About Yurimaguas

diverse town is affectionately known as the "Pearl of the Huallaga" ("Perla del Huallaga"). Yurimaguas is located at the confluence of the majestic Huallaga and Paranapura Rivers in the steamy rainforests of northeastern Peru. It is the capital of both Alto Amazonas Province and Yurimaguas District, and had a population estimated at about 64,000 inhabitants (2002).

With a long and illustrious history (see Samuel Fritz, "Misión de los Omaguas, Yurimaguas, Aizuares, Ibanomas y otras naciones desde Napo al rio Negro" in Pablo Maroni's 1738 Noticias auténticas del famoso río Marañón or Journal of the Travels and Labours of Father Samuel Fritz in the River of the Amazons 1686-2008, reprinted in 1922), Yurimaguas is a tourist destination, especially during the August 15 annual Catholic festival of the Assumption. Long dominated by the presence of the Church, the town is home to the Apostolic Vicariate of Yurimaguas, Loreto Region. Visited in 1855 by the famed botanist Richard Spruce, Yurimaguas remains an important commercial center for subsistence and market oriented farmers or ribereños (who cultivate sugar cane, bananas, cotton, tobacco, manioc and other comestible produce) and fishermen (see Rhoades, Robert and Pierre Bidegaray Los Agricultores de Yurimaguas. Lima, Peru: Centro de Estudio Amazonas. 1987, or the English version The Farmers of