EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a three-part series on Wichita Falls businesswoman Katherine Smith’s trip to Peru, where her son, Michael Fiore, works in and ministers to one of the poorest neighborhoods in all the world.
Like Wichita Falls, the city of Iquitos in the northeastern corner of Peru has a small airport with one gate, a very long runway and only three flights per day.
Like Wichita Falls, the city sits next to an important river. Of course, our river is often lacking in water. The river that borders Iquitos is the mighty Amazon.
Visitors to Iquitos will immediately be hit by the relentless summertime heat, just like they might be in Wichita Falls. But in Iquitos, you can add 90 percent humidity to the heat — and it’s always summer.
Any other similarity between the two cities ends once you pick up your luggage. Instead of pickups and SUVs, the parking lot is filled with three-wheeled motorcycles called motokars. They have a wide back seat and a vinyl cover to protect passengers from the equatorial sun and fierce tropical rains.
I am lucky. My hotel has sent its air-conditioned van, one of the few in the city, to pick me up.
But these details don’t matter to me now, because I finally spot my youngest son, Michael Fiore, waiting outside in the heat. I have not seen him for more than a year, and I cry as I reach up to hug him. Then I am embraced by the tiny young woman beside him. This is my first glimpse of the girl who will become his wife in just three days.
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