No place on earth displays nature’s puckish ways better than the Amazon River. The MV Aqua Nera chugs upriver from Iquitos to visit the madcap menagerie. At Pacaya Samiria Reserve, start clicking your camera. Pink dolphins, manatees, tamarins and scarlet macaws sense the adulation.
The second longest river in the world, the Amazon flows through dense rainforest that covers more than half of Peru. Villagers live as they have for centuries, in traditional settlements near the riverbank.
A madcap menagerie of wildlife fills your days and nights, especially on day six when you reach Pacaya Samiria Reserve. The world’s largest wetlands pulsates with life. Pink river dolphins travel in pods, escorting canoes through the wetlands.
Tamarins with tufted-fur faces like Dr. Seuss characters peer down from tree limbs. Monkeys scamper and caterwaul. Tropical birds sport plumage like Amazonian drag queens. In whatever direction you click your camera, you’ll capture a colorful creature in your frame.
If you go fishing and successfully spear a piranha, don’t be surprised when it reappears as the catch of the day on the evening menu–paired with reserve wines from Peru.
Passengers aboard the MV Aqua Nera dine on Peruvian specialties as the riverbank slips by. Nocturnal animals are drawn to the riverbank by the strange sight of the illuminated ship.
The ship’s naturalist can put a name to the amber eyes aglow in the dark. But not even a jaguar could disturb your slumbers in air-conditioned comfort this far from civilization.
— CT Editors
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