Here’s What It’s Like To Visit The Amazon In Peru

With its wildlife, exceptional biodiversity and breathtaking wilderness, Peru’s section of the Amazon River is the ultimate bucket list adventure, says Siobhan Grogan. 

Review: Pure Amazon, An A&K Sanctuary

A&K Travel Group

Standing on the bow of the skiff about to plunge into the murky depths below, I start to feel this might not be a good idea after all. 

Ominous grey storm clouds gather overhead, and a growing current rocks our small boat. The water is so black, it’s impossible to see anything that might be down there. 

Moments earlier, we were speeding along the Ucayali River, close to where it joins the Marañón River to become the Amazon, keeping our eyes peeled for commonly-spotted water-dwelling wildlife in this area. Electric eels that can produce high-voltage shocks, green anacondas that are one of the largest snakes in the world or black caimans, a reptile related to the alligator that can grow to up to five metres long. 

Unsurprisingly when we enter Clavero Lake, a lagoon deep within the Amazon rainforest that is blackened by tannin from decaying vegetation, half my group decide they don’t fancy the planned swim after all. Instead, they’ve chosen to try piranha fishing. I can see them on the other side of the lake dangling chunks of steak into the water on rods as I hold my breath, jump in and hope the piranhas are happy sticking with sirloin today.

Of course, travelling to the world’s most famous rainforest isn’t exactly your average package holiday. I’m spending four nights on board Pure Amazon, An A&K Sanctuary, a handsome (and brand spanking new) riverboat with 12 suites for up to 22 guests. It was built to sail the waters of the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, Peru’s largest protected area, approximately the size of Wales. 

I may be in the middle of nowhere – the home of some of the world’s most endangered species – but the boat is still the height of luxury. Designed by renowned architect Adriana Granato of Milan’s Studio Ibsen, it’s a staggeringly chic mix of natural wood, stone and Peruvian textiles in an earthy palette of browns, greens and blues that reflect the landscape passing by. All the artwork is by female Peruvian artists. There’s a library corner stocked with books on the region, a treatment room for jetlag-busting massages, a small but well-stocked gym and an outdoor hot tub on the upper deck where I spend one evening watching forks of lightning strike earth miles away.

The details have all been considered: there are wellies and insect repellent to borrow so you can pack light, a pair of upmarket Leica binoculars for each of us to use, and bed linen made from locally produced prima cotton. Even the exquisite chocolate placed in my room each night at turndown is from Peruvian chocolatier Fatima Carranza, who uses native ingredients including cacao, copoazu and aguaje, harvested by the Amazonian Awajun community. 

Almost all the staff aboard Pure Amazon come from local villages or Iquitos, the closest city a two hour’s drive away – where you fly in from Lima to reach the Peruvian Amazon. One, the affable Victor Ramirez, tells me he is one of seven children from the nearby Yanashi community. He became a shoe shine boy at the age of eight and heard tourists speaking different languages for the first time, inspiring him to learn English and to train to become a naturalist.

A&K Travel Group

On board, days follow a structured but unhurried schedule. There are 6am pre-breakfast outings in one of three skiffs – small motorised nine-seater boats – with a local naturalist like Victor. Then there are twice-daily excursions: rainforest walks, kayaking or visits to local villages financially supported by A&K. Each afternoon there are relaxed lectures on everything from the region’s primates to its plants, but you can do as much or as little as you choose. 

I do it all, but still have time to sit gazing out of the floor-to-ceiling windows in my room, watching boats ferrying goods to Iquitos, dug-out canoes sailed by local fishermen out catching breakfast and the acrobatics of the world’s smallest grey dolphins that only grow up to 1.5 metres in length. 

For a river view, it’s worth noting that even-numbered rooms on the starboard side are the ones to go for, while rooms opposite are better for bird-spotting on the bank when docked. All activities are punctuated by gourmet meals, including set five-course wine-paired dinners that celebrate local flavours. Think Amazonian doncella fish in macambo-infused butter, quinoa tabouleh with Andean pesto or beef skewers with lima bean hummus.

A&K Travel Group

Out on the skiff, we scan the river banks, tree canopy and water as we sail first the Ucayali and then both the Amazon and its surrounding wetlands. Though I came half-expecting to eyeball predators and witness dinner-party-worthy drama, I soon learned these excursions are actually more about marvelling at the tiniest nuances of nature while observing daily life in the Amazon unfold around us. 

I saw lily pads the size of picnic blankets, balls of grey fur high in the trees that turn out to be three-toed sloths, pairs of vivid blue-and-yellow macaws and iguanas snoozing in the sun. We passed a tiny boat piled high with watermelons being transported to Iquitos, a family of squirrel monkeys swinging between branches and small villages of ribereños, the local river-dwellers who live in stilted wooden cabins on the bank but can be surrounded by up to 10 metres of water during the region’s high-water season between December and May. The ever-present echo of birdcall is the only sound as we sail – from the donkey-like bray of the horned screamer to the cackle of the barred antshrike.

When we go out after dark to explore, our skipper kills the engine so we can sit back and wonder at the brilliantly star-speckled sky above, the Milky Way visible to the naked eye and swirling overhead. Owls hoot noisily, tree frogs squeak and a sardine leaps out of the water into the skiff, whacking me on the back and scaring me half to death in the pitch black. 

On the last evening, we sail at dusk to the very point where the Ucayali and Marañón Rivers meet and the Amazon River officially begins before it flows 4,000 miles into the Atlantic Ocean. Finally, in the churning waves ahead, a rare pink dolphin breaches the surface before quickly disappearing again. Right on cue, a second Pure Amazon skiff-turned-makeshift bar pulls alongside ours and hands over champagne cocktails so we can toast this truly remarkable place as the sun sinks lower and the vast sky blazes orange.

BOOK IT

Abercrombie & Kent offers four-night all-inclusive sailings on Pure Amazon, An A&K Sanctuary from £4,615 pp, including air transfers within Peru. They can also include a sailing in a longer, tailor-made Peru itinerary, with stays in Lima, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and Cusco from £10,195 pp for 10 nights. Book at abercrombiekent.com