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Our top ten tips to explore the Belen market.

Marmelita at the Belen Market, choosing only the freshest fruits and vegetables

The Belen Market has a reputation that I hope to repair with this article. If you follow along with Marmelita and I, we will show you our top ten tips to be safe, while finding the freshest produce, and learning the most about the new products you’ll discover. Some tourists only see the two day old chicken in the sun, the salted dried fish, the lower market with drunks passed out in the mud, the afternoon garbage, and buzzards. All of that can be interesting and is part of the story, but right now I want you to know about the fresh, safe, upper Belen Market.

The Belen Market is a great, huge, third world outdoor “super” market that covers 20 blocks or more. Everything that can be bought or sold, is bought and sold there. In this article Marmelita and I are focused on purchasing supplies to outfit an expedition with Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises. Follow along with us as we purchase only the best and freshest fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, herbs, and spices.

1. It is best to go to the Belen Market in the morning. Relax, after breakfast, around 8:30 or 9:00 is early enough for you. Use the toilet before you go.
2. We buy all of our Dorado fish from Mariela Macedo. She is located in the large blue building in the first stall of the fish section at the top of the stairs. We trust her to make sure our fish is the freshest. We trust, but we verify. The gills were still moving this mornhing. The price per kilo is S/ 18 to S/24 soles depending on supply and demand. If Mariela is not working her fish stall, her daughter Katarina will take good care of you.
3. Shopping at the Belen Market is a microcosm of life. Building good relationships of trust and respect is important. Dawn on the Amazon is a good customer. We pay when we buy, and we only want the freshest and best. Marmelita is a charming woman. She jokes a lot, they laugh, and business is built around the relationship.
4. Don’t buy your basil or other herbs in the stores because they are brought from Lima. The basil we use is harvested that morning and the dried herbs are fresh ground.
5. For long expeditions we buy some fruits and vegetables completely ripe to start, and some to ripen (and not spoil) along the way. For the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe we only purchase the ripest fruits and vegetables because we buy them fresh every morning between 6:00 and 7:00am.
6. One of the stores we like at the Belen Market is called El Cruz del Chalpon, and we think it’s the best place to buy many fruits and vegetables, but we always check around to make sure theirs are the freshest.
7. The Belen Market is safe, but you should use the normal precautions as in any crowded area in the world. In hundreds of trips to the Belen Market to purchase supplies we have never been robbed or threatened. Use common sense. Don’t look or be vulnerable. Be alert to pickpockets. Don’t carry unnecessary valuables with you. Carry everything in front of you, backpacks, fanny packs, purses, camera bags, etc. I keep my camera out, strap around my neck, but I also keep one hand on it at all times.
8. Keep your wallet and change purse in your front pockets, preferably zipped up. Keep some small sole bills and change in a separate pocket, so you never have to get your large sole bills out to show anyone you have them. No vendor will want to make change for a S/ 100 sole bill so you can buy a S/ 2 sole mango anyway. US currency is nearly worthless here. Plan ahead, change to small bill soles before coming to the Belen Market.
9. Dawn on the Amazon is the only tour company, restaurant, or store that rinses all of our fruits, vegetables, and herbs in pure water, then we soak them in pure water and then we rinse them again in pure water, so you can be safe and sure…and so I don’t have to worry about you.
10. The Belen Market is not a tourist trap, it is real life, with much of real life’s beauty and ugliness, aromas and odors, laughter and anger, honorable vendors next to petty thieves with rigged scales, barkers shouting out their wares, musicians playing, cooks cooking, blenders blending, babies nursing, dogs doing what dogs do, parrots squawking, and all combined, create an excellent reason for some tourists that are interested to learn about real life in Iquitos to spend several hours here.
11. Bonus Tip. To make sure you learn the most about the exotic rainforest natural medicines and other products, many of which might be new for you, and to make sure you don’t get lost in the labyrinth of alleyways, you will enjoy your time much more with a nice, knowledgeable, English speaking guide. I know where there are three of them I can recommend. Check in at my Dawn on the Amazon office on the boulevard, over looking the river, less than two blocks from the Plaza de Armas.

Nearly all of the food served in the restaurants, lodges, and cruise ships operating in Iquitos Peru comes from the Belen Market. The difference is in how fresh that food is when it’s purchased, how it’s cleaned and rinsed, how soon it’s refrigerated, and the hygiene of the cooks that handle it.

I hope this article will bring a better appreciation and awareness of how the food chain is fresh and safe at the Belen Market, in Iquitos Peru. Maybe you will be relieved to know.

