There’s none of the razzle of parts of Lima here. While there are smarter neighbourhoods, and the football stadium is nicely done out, the majority of those in Iquitos are not well off. There’s a whole neighbourhood of wooden houses built on stilts on the edges of the Amazon, and begging, or at least peddling bagfuls of tourist T-shirts or necklaces, is common. While it’s generally good natured, you can make your trip a lot easier by ditching the lairy tourist get-up, and opting for something a bit more understated.

Step a few blocks away from the main square and you’ll find street stalls selling fruit juices, sweets, and cigarettes. If you’re feeling brave jump in a motorkar to Belen market, a sprawling mass of stalls offering knickers and flip flops one minute, grubs and larvae skewered on sticks cooking on grills and bbq corn on the cob the next, with stalls in the distance selling live chicks, dodgy DVDs, spices and batteries. It’s barely structured chaos - noisy, smelly and dirty, but also vibrant, exciting and alive.

Say hello to Renato, an 11-year-old wise-ass who tried to sell me all manner of tat by any means necessary. Don’t worry, he’ll find you. His English, and his patter, was impeccable. He was trying to flog me an enormous T-shirt – I told him I had plenty – but when I eventually relented and gave him some coins just for making me laugh, he looked at them in his palm and said, quick as you like, ‘Come on man, I’m hungry.’ That kid’ll go far.

C&T recommends:

• Eat: The grubs – I bottled it: but that’s one less traveller’s story I’ve got
• Drink: The deep red ‘rainforest juice’ from a local stall, unlike anything you’ve had before, but really refreshing
• Hear: Weirdly, ‘Have You Ever Seen The Rain’ by Creedence Clearwater Revival, coming out of a tinny radio in a shop selling hi-fi’s.
• Read: John Hemming’s new book, Tree of Rivers: The Story of the Amazon

There are many places you can jump off to from Lima – Cusco, to see the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu; Puno, to play in the vast freshwater Lake Titicaca – but we headed inland about 600 miles north east, to Iquitos. Iquitos is a frontier town, accessible only by air or by sea, and is the gateway to the Amazon. Not far from the borders of Brazil, Columbia and Ecuador it attracts a fascinating mix of travellers, smugglers, beggars, ex-pats, conservationists and con artists. It’s a bit like Mos Isley in Star Wars, where Obi Wan and Luke Skywalker find Han Solo and Chewy amongst the odd-looking malcontents.

Once you’re there, the best way to get around is by motorised tuk tuk, or motorkar, as they’re known here. They buzz around the main square like bees, and if you’re not smart you’ll get stung by one too – drivers start the fare high and, if challenged, come down quickly; don’t pay more than two sol (about $1US in the local currency) for any journey under about 10 minutes. When it rains – which, as this is rain-forest territory, it does regularly – the drivers whip up plastic sheets in bright primary colours to cover their passengers.

It’s quite a sight – how Quadrophenia might look through the eyes of a four-year-old with a pack of crayons. If you’re smart enough, bring a lightweight waterproof and avoid the ‘psychedelic bin-liner’ look. The main square is the focal point of Iquitos, and in one corner is the most beautiful church. As I arrive, the sun sets behind it and pastel colours splash the sky behind the spires. Now that’s a welcome. I could grow to like this place.

C&T recommends:

• Drink: Cristal – crisp, Peruvian lager, popular with locals, and with advertising like this, it’s not that surprising
• Eat: Popcorn from a street vendor – the corn is twice the size as ours, so when it pops, you just can’t stop…
• Hear: the sound of the motorkar horns – after a few Cristals it almost becomes musical
• Check out: Fitzcarraldo – a film by Werner Herzog about a would-be rubber baron set in Iquitos

If Lima’s party animals are eating like that every weekend, they should be the size of Americans. We discovered why they’re not after lunch. Walking through the parks of Miraflores along the coast is like strolling through Miami or parts of LA. Every 10 meters there is someone doing something physical. Basketball courts, five-a-side pitches and skate ramps are all over the place, and sit-up benches, parallel bars and pull-up frames spring up on grass verges or on pavements like modern art. Because the weather’s great (in winter it drops to a spring-like 10 degrees and rain is rare), people are always outside in skimpy clothing, which means to survive you’ve got to look the part. I got by in a pair of well cut shorts and a linen shirt, but had to stick on a T-shirt to compete with local lads working out. They were cool enough though – at least, they didn’t laugh at my pathetic attempts to pump a set of pull-ups. 

C&T recommends:

• Eat: Bananas, what all the skate kids were scoffing, oddly enough
• Drink: Plenty of bottled water, the sun can get pretty insistent through the cloudy haze, and you’ll dehydrate remarkably quickly without knowing it
• Read: The poems of César Vallejo, Peru’s most famous poet
• Check out: La U, one of a number of football clubs in Lima, popular with many of the park players I watched, as well as many cab drivers

While any guide book can tell you Lima’s history, one thing it might not reveal is how spectacular its cuisine has become. Lima is the culinary jewel of South America – there are restaurants here that can out-style New York and could make our uppity little celebrity chefs in London shiver in fear.

I’d had a tip that the place to lunch was La Mar in Mirraflores, the posh end of the city. This was a chebicheria – cerbiche, the national dish, is raw fish served with spices and marinated in lime juice –  and it’s owned by Gastón Acurio, the Gordon Ramsay of Peru. It was rammed and rightly so. Here was flavour in Technicolor – tuna with tomato and coriander, Peruvian sea bass with avocado and sugar cane, clams and octopus in white vinegar and chilli, all served with the sweetest sweet potato. Peru is built on the potato – it has over 2,000 varieties. We nipped into the kitchen and nipped straight out again. It was tiny, packed with white-coated chefs sipping bottles of Cusquena beer and torching up the place with flambé-ing frying pans. It wasn’t posh, but it was slick – turn up in a collar  and you’ll fit straight in. The portions were massive and the prices tiny; a cerbiche was less than £3.

C&T recommends:

• Eat: Any of the cerbiche on the menu, they were all spectacular
• Drink: Pisco Sour – the outstanding Peruvian cocktail of Pisco grape brandy, lime juice, egg white and bitters
• Check out: Astridygaston.com - the site for Gaston Acurio’s flagship, and more formal, evening restaurant
• Listen: Jamie Cuadra’s laid back Peruvian chillout (goes down well with a Pisco Sour)