Taming the Amazon

It’s late at night and we’re bobbing in a small boat on the largest river on earth when suddenly all the lights go out, and we’re enveloped in a thick, velvety blackness.

Someone gasps – I think it’s me – and then a collective hush falls over us five passengers. You can almost touch the hum of our shared anxiety.

But our guide, indigenous Peruvian Alejandro Enriquez Aguilar, isn’t at all fazed.

“Now listen,” he whispers, “listen to the night.”

As a captive audience, we don’t have any alternative. So, we sit there and, without the massive flowing waters of this part of the Peruvian Amazon to gaze at, the lush greenery of the rainforest draped over the banks to watch and the wildlife to spot, all our senses are instead trained on the nocturnal noise.

It’s a revelation. How many millions of cicadas does it take to create that thunderous, pulsating soundtrack? How many different frogs to croak the chorus? And what the hell is that eerie wail that emanates from somewhere so close to us, the sudden fright sends the skiff rocking alarmingly.

Aguilar chuckles, a soft, throaty, enormously reassuring laugh. “That’s a potoo,” he says. “They come out at night to hunt for insects and that’s the noise they make. You won’t notice them during the day; they’re perfectly camouflaged against tree branches and they can see through slits in their eyelids, so predators won’t notice them.”

One of my companions emits a little yelp, fluttering her hands in the air. “What was that?” she asks in a tiny voice.

“Probably a bat,” Aguilar answers. “Nothing to worry about.”

At that point, the moon slips out from behind a cloud, and turns the water beneath us into a glossy silvery shimmer. We can see again, and all breathe a sigh of relief. But afterwards – when we’re back in the safe haven of our luxury cruise ship – we agree the experience had been absolutely astounding.

Getting up close and personal with the Amazon River – the largest river in the world by volume of water, accounting for roughly a fifth of the total globe river flow – is an incredibly special experience. Also thrilling is the chance to experience the Amazon jungle, covering six million square kilometres, and often called ‘the lungs of the earth’. Again, it’s the world’s biggest, and is so vast it actually regulates planet weather patterns as well as storing up to 200 billion tons of carbon.

But while traversing a path between the two in the Peruvian section of the jungle and waterway used always to be tricky, now it can be done in the lap of 5-star luxury, on a ship especially designed for the task. Aqua Expeditions’ Aqua Nera, with just 20 suites and a ratio of almost one crew member to every guest, or its Aria Amazon with 16 suites, offer a selection of three to seven-night expeditions, which include a plethora of unique Amazon activities.

Think jungle treks, indigenous village visits, a chat to a traditional healer, canoe and kayak paddles, fishing, wildlife spotting, even swimming with piranhas, and a series of jaunts on the ships’ many skiffs up various tributaries and creeks, including that memorable night-time trip.

Of course, the surroundings are absolutely wild, with some ethnic tribes still living in the jungle in the traditional ways they always have, well away from prying outsider eyes. The animals, birdlife and reptiles too are astonishing, with plenty of sightings of sloths, howler monkeys, toucans, parrots, boa constrictors and anacondas – from a safe distance – and the lesser-known inhabitants, like the tiny brightly-coloured poisonous arrow tree frogs.

The water life is no less spectacular, with legendary pink dolphins frolicking right before us, caiman lizards lumbering over the floating meadows of the flooded forests, and schools of piranhas lying in wait beneath the surface.

But what makes this all so much more enjoyable, somehow, is exploring this untamed wilderness from a state-of-the-art ship that’s the absolute opposite.

One of the newest members of the Aqua Expeditions fleet which include Aqua Mekong, Aqua Lares, Aqua Blu and Aqua Mare, Aqua Nera was built in 2020, designed by Vietnam-based architect and designers Noor Studio to look like a traditional riverboat from the outside. Inside it’s a cross between the vibes of the turn-of-the-century colonial rubber boom era with dark stained wood and moody lighting, and the bright, fiery Amazonian colours and traditional patterns.

The suites are large, with full floor-to-ceiling glass for constant views of the changing river and rainforest, while the rain shower in the bathroom allows you to just imagine you’re outside rain-bathing – but without insects.

There are lots of communal areas for guests too. The restaurant is designed with a ceiling that feels very much like a jungle canopy, while breakfast is often served in the dining area outside. There are indoor and outdoor lounges as well, an outdoor plunge pool, a gym, a billiards room, a cinema, spa and bars.

Every meal, with the food and beverage director, Australian Adrian Broadhead working with him, is like a further exploration of the region.

I’ve been to the Amazon twice before, once from Brazil, and once from Colombia, but tales from the Peruvian section, reached from the city of Iquitos a flight of an hour and 50 minutes from Lima, have always enchanted me. It’s renowned for its flooded forests of the 20,000 square kilometres Pacaya-Samiria Reserve – dubbed as where ‘Jurassic Park meets the Garden of Eden’. There, the waters rise up to over 10 metres during the rainy season, and you can weave a canoe between the jungle treetops. In the dry season, you can comfortably walk the same trails.

It’s also famous for its numbers of pink dolphins, the huge riverine dolphins that are so much larger, and more flexible than those of the sea.

While they don’t jump out of the water, they roll to show off their pink bellies and, it’s said, can turn their heads 180 degrees as their cervical vertebrae aren’t fused.

The local fishermen aren’t keen on them as they eat so many fish, and there are many legends about how they can shape-shift into handsome men who then impregnate the local maidens. Or, of course, it could always be just an ingenious way of stopping anyone else encouraging them to come ever closer to shore.

After all, they are so big – growing up to 2.5-metres long and weighing up to 200 kilos – you wouldn’t particularly want to meet them in a small boat when you can’t actually see where they might be playing. And especially if you happen to be out in the dead of night with no lights …

Qantas flies from Sydney and Melbourne directly to Santiago, then LATAM has connecting flights to Lima, then to Iquitos.