Found: The Most Incredible Way to Experience the Amazon
Join a luxury cruise that takes you beneath the surface of the Amazon.
“Dad, look over here!” cries Ben, a boy of about nine or 10. His younger sister, Georgia, squeals as a dolphin surfaces so close she can almost touch it. The river is brimming with these strange and unique mammals, distant relatives of oceanic dolphins that evolved to live in freshwater about 15 million years ago. Every few metres the water breaks into ripply circles and a blunt dorsal fin curves into view. Some are blue-grey – one of the two species found here – and others are the famous powder-pink.
At the shoreline, elegant egrets arch their necks into the water, casually – and perhaps a little smugly – scooping up any fish that have been forced too close to land by the predatory dolphins. There’s almost nothing out here except the jungle, the sunset, the animals and a shipful of very curious, very global guests (from as far away as Malta, Chicago, Mexico and Singapore) getting an eyeful of one of the world’s most extraordinary wilderness areas.
The dolphin frenzy happens on day two of our four-night Aqua Expeditions voyage on board Aqua Nera, an ultra-luxury river cruise ship that carries just 40 guests (our trip caps out at 26) and has a 1:1 ratio of crew. We set sail from Nauta, a village so remote that it only got electricity in 2008, and push through the tannin-rich waters of the Marañon and Ucayali rivers and, eventually, the immense Amazon. As a young river - estimates say it’s only about two million years old in its current form – it rushes fast and snakes through the landscape like an anaconda.
Most mornings and evenings when the dry season sun eases off, we board skiffs to explore the rainforest, particularly the protected two-million-hectare Pacaya Samiriya National Reserve, and Amazonian villages where we meet families who make their living growing tropical fruits or rice. We come across sleepy three-toed sloths, tarantulas the size of mangos (“Welcome to the jungle,” says guide Juan Luis, laughing, when I let out a small scream) and a flinty-eyed caiman crocodile, half hidden in the reeds.
Onboard, days are broken up with laid-back lectures and demonstrations – I’m particularly thrilled to learn about the Peruvian chocolate industry from Aqua Nera’s executive chef, respected Amazon food specialist Pedro Miguel Schiaffino – as well as elaborate three-course meals assembled from the fresh pantry of the rainforest and served family-style. We feast on spicy ceviche made from the enormous prehistoric fish known as paiche; stir-fried rice with macambo, a savoury relative of cacao; sorbets from complex jungle fruits such as pepino – similar to a rockmelon – and creamy copoazú. We clink Pisco Sours in the elegant bar and lounge. The suites, which each face the waterlily-dappled water, don’t have keys because an immediate sense of trust and camaraderie forms when you’re sailing in the middle of a very big, very empty place.
The crew is South American and the majority are Peruvian. Most of the guides grew up in small Amazonian communities, which means they have unmatched insight into this remote region. The reason the river is so full of dolphins, when so many other Amazon species are endangered? “People here think they are bad spirits so we don’t kill them,” says guide Alex, who belongs to an ethnic group called Arabela, of which there are thought to be only 400 members left in the world. He also explains how people in these tiny communities, who he says tend to be naturally shy, get together. “When you like someone in your village, you wait down by the water. When they come down, you throw them a clay ball,” he says with a grin. “If they hold it tightly, they like you. If they throw it back at you, they don’t.” You could perhaps find that sort of information on Google but it’s another thing entirely to learn from someone who lives it.
On the penultimate evening of the cruise, several crew members pick up guitars, drums and pan flutes and a party starts on the pool deck. Fuelled by empañadas and ruby-red tinto de verano cocktails, the Latin American guests, from Ecuador to Argentina, are shaking their hips and coaxing the rest of us into the rhythm. The flaming sun sets, as bright orange as the scales of a red-bellied piranha, and hoarse-throated donkey birds caw from the palms and papaya trees. A pair of pink dolphins curls languidly through the café-con-leche-coloured waves. It’s all a perfect swirl of pure Peru.
