Amazon has tempted explorers since the 16th century, when brave Europe encountered it for the first time. Today, the world’s largest number of rivers and the second (after the Nile) rivers are easier to navigate, but are just as tempting.
Most boats enter the upper part of the Amazon iquitos – The most populous city in the world cannot pass the road and is also an adventure destination. This urban oasis is a great place to settle for a few days and then immerse yourself in the rainforest.
From Iquitos you will travel about 80 km (50 miles) along Amazon. Drive along the dark waters along the depths of the wild, your feeling becomes sharper, heart pounds, unsure of what lurks around the next corner. Your eyes are tense, attracting overwhelming diversity among animals and plants. Your ears tuned to the phones and animals of many birds, and these calls and animals rustled in the leaves. Your entire body wakes up in this vibrant environment. The Amazon has a vast biodiversity: over 2,000 fish species; 4,000 bird species; 60 reptiles, including the world’s largest non-venomous snake, Anaconda; and mammals, from eaters and pumas to dolphins and crocodiles. Scientists are still working to categorize all of this, and environmentalists are still working to protect this wonderful part of the planet. When you see it yourself, you immediately understand why it is worth protecting.
When you reach Yanamono Stream, you will be staying in the secluded Explorama Lodge. Use it as your base for a day or two and you will be hiking in the lowland rainforest or if the water is too high to cross, you can take a short boat tour. You may even find freshwater dolphins. The region is also home to one of the most extensive tree species in the world in a given ecosystem.
Next, enter the Amazon until you reach the Napo River, where there is a field research station and another lonely cabin nearby, which is more rural than the last one. Here you can walk through the swinging canopy walkway, hanging from the treetops, covering an area of 500m (a third of the mile), and over 35m (115 ft.). You can do other boating tours, hike into the forest, learn medicinal plants as a shaman, visit with local river people, and even take a jungle walk at night. Once, your guide will tell you to turn off the flashlight and the entire forest floor (covered with phosphorescence fungi) into something like starry sky. When it’s finally time to retire to your cabin or camp under the black sky, you may not actually be able to catch a glimpse of lurking nocturnal animals, but just knowing that they are somewhere enough to get your heart running and your eyes open.
information: Peru Tourism Bureau (www.visitperu.com).
Tour: Amazon Explorama Lodges (phone. 51/65-25-2530; www.explorama.com).
When to go: Highest water and most boat tours are October to May; July to October for more hikes.
Arrive there: IQUITOS Airport.