The city of Iquitos, capital of Loreto region, founded by Spanish colonists in 1757 under the name of San Pablo de Napolano, was the first port on the Amazon river. Modern Iquitos consists of four districts - downtown Iquitos, Punchana, San Juan Bautista (St. John the Baptist) and Belem (Bethlehem).

Belem, also known as Amazonian Venice, is one of the most densely populated areas of the city and the most visited by tourists. Building Top quite common henbane, henbane and the Lower - consists mainly of the stilt houses or houses on rafts on the river Bank of China. This way of building houses was forced due to seasonal changes in water level in the river. This territory was settled by people because of the proximity of the river port that was beneficial for successful trading. The area is located in the old river mouth Itai, and houses were built on rafts. The upper part of the traditional area, and the Lower Belen - fully floating. In the rainy season due to flooding, access to the area of belém is only possible by canoe.

In this area you can see two types of floating homes: moored houses that are attached with ropes to punched into the bottom of the pile, and a fully floating homes that are in mobile rafts. In both cases, because of the proximity to the Amazon, because of its high and low tides are frequent shifts and downs of these rickety structures. Home connect between wooden bridges, but they also float.

Despite the uniqueness of floating houses, market Belem and developed tourism, today this area is one of the poorest in the city.