A fisherman walks to his boat in Santa Rosa, Peru, an island on the Amazon River at the center of a territorial dispute with Colombia, Sunday, Aug. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)
August 19, 2025 - 9:54 AM
SANTA ROSA, Peru (AP) — Santa Rosa is a small island in the middle of the Amazon River. It has just one paved road, no running water and a health post ill-equipped for emergencies. Despite its limitations, residents maintain a fluid and highly interconnected triple-border life, regularly crossing to Colombia and Brazil for shopping, healthcare and daily needs.
The most common businesses in town are nightclubs and evangelical churches. Its one-story homes are built on stilts to withstand floods between March and May. Most residents collect rainwater, filter it through cloth, and boil it on wood stoves. There is no sewage system and no cemetery; many bury their loved ones across the river in Colombia or Brazil.
Read more about Santa Rosa, which has become the focus of a diplomatic dispute between Peru and Colombia.
This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors.
News from © The Associated Press, 2025