This dock close to the Plaza de Armas is a cheap way of seeing a little of the action on a major Peruvian jungle river (the Río Madre de Dios), which is about 500m wide at this point. River traffic is colorful − multiple peki-pekis (canoes powered by two-stroke motorcycle engines with outlandishly long propeller shafts) set off from here.
However, the number of boats is vastly reduced since the opening of Puente Guillermo Billinghurst (Puente Intercontinental) , the bridge now carrying the Transoceanic Highway across the river a few hundred meters to the northwest. Gone are the days when a furor of decrepit catamarans ferried Brazil-bound drivers and the vehicles across the river alongside a constant tirade of smaller craft coming and going to this-or-that port amid a splutter of wheezing engines. Bienvenido to the 21st century.
