Into The Jungle

An Amazon river cruise takes you deep into the heart of an extraordinary wilderness, discovers Jeannine Williamson

- Jeannine Williamson

As our safari boat edges forward beneath the inky night sky, our path dimly lit by stars and a single light on the front of the vessel, our guide Victor silently signals for the driver to stop.

He then plunges his bare hands into the shallow water by the bank and we collectively gasp as he holds up a small caiman, the carnivorous semi-aquatic member of the alligator family that makes its home in the Amazonian rainforest.

Expertly grasping the creature, we get a close-up view of how the spectacled caiman takes its name from the ridge between the eyes that give it the appearance of wearing a pair of glasses. After we take photos, Victor lowers it back over the side and it swims silently away. It is one of many spellbinding moments on a cruise along the Peruvian section of this mighty river and its basin that has a diversity of life unequalled anywhere.

Peruvian culture

A staggering 60% of Peru is covered by this immense green quilt of jungle where more than 25,000 plant species, 1,800 types of birds, 360 mammals, 250 amphibians, 300 reptile species and 2,500 varieties of fish vastly outnumber the 6% of the country’s population that share the same remote environment, many of them ethnic tribes isolated from the outside world.