Day One - Arrive Lima
Arrive in Lima on an evening flight. You will be met at the airport and driven to your hotel in the trendy Miraflores area of the city in time to take a walk around the elegant Parque Kennedy and perhaps to take in an evening meal on your first night in Peru. Of course, if you're feeling up to it then Miraflores is a great place for a night out...
Day Two - Into the Amazon
After breakfast, a short flight carries us over the Andes to Iquitos. On arrival we will take you straight to our riverboat, your holiday home for the coming week. Once onboard we will sail up the Amazon from Iquitos past small farming villages and fishing groups. You will have lunch on board our boat as you float down the river and begin to drink in the incredible spectacle that is the Amazon basin. In the evening, we will pass the juncture of the Ucayali and Maranon rivers, which means our journey is really beginning as we
head out onto the Amazon itself...
Day Three - Floating down the river
You will wake up this morning on the mighty Amazon itself, and as the boat continues downriver, you can enjoy the ever-changing panorama of jungle life. Before breakfast, we will take you for a bird watching excursion in a motorized canoe. Egrets, Cormorants, Striated Herons, Black-Colored Hawks are common and there is always the chance to see some rarities like Umbrella
birds and Horned Screamers. After breakfast we will take a short excursion to the small village of Solterito where you will get to meet some local people for that important taste of the Real Peru. The remainder of the day is spent on board, where your Peru holiday continues as we enter the winding narrow waterways of the Pacaya Samiria Reserve. Overnight we will enter the Samiria River and pass Ranger Station # 1.
Day Four - Ranger Station Number 2 When you wake up we will be moored at Ranger Station #2 on the Samiria River. After breakfast, we will cruise upriver to the sight of literally thousands of great Egrets flying ahead of, behind and all around the ship. Densely packed vegetation lines the river bank while clouds of butterflies rise from the shallow beaches as we pass. The river itself is home to Gray and Pink Amazon River Dolphins which will often swim around the boat. In the afternoon we will take a short hike along an easy trail through the seasonally flooded Varzea forest. In the evening you will retire again to the boat to relax under the inummerable, shimmering stars above...
Day Five - Enter the Maranon
Today we will move deeper into the Samiria's black waters. After breakfast, those who wish can go swimming with piranhas. If that sounds a bit much you can go piranha fishing instead - it's safer, and definitely tastier! Besides red bellied Piranhas, we might catch some small Catfish, Peacock Bass or Sardines. There are no people living anywhere remotely near the spots we will be visiting today, only the Reserve's rangers and a vast variety of flora and fauna. After lunch, we will have an excursion to the long, narrow Fortuna Lake. As well as the huge variety of birds who make the lake area their home, with a little luck we may also encounter Saki monkeys, a unique primate that frequents these seasonally flooded forests. Higher in the canopy, Capuchin Monkeys may be seen in small family groups feeding on leaves. Lined with tall trees, trailing lianas and floating meadows, the beauty of this area is hard to exaggerate. Day Six - Nauta and San Miguel
An early wake up call today as we set out to explore Nauta Cano. The hike takes us past a series of small waterfalls and down the steep slopes along which forest streams flow. As we trek along below the high canopy in this section of the forest we can see countless varieties of plants, butterflies, birds and other small animals. We'll keep an eye out for Paddington as well! Later in the day, you stop at the small village of San Miguel to stock up on fresh provisions. Day Seven - Back to Iquitos Turning back onto the Amazon itself, we will pass the small village of Tamshicayu and head into Iquitos. We should arrive in the middle of the afternoon, following lunch served on board, we will take care of your disembarkation and take you to your hotel for some well-earned rest!
Day Eight - Free day in Iquitos, then back to Lima We'll leave you with a free day in Iquitos today so you can relax and enjoy your last day in the Amazon. The, in the evening we'll pick you up to take you for a flight back over the Andes to Lima for you to enjoy your last night in Peru!
Day Nine - Last Day in Peru!
You will have a pretty much full day in Lima today before your Peru holiday unfortunately comes to an end, so we can either leave you to explore the capital and enjoy its architecture / museums / shops(!) or we can organise a guided tour for you. Either way, in the evening we will pick you up from your hotel and take you to the airport for your international flight back to the UK.
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