Pucallpa

Pucallpa, city, eastern Peru. It lies on the Ucayali River in the hot, humid Amazonian rain forest. Although the community dates from the early colonial era (1534), it remained isolated until 1945, when the Lima-Pucallpa highway, 526 miles (846 km) long, was completed. Pucallpa can be reached by air and by 3,000-ton vessels from Iquitos, downstream on the Amazon River. Pucallpa is a frontier community, equipped with electricity but lacking paved streets and sewers in many areas. In addition to being a market for local agricultural produce, it is an industrial centre, with sawmills and plants for extracting rosewood oil. A petroleum refinery is at the terminus of a pipeline 47 miles (76 km) long from the Ganso Azul oil fields. Numerous missionary groups have headquarters in and around Pucallpa, as do projects for colonization of the area. Pop. (2005) 192,029.