Marmelita, choosing only the perfect vegetables and fruit

Our top ten tips to explore the Belen Market.

Bill Grimes is the President of Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises, and the owner of the Dawn on the Amazon Cafe. He blogs about Iquitos regularly on the Captain’s Blog at www.dawnontheamazon.com/blog.

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I receive hundreds of emails. I still try to answer them all personally. Sunday I tried to get caught up. It takes a lot of my time. Last Sunday around midnight I was exhausted from working all day, but decided to check one more email. I’m glad I did. Sometimes the email exchange becomes the foundation of a good friendship. I wonder if this is one of those. I’m blogging them here but without the names, or hotel, (to protect the innocent, if there are any ). I am going to publish one of their web site URL’s to help bring some awareness to their cause.

Here is part of our exchange;

I am a police chief in a small town in the Southern part of the  United States.
I have two friends whom are starting a mission to house some the women and children of iquitos. They have been doing this for several years and I am new to actually having a missionary friend. I have a simple request, but I don’t know how to accomplish it, I would like to send them fresh flowers to their room. I don’t know if it is possible. I would gladly pay, just don’t know how to go about it. If you have any suggestions or would be willing to help I would gladly look you up when I come later this year and buy your supper. If you can help they are at the ****Hotel, Iquitos room ***.

Thank you
****

I replied;

Flowers to **** ,and ****
I am a pretty good photographer also.

Thanks Bill, Semper Phi

I replied,

Good Morning,

We will order the bouquet later today. Don’t worry about joining the Amazon Explorers Club now, or paying for the flowers. I will let you know the cost of flowers. It won’t be much. Wait till you arrive in Iquitos and we can settle up then.

I answered probably 25 or 30 emails Sunday, a dozen asking about my tours and cruises but your email was by far the one that interested me the most. With your permission I think it would make an interesting short blog article. I won’t mention any of your names, just the story. OK?

Semper Phi
Bill

His reply;

Roger that Bill, be glad for you to put it up, you are doing a service for two women trying to make difference, thanks! There mission info can be found at lindapatterson.org I plan to come and help build soon, and may retire there.

Hi ****,

I bought a bouquet of ginger, and heliconias. The price was S/ 35, or $12.50. I will have the receipt when you get here. One of my best guides, Richard, picked it up and delivered it to the **** Hotel, along with a note that I wrote explaining the flowers were from you, and that Bill and Richard delivered them through the Amazon Explorers Club. Your friends were not at the hotel when he delivered them. I didn’t see them but Richard told me the flowers were beautiful. We can only hope when your friends return to the hotel they will receive your bouquet. Let me know if we succeeded.

Best,
Bill

Then,

Thank you Bill, I have a friend here that is a travel agent, I will be having lunch with her next week and I will be discussing the area. For the great effort you have went to which is extremely kind, I plan to explain how we need to start planning trips from here. I hope that I can make this gesture profitable for you. Thanks again and I will be in contact shortly.

Hi ****,

Ohhh, it wasn’t such a great effort. I was happy to help, and if I have a new Amazon Explorers Club member, and we share a meal together, it sounds like the beginning of a new friendship. I couldn’t ask for more.

Semper Phi
Bill

The ladies got the flowers and really made there day! Thanks they may see you for supper one night. Thanks again!

So that is my good deed for the day. I feel fine.

This is an interesting email exchange about missionary work in Iquitos Peru.

Bill Grimes is president of Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises, The Dawn on the Amazon Explorers Club, The Peacock Bass Club, The Amazon Birders Club, manager of the Amazon Golf Course, and just opened the new Dawn on the Amazon Café. When he has time, ha, ha, he blogs.

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The Dawn on the Amazon Café opens at 7:30am, Monday, February 1st, 2010

Ok, this is exciting for us. The Dawn on the Amazon Café opens tomorrow morning, Monday, Feb. 1st, at 7:30am.  After months of planning, and three weeks of practicing and refining our recipes, we are ready to break into the restaurant scene in Iquitos.

This advertisement for The Dawn on the Amazon Café will be in the Feb. edition of the Iquitos Times

We occupy one of the best locations in Iquitos, on the quiet end of the boulevard with a beautiful view of the river. We have one of the best chefs in the upper Amazon to prepare the freshest ingredients for our home cooking. Every thing will be made from scratch. No store bought premixed canned sauces or boxed ingredients, no artificial flavorings or preservatives, no refined sugar or MSG.

