Nauta - a Peruvian jungle city

Nauta is in the north-eastern Loreto Province of the Peruvian Amazon. About 100 km south of Iquitos. Nauta is on the north bank of the Marañón River, a major tributary of the upper Amazon, a few miles from the confluence of the Río Ucayali. This was all part of our Amazon journey.

The city apparently was established by Manuel Pacaya–Samiria, a leader of the Cucama peoples, following the 1830 uprising at the Jesuit mission of Lagunas.  Nauta soon became the primary commercial hub of the Peruvian selva baja (known also as Omagua, or the Amazonianlowlands). In 1853, a paddle steamer made its way all the way to Nauta. 

Nauta seems to be where many of the crew have families. Hence an overnight stop on our way into the interior. Our skiff had gone for supplies into town so we had to wait for a while as we were ready by 8.00 am! Nauta first impression was a village on the river but actually it’s a large town. This false impression is because the jetty area has low lying shacks and no high structures.                                   

 

The jetty is really old – the whole waterfront is old and ramshackled. On one side are the ships / boats / tugs etc tied up or waiting to be loaded. Then the walkway of the jetty – uneven and hard mud packed. On the left side as we walked were many shops in sheds…. No effort being made for proper upkeep or painting them. We stopped at a wood factory cutting balsa logs – 1.00 metre x 10 cms wide. Eleven such pieces sold for 18 soles. I felt the wood – really soft and light. Thor Heyerdahl, the famous explorer had re-created the epic journey of the past, by making a huge raft called “Ra” after the Egyptian Sun god, and sailed it to distant shores to prove that these were the earliest of sailing boats.

From 9.40 am we began our walk in the market area. Frankly just stalls, many empty. Nauta has 30,000 people vs. Iquitos’ 1.5 m. We tasted a Roseapple fruit – strange taste and did a stomach job on some of us next day. Market very dull. Very similar to any Far Eastern small town market with similar cheap items as poverty rampant.  Loads of stalls, mostly empty of buyers. There was one section where there was nothing except skeletons of stalls. What really shocked me was the way medicines were being sold in one’s and two’s as many can’t afford a whole strip. In fact I rarely saw anybody with a prescription – it seemed many knew the names or described the ailment! Much later, I found that in India, in smaller towns, this practice of dispensing tablets singly or in small numbers also exists!!

Nauta was originally Mauta means Clay Pot. The Cucama Indians lived near Ecuador but moved to the Maranon river area. Looked for clay and settled in Mauta. The town is 130 years old. Older than Iquitos. By boat, Iquitos to Nauta is 12 hours; by road 1½ hours.   Most store owners in this area are from Andes region or outsiders. Main oil wells of Peru are in Nauta region. Whilst it gives revenue to the Centre but gets little in return. 26 different tribes live here. The Urarinas Indians do not name the girl child due to Spanish speakers abducting them in the old days. This custom came to be known only recently after a health check amongst them.

Nauta is the primary destination of the only major road leading out of Iquitos, and is a staging area for several ecotourism lodges and ships on the Marañón River. Boats take passengers from Nauta to the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve.

We were free to walk till around 11.30 am so I decided to explore. The city is quite clean and I began from the market extending upwards towards a square which had been indicated to us. I saw a school – on entering, I was viewed with interest and then on explaining my interest in the school, I was told that it had 300 kids’ primary and secondary school children. It had a large playground inside and the photos taken from the outside looking in showed happy kids sitting on wooden desks, reminiscent of my school days. All the kids were in school uniform and looked well fed.

 

 

 

The school takes up one side of the whole square. The other sides are various shops and offices. The square itself is dominated by a tree which has a peculiar square shape – like an American’s crew cut hairstyle! There is a freshly painted yellow railing. For some event, local people were trying to put up a large banner.  

The opposite side of the school is a road which leads downwards to the river. There are many such lanes leading to the river. It was here I came across a billiard salon with locals enjoying a game. Many small mom & pop shops sell SIM cards and other general grocery items. The road downwards to the river was well laid out, clean and this is what impressed me – the general cleanliness in the town.

                                                                We walked across from the main square, leading away from the river side, to a local attraction! Went to see yellow spotted river turtles and arapaima at a pond run by a local family. On entering the property, we had to skirt the pond and cross across to the other side from where you got onto a central island from where you could peer at the turtles and arapaima. Frankly, nothing of much interest except for some sellers of local handicraft who were sitting on the covered island. I bought two small sketches of local landscapes which were high priced, but being an artist myself, I saw it as supporting a fellow artist! We were given some foodstuff to throw at the fish and not much was clear as the water was a dirty muddy yellow.

Outside, right next to this island, we saw two wild birds which had been pointed out to me in the Amazon forest. There they were distant. Here they were a few feet away. Maybe tamed?

Waiting for us outside was a row of local tuk tuks waiting for us. 11.30 to 11.55 am went for a tuk tuk ride. 10 tuk tuks across the town. As I cant see with the rain / sun shade cover on due to its low height, we removed it and could at least sit straight without bending under all the time. Quite a crazy sight. Lots of topiary to be seen in form of animals. The town of Nauta is more like a frontier town. Tin shacks and mud houses. Saw a new development where as the road was now becoming really muddy we had to turn back. Imagine what it must be when it rains! Lots of huts and shacks were coming up. Lots of poverty and subsistence farming. The road actually curved from the fish attraction, upwards and then skirting the town limits we came down back into the market area.

                                                           
The tuk tuks are owned by someone other than the driver who works for daily wages. He gets just enough to exist as he has to pay for the diesel / petrol and repairs.

In 2013, residents of Nauta created a children's rap video in the Kukama-Kukamiria dialect, in collaboration with Radio Ucamara. The local radio station has been involved in conserving the language for "a few years," and "started managing a school called Ikuar”, with the goal of teaching the language through songs and traditional story telling. However I don’t know the current status of this.

We walked down from the market retracing our earlier steps back to our skiff. It had been an interesting morning exploring an Amazon town right in the middle of the jungle.

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