right to do right before you fly out if you’d like. Basically it goes main area of Iquitos, airport, manatee center.
Can get a motokarro taxi for about 10 soles per hour. Then you dont have to worry about buses, or trying to get a return taxi when out of Iquitos. Buses may be slightly cheaper, I think we paid around 30 soles total for our driver. But it was so convenient and simple to have him take us, wait and then take us right back. I’d definitely recommend it as the buses are crazy.
You can haul them anywhere quite easily and most ‘mototaxistas’ know where the IIAP is. If not, just tell them “kilometer 4.5 on the carretera”. The ride from Iquitos should not cost more than 4 or 5 dollars. Tell the guard at the gate you have come to visit the manatees, and they will show you where to go.
Fire Round the World 