AFFAIRCuRRent

A five-day Amazon River cruise aboard M/V Aria highlights historic cities, wildlife encounters and, unexpectedly, gourmet dining.

words: TRiciA Welsh

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river

Magical sight: the aurora borealis

M/V Aria

UUntil recent years, the words luxury and Amazon were anything but synonymous. That was before boutique company Aqua Expeditions established the first luxury cruises to sail the remote Peruvian waters around the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve, which, at more than two million hectares, is one of the largest protected wetlands in the world.

As we fly from the capital of Lima into Iquitos – the largest city in the world not accessible by road – in Peru’s north-east, we can see the serpentine Amazon below, which is now, in the high flood season, several kilometres wide in some places. Many villages have been transformed into swamps and abandoned until the waters recede.

Founded as a Jesuit mission in the 1750s, Iquitos (meaning ‘separated or isolated by water’) is aptly named. This port city has a population of about 580,000 people and is 85 per cent flooded. The shanty town of Belen has taken on a Venetian-style appearance – its main streets are now waterways and transport is via dugouts – and the inhabitants are trying to make do with limited facilities and resources.

On higher ground, the equivalent of tuk-tuks transport locals around streets that were once the haunt of rich European rubber barons, who built elaborate colonial tile-fronted houses, hotels and even an opera house during the boom years of the late 19th century.

At the much-photographed prefabricated Iron House designed by French civil engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (of Eiffel Tower fame) and built in Belgium, we marvel at how hundreds of men carried sheets of metal through the jungle to the inland port to reassemble the building in 1890.

Floating hotelWe board 10-seater steel-hulled skiffs – which soon become our manoeuvrable daily means of transport – and head towards Aqua Expeditions’ M/V Aria for a five-day adventure on Peru’s waterways. This three-tiered, high-tech floating hotel looks somewhat incongruous among rustic riverboats, primitive wooden dugouts and water hyacinth floating by in great clumps.

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“We spy cheeky monkeys leaping from tree to tree.”

Cruise director Paula Fuentes welcomes us aboard and the crew shows us to our cabins. The accommodation is indeed spacious – even larger than I’ve enjoyed on many ocean liners – and the wide floor-to-ceiling windows maximise the passing river views.

The crew of 24 includes a paramedic and four English-speaking naturalist guides who, after just one day, have memorised all 27 passengers’ names.

It’s clear that much research and thought has gone into the ship’s design and concept. Having spent several years in marketing and sales for a boutique cruise company in the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, Francesco Galli Zugaro, CEO of Aqua Expeditions, realised there was an opportunity to offer a similar experience in the Peruvian Amazon, “to give passengers a unique wilderness experience without sacrificing creature comforts”.

Following an exploratory trip to the region in 2007, Zugaro signed a contract with the local navy shipyard to build M/V Aqua, which entered service in March 2008.

In May last year he launched a second vessel, M/V Aria, which, with 16 double cabins, can accommodate eight more passengers.

Zugaro kept the same winning formula of three decks for M/V Aria which has eight cabins each on Decks 1 and 2, with the crew accommodation in the basement cabins. The dining room at the rear of Deck 2 has windows on three sides so you don’t miss anything while dining.

Top-deck livingOn the top deck is a stylish lounge with comfy ‘sink into’ chairs where briefings about the next day’s activities are held; a well-stocked bar where head barman Robinson mixes the perfect pisco sour; a glass-walled exercise room with treadmills and elliptical and spinning machines; and an expansive outdoor lounge area, complete with a jacuzzi, covered by a huge white tent-like canopy.

Several excursions are scheduled each day, usually off the main waterways and on the smaller canals, where we spy cheeky squirrel and capuchin monkeys leaping from tree to tree, brown-throated three-toed sloths high up in the branches, caiman lizards and green iguanas camouflaged among the leaves, and exquisite birds such as toucans, macaws and plum-throated cotingas. The howler monkeys we can hear resemble overexcited cheering fans at a football match. We also visit local villages and schools, go canoeing in primitive dugouts, fish for piranha and trek through mud, into the jungle, to see bats, orchids and poison dart frogs.

Back on board, the food is an absolute highlight. The menus and recipes are designed by Peru’s only Michelin-starred chef, Pedro Miguel Schiaffino, who was one of Crown’s ‘Stars of Spice’ at last year’s Melbourne Food and

Lounge on M/V Aria

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“the menus and recipes are designed by Peru’s only

Michelin-starred chef.”

FAcT File

highs loWs

• Exceptional guides who effortlessly spot wildlife from fast-moving skiffs.

• Excellent accommodation.• Outstanding, freshly

prepared food on board.

• The flood season is arguably not the best time to take a river cruise, as animals such as tapirs, capybaras and jaguars can’t be seen on the ground.

CRUISE LINE: Aqua ExpeditionsVESSEL: M/V AriaPASSENGER CAPACITY: 32TOTAL CREW: 24PASSENGER DECKS: 2GRT: 500 tonsENTERED SERVICE: May 2011FACILITIES: 16 double or

twin cabins, dining room, bar with indoor lounge, reference library and cinema, exercise room with 2 treadmills, 1 elliptical and 1 spinning machine, outdoor undercover lounge, jacuzzi, 4 auxiliary aluminium launch boats or skiffs.

BookingsAqua Expeditions offers 3-, 4- and 7-night cruises on the Amazon, departing Iquitos, Peru, on M/V Aqua and M/V Aria. Call Abercrombie & Kent on 1300 851 800 or visit www.abercrombiekent.com.au. For more information visit www.aquaexpeditions.com and www.peru.info.How to get there: Qantas operates direct flights from Sydney to Santiago 3 times a week and continues to codeshare with LAN Airlines’ service to Santiago via Auckland. Call 13 13 13 or visit www.qantas.com.au. LAN Airlines flies to Lima, Peru, with a connection to Iquitos. Call 1800 558 129 or visit www.lan.com.

Amazon River

N O R T HAT L A N T I C

O C E A N

BRAZIL

SOUTH AMERICA

PERU

SOUTHPACIFICOCEAN

Belém

Macapa

ManausIquitos

Lima

room with a view

Poison dart frog Toucan

Wine Festival. As a champion of local Peruvian cuisine, he sources much Amazonian produce, such as heart of palm, tropical fruits and some of the 1,200 species of river fish. We sample paiche, the second-largest freshwater fish in the world (it can grow to 2.5 metres), catfish and micro shrimp.

The buffet lunches usually have a theme, such as Italian, barbecue, Oriental or local Creole, and include options such as catfish ceviche, Peru’s national dish. Dinner is always a multi-course degustation of local flavours similar to those offered by Schiaffino in his Lima restaurant. Schiaffino has produced a cookbook, From the Kitchens of Aqua Expeditions (available from the ship’s boutique and online), enabling you to revisit the flavours of the Peruvian Amazon at home.