AEROPUERTO TO BELEN OMNIBUS - IQUITOS, PERU
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Iquitos, with a population of roughly a half-million people, is the largest city in the world not accessible by road. Located in northeast Peru, the Amazon rainforest makes the cost of building a road too prohibitive. You either have to fly in or take a week-long river-boat ride. Since there is really nowhere to drive, save a 100-K section of paved road connecting Iquitos to the smaller town of Nauta, and given Iquitos' generally poor economy, there are relatively few cars in the city.

So omnibuses like these are a major mode of transportation for the locals. This bus, which usually goes from the airport to the town's Belén district, was chartered to get the group I was with out of the jungle and back to town (that's the soon-to-be-famous, fiction writer Moriah Cleveland waving in the window). We were pulled over twice by the cops who we would have had to bribe if we didn't have the correct papers...we had the correct papers.

Kyle, a friend and writing colleague, dug the font they used for the lettering on this bus. As a magazine guy, he knows a great font when he sees it. He also has a great blog about media and publishing, along with some great photos of his own. Check it out at www.bigandsharp.com.

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PHOTO OF THE DAY: GHOST BUILDING - IQUITOS, PERU
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This building was destined to be one of the tallest buildings in Iquitos, which still didn't make it all that tall, maybe 15 stories. Word on the street was the builders had gotten this far when it was discovered they didn't have the right zoning or building permits or something to that effect. Know its shell haunts the city.

What follows is an except from the story-poem, "The Plane from Iquitos [1959-Part One]," by Dennis Siluk:

I liked Iquitos, especially the Iron House, the very one made by none other then Mr. Eiffel, the one who made the tower in Paris. I had eaten for the first time Pirana Roia, it was delicious, except for the many bones, and the fish wasn't all the big once you cut the head off, although the teeth looked like a baby sharks', dead and unpleasing. I had caught a few fishing, if there was a secret to that. I used a stick for a fishing rod, and tied a string on it with a semi-big hook, and put a big piece of meat on it. Then when the fish takes hold of it, the Pirana that is, he doesn't chew it, or even bit into it like other fish, he rips it outward, and so at first touch, the fisherman has to yank it upward to hook the fish right under his upper teeth. He had a big low jaw, but a small upper portion to his head so if you do not do this he will not be hooked. Actually you may hook his upper teeth for they extend out as do the lower ones.

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EASTER GIRL - IQUITOS, PERU
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She wasn't quite sure of what to make of a 6-foot, pale, white guy taking her picture, but her mom - who obviously knew her daughter was hell o' cute - was pretty happy about it.

Taken:  April 16, 2006, Easter Sunday in the Plaza de Armas in the heart of Iquitos, Peru. Iquitos, founded in 1754, sits on the banks of the Amazon River. Its heyday was from 1880-1912 during a rubber trade boom. These days, with the expection of some logging, oil exploration and being a tourist gateway to the Amazon, Iquitos appears to stuggle to keep itself on its feet.

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Welcome to WWW.SCOTTSCHUMAKER.COM
I'm pleased and excited to announcing the relaunch of www.scottschumaker.com. In addition to showcasing my work as a writer and photographer, the highlight of the new website will be my PHOTO of the DAY.
 
 Monday through Friday each photo will be accompanied by factoids about the photo and/or other musings. Monday's photo will flashback to past adventures in places like India, Panama, Costa Rica, Utah's Canyonlands and Iceland. The rest of the week will capture a moment in time from the previous 24 hours. 

This week, as I get the hang of all this, I'll be showcasing photos from a recent trip to Peru. Next week, I'm off to the southern coast of France. You won't want to miss those. Afterwhich, Photo of the Day will "star" the extraordinary NYC through the rest of the summer.
DOG ON FLOATING HOUSE - BELÉN, IQUITOS (PERU)
18,000 people live in Belén, one of the poorest sections of Iquitos.
Like this dog's family, many live in floating houses on the Amazon River.
Iquitos is the capital of Loreto, Peru's largest, least populated province.

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To receive the Photo of the Day by email, sign up for my photo newsletter by clicking "Photos of the Day" under "Journals" on the right side of this page.
 
 

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