Cooking from scratch takes a little longer. This is not fast food. This is delicious food. It is more like Grandma used to cook when the family got together. Simple orders such as soups, salads, pancakes, appetizers, etc. should be ready in 15 minutes, more complicated dishes should be served within 30 minutes or less from the time the order is made.

Today I feel very organized. I hope I still feel very organized this time tomorrow.

The Dawn on the Amazon Café opens at 7:30am, Monday, February 1st, 2010

Bill Grimes feels very organized today. That’s lucky for the Dawn on the Amazon Café

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I’m not feeling so smart.

I’m not feelin’ so smart tonight. I thought it would be a good day but it’s not. I’m feeling some pressure. Maybe I’m trying to do too much to soon? Maybe I’m trying to do too much…?

I’m hungry. I’m sad. Why does it have to be this way?

Bill Grimes doesn’t feel smart tonight.

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The Andy Metcalfe interview with Bill Grimes about the new Dawn on the Amazon Café

I was fortunate to be interviewed by Andy Metcalfe, founder of Holistic Local; Your Guide To Holistic Health, Green Living and Personal Growth. Below is part of the transcript from that interview.

Hi Bill, thanks for taking the time to talk with me today.

Hi Andy, Thanks for giving me this chance to chat about the new Dawn on the Amazon Café

Bill,  you’re well known in Iquitos for running tours and cruises on the
Amazon. What made you decide to open a cafe?

Dawn on the Amazon is popular for serving delicious meals accompanied by a different fresh squeezed tropical juice each meal on our tours and cruises. Our Chef Judy is undoubtedly one of the best cooks in Iquitos and the upper Amazon. We have been testing, tweaking, and refining our recipes for the past 5 years . We received such positive feedback from our guests, that I realized we were developing an important part of our business. We are planning to publish The Dawn on the Amazon Cookbook as well as open The Dawn on the Amazon Café. They are pieces of the same puzzle. When we put all the pieces together, the whole will  make a better business.

Three other reasons for opening the Dawn on the Amazon Café are location, location, location. We are located on the quiet end of the boulevard, with a beautiful view over looking the river, near the restored pre-rubber boom era chapel.

What will Dawn on the Amazon Cafe offer that’s different?

I identified a niche that no one in Iquitos is serving. I love frosty cold tropical fruit smoothies. We have the largest selection of natural ingredients for tropical fruit smoothies in the world right here in Iquitos. Smoothies are our specialty. We serve a dozen different combinations of tropical fruit juices and all natural ingredients. Right now my favorites are the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, and the Orange Pineapple Vanilla Froth but we are still experimenting so I could have different favorites tomorrow, and so could you.

I hear that you’re washing your fruit and vegetables three times in pure water.
Can you explain the reasoning for that.

We’ve been triple washing and rinsing our fruits and vegetables in purified water on our tours, cruises, and day trips for the past 5 years. The triple rinse in pure water has proven to be an effective system for preventing the “Inca’s revenge”; or in other words, travelers diarrhea and upset stomachs.

My promise to your readers, (and mine) is The Dawn on the Amazon Café will use purified water every step of the way from the market to your table, including for coffee, soup, ice, smoothies, and triple rinsed fruits and vegetables so you can be safe and sure with any of the items on our menu.

How did you choose the foods on the menu?

The Dawn on the Amazon Café will only serve what I consider to be the best food of it’s type in Iquitos. We won’t serve ceviche because I believe Arapaima Gigas has the best ceviche. We won’t serve pizza because I don’t think we can do it better than Antica. We can’t serve roast goat and tacu-tacu because Huaralino is the best. I’m confident all of the dishes we do serve are the most delicious of their style in Iquitos or I would not have them on the menu.

What menu items are you most excited about?

Besides the smoothies, I am most excited by the Sweet Iquitos Fire Baked Spicy Chicken Sandwich with Mango Salsa and the gourmet Inchicapi Soup with corn bread. Other fantastic foods are our cheese and veggie stuffed omelets, homemade pancakes, Twice baked stuffed Andean potatoes, and the Chef’s Choice, Steamed Fresh Fish Fillet. For a taste of home comfort food, The Dawn on the Amazon Café serves the best cheeseburger and french fries in town.

It all starts with the smoothies. Please meet us at the Dawn on the Amazon Café and share a smoothie with a friend.

The Andy Metcalfe Interview with Bill Grimes about the new Dawn on the Amazon Café.

Bill Grimes is president of Dawn on the Amazon Tours and Cruises, and is getting The Dawn on the Amazon Café up and running, no later than February 1st.

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