Rb 295
By Mark Stratton
MAY 17, 2024

Amazon Destination Overview

A lifetime of voyages into the Amazon basin would be required to comprehend its staggering biodiversity and rich cultural landscapes. Spanning 7 million square kilometres, this vast rainforest biome covers over 35% of South America’s landmass across multiple countries. During the river’s 6,500km journey eastwards from the Peruvian Andes to the Atlantic Ocean, it spawns a thousand tributaries and is so wide in places that its riverbanks are sometimes out of sight. 

My most recent Amazon cruise was on Ecuador’s Rio Napo tributary. Ecuador hosts just 2% of the Amazon basin, yet my five-day riverboat sailing from the city of Coca towards the Peruvian border was an epic adventure. The MV Anakonda riverboat skirted Yasuni National Park and introduced me to thrilling encounters with the indigenous Kichwa people and remarkable wildlife encounters.

Read more Close

Map

Amazon Map

Amazon Port Guides

When and how to Travel

Weather: During the wet season, the Amazon experiences higher water levels, flooding the forest floor and allowing for greater exploration by boat into areas that are inaccessible during the dry season.

Wildlife: This period offers opportunities for wildlife sightings as animals gather closer to water sources. Birdwatching can be particularly rewarding during this time.

Scenery: The scenery during this time is bursting with colour from the wet season rains, allowing for wonderful scenery and photography opportunities. 

Weather: During the wet season, the Amazon experiences higher water levels, flooding the forest floor and allowing for greater exploration by boat into areas that are inaccessible during the dry season.

Wildlife: This period offers opportunities for wildlife sightings as animals gather closer to water sources. Birdwatching can be particularly rewarding during this time.

Scenery: The scenery during this time is bursting with colour from the wet season rains, allowing for wonderful scenery and photography opportunities. 

Weather: During the wet season, the Amazon experiences higher water levels, flooding the forest floor and allowing for greater exploration by boat into areas that are inaccessible during the dry season.

Wildlife: This period offers opportunities for wildlife sightings as animals gather closer to water sources. Birdwatching can be particularly rewarding during this time.

Scenery: The scenery during this time is bursting with colour from the wet season rains, allowing for wonderful scenery and photography opportunities. 

Weather: During the wet season, the Amazon experiences higher water levels, flooding the forest floor and allowing for greater exploration by boat into areas that are inaccessible during the dry season.

Wildlife: This period offers opportunities for wildlife sightings as animals gather closer to water sources. Birdwatching can be particularly rewarding during this time.

Scenery: The scenery during this time is bursting with colour from the wet season rains, allowing for wonderful scenery and photography opportunities. 

Weather: During the wet season, the Amazon experiences higher water levels, flooding the forest floor and allowing for greater exploration by boat into areas that are inaccessible during the dry season.

Wildlife: This period offers opportunities for wildlife sightings as animals gather closer to water sources. Birdwatching can be particularly rewarding during this time.

Scenery: The scenery during this time is bursting with colour from the wet season rains, allowing for wonderful scenery and photography opportunities. 

Weather: During the wet season, the Amazon experiences higher water levels, flooding the forest floor and allowing for greater exploration by boat into areas that are inaccessible during the dry season.

Wildlife: This period offers opportunities for wildlife sightings as animals gather closer to water sources. Birdwatching can be particularly rewarding during this time.

Scenery: The scenery during this time is bursting with colour from the wet season rains, allowing for wonderful scenery and photography opportunities. 

Weather: The weather tends to be sunnier and less humid, making outdoor activities more comfortable.

Wildlife: The dry season is characterised by lower water levels, making it easier to spot wildlife concentrated around shrinking water sources.

Scenery: Trails become more accessible for hiking and jungle treks during this time, allowing for deeper exploration into the rainforest and impressive scenery opportunities.

Weather: The weather tends to be sunnier and less humid, making outdoor activities more comfortable.

Wildlife: The dry season is characterised by lower water levels, making it easier to spot wildlife concentrated around shrinking water sources.

Scenery: Trails become more accessible for hiking and jungle treks during this time, allowing for deeper exploration into the rainforest and impressive scenery opportunities.

