Jungle Fever. Sophie Dening Pomp magazine. A World of British Luxury.

Travelling by luxury cruise liner, SOPHIE DENING finds the extraordinary scale and unique wildlife of the Amazon make it one of the most magical places on the planet

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Seeking adventure on the Peruvian Amazon, and experiencing first-hand the intense natural beauty and grandeur of the rainforest, is no longer the preserve of daring anthropologists. Dainty civilians, provided they’ve got the gumption to make their way to Iquitos via Lima, can cruise the mighty waterway in five-star fashion, heading into remote territory with expert guides, and viewing wildlife up close, without sacrificing a shred of space, comfort or style.

‘The Amazon has never been considered an easy destination,’ says Francesco Galli Zugaro, the founder of Aqua Expeditions, a boutique cruise firm leading the new luxury market for Amazonian exploration. ‘But over the past four years things have opened up and visitors are staying longer in Peru.’ The country as a whole has emerged as a hot destination during recent years, with the Andes and the coast, Cusco and Machu Picchu, metropolitan Lima and the growing reputation of Novo Andean cuisine all compelling reasons to make the journey.

Like the Sacred Valley, birthplace of the Inca empire, the Amazon is a once-in-alifetime, bucket-list must. Whatever facts and figures you’ve absorbed – that it’s one of the planet’s great river systems, along with the Nile, the Yangtze and the Mississippi, that its drainage basin is bigger than all theirs put together, that in places it can reach 30 miles wide – there’s nothing like seeing that scale for yourself, of dousing yourself in its luxuriance. Literally – there’s no getting away from it: rain forests tend to be rather rainy. The low-water season, June to November is hotter, and somewhat less wet, so walking and hiking are easier, though lower water levels mean that some waterways are inaccessible. Between December and May, the high-water season, fishing is more limited, but viewing wildlife, especially mammals, is enhanced. Heavy rains fall in both seasons.

‘It’s an incredible sensory thrill to be in this huge rainforest, with trees the size of skyscrapers, hundreds of black-water lagoons, and all the rare and clamorous wildlife,’ says Laura Rendell-Dunn of Journey Latin America, a specialist firm with more than 30 years’ experience. ‘For urbanites, the lush beauty and the sheer remoteness are different from anything they’ve encountered before.’ Indeed, the other-worldly scale of the river and the vegetation, the silence at night, and the surreal soundscape of the dawn chorus – chattering frogs, monkeys and parakeets – can be almost spooky.

Good guides are absolutely key. According to Zugaro, there’s a crossover between safari tourism and Amazonian itineraries – but the wildlife experience is very distinct. ‘There’s more activity at night, when it’s cooler,’ he says. ‘And it’s subtle, more observational – this is thick, thick jungle, so you have to know what you’re looking for.’ He’s willing to guarantee you’ll see the pink Amazon dolphin, the world’s only freshwater pink dolphin, on a decent river cruise.

Aqua launched its first super-sleek cruise ship to this end in 2008; its second vessel, the M/V Aria, sets sail this spring, with afew more cabins and equally high levels of service and comfort. The giant picture windows, through which you might see a snowy egret, a pair of leaping squirrel monkeys or a whopping neon butterfly, are genius; the scenery changes dramatically and frequently. It’s almost filmic. But at the heart of the cruise are the speedboat excursions: night trips to see caimans (smaller crocodiles), breakfast with those pink dolphins, sunset with macaws, even piranha fishing… And you’ll meet ribereños (villagers) along the way, and see them at work, packing bananas into dugout canoes.

They provide stark contrast to the ship, with its outdoor deck and Jacuzzi, and lounges indoor and out, with its streamlined design by noted Peruvian architect Jordi Puig, and food by executive chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino. A majorly fashionable arrival on the London dining scene this year, Peruvian cuisine is light and zingy, blending Incan, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese influences. And if you’re partial to a pisco sour before dinner, you’ve come to the right rainforest.

The growth of the luxury market isn’t by any means confined to the Amazon. ‘The number of high-end hotels and fancy restaurants that have opened around the Sacred Valley is quite amazing,’ says Rendell- Dunn. ‘The Peruvians do it very well, and the infrastructure is dependable.’ The deluxe train called the Hiram Bingham, which runs between Cusco and Machu Picchu, is owned by Orient Express, as is Hotel Miraflores, perhaps the best place to stay in Lima. Then there’s the upmarket Peruvian travel firm Inkaterra, which offers luxury boutique hotels in the Sacred Valley, as well as a rustic-chic rainforest lodge called Reserva Amazonica in the Tambopata Reserve, accessed via Puerto Maldonado. Its Canopy Treehouse offers next-level seclusion and wildlife viewing, adjoining a walkway 90 feet above the forest floor, so you can take a canopy night walk after dinner – just go easy on the cocktails.

The Aqua cruise also affords access to the Pacaya-Samiria Reserve, 20,000 square kilometres of protected rainforest, of which 80% is under water at any one time. There’s no road access from Iquitos, which is the furthest-inland seaport in the world; you fly in and out. And, during your time on the river, you’ll never see a vessel bigger than your own. Most visitors come for three or four days – enough to get a flavour of the unique location, commune with some rare wildlife, and get their heads around the sheer awesome character of the Amazon. Known as the ‘heart and lungs’ of our planet, this is a staggeringly rich and complex eco-system and, if you see it for yourself, you really will feel the power.

04/09/2012

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