To the ends of the Earth

by Matt Connor (Australia)

I didn't expect to find Peru

Iquitos is what happens when the edge of the world meets civilisation. It is a city removed. The lawless outpost and last crowded bazaar at the threshold of the Amazon. All that pass this way do so by the river or the air. There are no roads to this place. Yet it has roads. And those streets are as loud and as chaotic as its markets. There’s an unexpected rhythm to the chaos however. The moto-taxis weave and swarm like the insects above them and, to anyone arriving for the first time, it is chaos, but just as the insects have no thought of malice or frustration, there is no such thing as road rage, hostility or anger here. It just works. I came to realise, after a few days, that that simple observation was indicative of the way people carry themselves here in general. It all comes down to two major factors, the first one being rules. Here, there aren’t a whole lot of them. When people grow up in a society with an abundance of rules… and they follow them… They don’t always know how to react when confronted with someone who doesn’t. A kind of frustration occurs. “If I have to do it this way, then why don’t you? That’s not fair!” And instantly you have resentment.. conflict.. Now if, on the other hand, those rules are a little more relaxed, if they aren’t strictly enforced.. or don’t exist at all.. Something entirely unexpected happens. A natural, instinctive courtesy rises and… it just works. It sounds counterintuitive to western ears to hear that a lack of rules might actually create an ‘order’ of some kind, but it’s true. And Iquitos is a fully functioning testament to that. I am yet to see an angry face. It just doesn’t seem to happen. The second factor has to do with money. Yes everyone wants it, that’s universal, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been approached by beggars and street artists selling trinkets and necklaces. As a westerner you have to expect that from a great many places in this world. But whether we love it or hate it everyone lives their lives in the pursuit of money. And my point, if it isn’t obvious already, is that most people in this part of the world don’t have a lot of it. Strangely, once again, in total contradiction to Western thinking, this somehow seems to add to the happiness of the populous that call Amazonia home. Perhaps it’s best explained with a question. What colour is your house? The walls inside?… I’m guessing white. Right? Or one of a thousand subtle variations. Off-white… cream… vanilla… eggshell… Why do we paint our houses white? Because white denotes cleanliness… cleanliness implies comfort.. Wealth… And there’s nothing wrong with that. Everyone likes to be clean. Everyone likes to be comfortable. But when you look at the houses here in Iquitos… In South America in general… in the less developed parts of Asia and Africa as well… You see something very different. When people don’t have a lot, they do as much as they can with what they do have. And there is so much pride taken in the colours used here. Vivid red and bright blue. Oranges, yellows, greens. The Colours reflect their personalities… becoming extensions of themselves… becoming infectious.. There is a reason why words like vibrant and bright can be used to describe a personality as easily as they can describe a colour. The people here brighten their homes and, in turn, their homes brighten them. Make no mistake, Iquitos is the wild west. It is a city removed from the world. There are no roads to this place. There are parts of it where caution should definitely be taken and other parts where Westerners should never go. Yes it’s exciting and dangerous. But the vast majority of the people who call Iquitos home are some of the happiest and proudest I’ve ever met. There is so much more to be learned here. As soon as I get home, I’ll be planning my journey back. Right after I work out what colour to paint my house.