Weather: The weather tends to be sunnier and less humid, making outdoor activities more comfortable.

Wildlife: The dry season is characterised by lower water levels, making it easier to spot wildlife concentrated around shrinking water sources.

Scenery: Trails become more accessible for hiking and jungle treks during this time, allowing for deeper exploration into the rainforest and impressive scenery opportunities.

Weather: The weather tends to be sunnier and less humid, making outdoor activities more comfortable.

Wildlife: The dry season is characterised by lower water levels, making it easier to spot wildlife concentrated around shrinking water sources.

Scenery: Trails become more accessible for hiking and jungle treks during this time, allowing for deeper exploration into the rainforest and impressive scenery opportunities.

Weather: The weather tends to be sunnier and less humid, making outdoor activities more comfortable.

Wildlife: The dry season is characterised by lower water levels, making it easier to spot wildlife concentrated around shrinking water sources.

Scenery: Trails become more accessible for hiking and jungle treks during this time, allowing for deeper exploration into the rainforest and impressive scenery opportunities.

You can cruise the Amazon all year round. The Amazon system’s high-water flooding generally occurs from late November to May. Tropical downpours can be a magical experience, and smaller tributaries will be more accessible as river levels rise. Seeing wildlife during this season can be trickier. The dry season is June to November, when temperatures are hotter, and navigation is more challenging due to lower river levels. Yet it’s a special period for spectacular animal and bird encounters.

Ship types

You can travel fast and luxuriously, sticking to the main Amazon river in larger cruise lines, entering from the Atlantic Ocean, or being more exploratory in small riverboats with shallow drafts that can navigate tributaries further upriver.

Larger vessels combine the Caribbean and coastal South America on a 20-day voyage heading as far inland as Manaus. To get intimate with this mighty river system, I recommend a smaller riverboat with a balcony to feel better connected to the environment. Ideally, one with 10-20 cabins, which offers daily excursions with expert indigenous naturalists. On the Rio Napo, I learned so much from the expert Kichwa guides, even if I couldn’t hit the target when they attempted to teach me how to fire a blowpipe.

Activities

Activities begin from the moment you open your eyes. Binoculars and cameras in hand, join naturalists on deck to experience myriad birdlife awakening; the kafuffle of the parrots is like an alarm call. You’ll take small boat rides into flooded forest tributaries or hike along rainforest trails. Visits to indigenous communities make for fascinating cultural exchanges, and you may get a bite of it when learning the art of piranha fishing. Some vessels provide canoes or kayaks.

Wildlife

Jaguar: These are mercurial big cats. Their population is estimated at around 170,00, yet they’re classified as ‘near threatened’ in IUCN parlance. They are strong swimmers, and I know travellers who have seen them paddling across rivers. They’re definitely not fussy eaters … so monkeys and armadillos, look out!

Pink River dolphin: These unique dolphins have long snouts designed for catching fish or soft-shelled turtles. They are born grey but the males in particular, develop a marvellous bubble-gum pink hue. Known locally as ‘bufeo’ or ‘boto’, superstitions surround this now-endangered cetacean.

Green Anaconda: The first time I saw this colossal snake it wasn’t just the immensely thick girth that wowed me but its intricate patterning of custard-yellow dots. They can stretch to 5 metres long, and I had perhaps the dubious honour of seeing one devouring a capybara. Such a feast ensures they won’t eat for weeks.

Other wildlife: Amazonia is a global biodiversity hotspot with some 427 known mammal species and over 400 types of amphibians. Armadillos are easy to spot, but giant anteaters and sloths are less so. Black caimans skulk along the riverbanks and, with good luck, giant river otters too. It was a thrill to see pygmy marmosets no bigger than my hand, although travellers should have few expectations of seeing an ocelot or puma.

Birdlife 

The Amazon is supersaturated by the technicolour plumage of over 1300 bird species. Macaws, parrots, and turkey-like chachalacas provide a garrulous presence. I saw three macaw species at one mineral lick in Ecuador: fabulous, red-bellied macaw and dusky-headed parakeets. Only an eagle-eyed naturalist will spot a potoo, a strange, wide-billed bird with the ability to camouflage like wood. Most magnificent are harpy eagles, bearing immense two-metre wingspans and teeth-chattering stares.

