Iquitos, Peru

Much of Iquitos' appeal derives from its being the starting point for excursions into the rainforest, but the town is an interesting place in its own right, if only for the lively local people and magnificent rubber boom architecture. Like Manaus, Iquitos evolved into an almost European city during the rubber boom. Many of the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century buildings are decorated with Portuguese tiles (azulejos), some of which are brilliantly extravagant in their Moorish inspiration, and the Casa Kahn, on block 1 of Sargento Lores, is a particularly fine example.