Whale watching

Saltwater whales in a freshwater system? Are you mad? Yet sail through the colossal mouth of the River Amazon in summertime and it’s possible to spy humpback whales as the Atlantic saltwater pushes upriver against the freshwater outflow. 

Read more Show less

Cultural and Historical Significance

Mark Stratton

Anakonda River Cruise 672

Ecuadorian border

Peruvian riverside people on Ecuadorian border sell crafts to visiting Amazon cruisers

Mark Stratton

Anakonda River Cruise 548

Kichwa women

Kichwa women selling handicrafts at iMandi Forest community project

Mark Stratton

Anakonda River Cruise 550

iMandi Forest community project

Kichwa women selling handicrafts at iMandi Forest community project

Mark Stratton

Anakonda River Cruise 662

Selling crafts to visiting Amazon cruisers

Peruvian riverside people on Ecuadorian border sell crafts to visiting Amazon cruisers

Mark Stratton

Anakonda River Cruise 690

Peruvian riverside people

Peruvian riverside people on Ecuadorian border sell crafts to visiting Amazon cruisers

Mark Stratton

Anakonda River Cruise 510

Public transport longboat

Public transport longboat moves Kichwa communities people around the Rio Napo.

What to Pack

Clothing

Expect to sweat profusely so pack a loose-fitting wardrobe for coolness’s sake in extreme humidity and heat.

  • Light cotton, linen, or bamboo-fibre, shirts, or blouses, including long sleeves and added UV protection against the sun and mosquitos. 
  • Shorts are ideal but bring long, lightweight pants, especially at night, for insect protection.
  • Neck buff to avoid sunburn.
  • A lightweight jacket or top for evening wear if the aircon bristles.
  • Lightweight cotton dress for evening wear.
  • T-Shirts with sweat-wicking.
  • Sunhat is a necessity.
  • Swimwear for an Amazon dip.
  • SPF and insect-repellent, but choose eco-friendly brands.
Read more Show less

Reading List

A really beautiful recent book about the Amazon River in its entirety with lovely illustrations.

Amazon River By Sangma Francis And Romolo D’Hipolito

An adventure yarn by British television explorer about his 6000km journey across the Amazon.

Amazon By Bruce Parry

A gripping voyage of exploration into the Amazon system by the legendary 16th-century Spanish navigator.

River Of Darkness Francisco Orellano And The Deadly First Voyage Through The Amazon By Buddy Levy

Expert Tips

Rb 295
By Mark Stratton
TRAVEL WRITER AND RADIO BROADCASTER
I enjoy wildlife photography in the Amazon but confess that my snaps aren’t always that special. I have a 150-500mm Nikon-fit lens with an excellent range. Yet there are many inherent challenges shooting in the rainforest, not least poor light under the thick canopy and the travails of humidity. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve lined up an imagined award-winning bird shot only to have not noticed a barely perceptible twig messing up my focus and leaving me with an out-of-focus toucan. 

Priority one should be keeping your kit dry. I use a waterproof duffle bag or a showerproof photo backpack. Also, be wary about leaving your camera in a chilled air-con cabin, because when you step outside into drenching humidity, the camera can steam up. Either keep your cabin at room temperature or prepare your camera by leaving it outside briefly to acclimatise before you start shooting. It’s good to use a moisture-absorbent cloth before you pack your camera away to head off the potential discolouring mold.

A tripod can be great, especially if erected on deck for photographing birdlife. I like a wide-angled lens within the forest for expansive canopy tree shots. Close-ups add colour to the overwhelming greenness, perhaps flowers, or if you have macro-capacity (found many on smartphones), shots of weirdly wonderful insects.

Adjusting your settings to suit a darker rainforest setting requires a higher iso and wider aperture opening to extract extra light. But the biggest assistance for brilliant photography is the equatorial golden hours, from around 6.30 am-8.30 am and 4.30 pm-6 pm, just before dusk. It's then birdlife is more active, and wildlife is more vividly lit. I’d recommend checking out professional photographers’ websites for tips, such as the excellent Nick Garbutt, who offers in-depth advice on rainforest photography at www.nickgarbutt.com.