Peruvian Amazon - Part 2: Getting there and what the experience is like on a River Cruise
The Peruvian Amazon offers one of the most immersive and accessible ways to experience the world’s largest rainforest. Centered around the remote gateway city of Iquitos, this region delivers a unique blend of wildlife encounters, cultural experiences, and river-based exploration that feels far removed from conventional travel.
In this episode, we break down the logistics of planning an Amazon river cruise, from flights into Lima and onward connections to Iquitos, to what life is like onboard a small expedition vessel. With insights from experienced traveler Chris Christiansen, host of the Amateur Traveler Podcast, the conversation highlights how surprisingly approachable this journey can be, even for those new to adventure travel.
Topics Covered
• Getting There & Logistics – Flying into Lima, connecting to Iquitos, and accessing remote river ports.
• River Cruise Experience – What to expect onboard a small expedition-style Amazon vessel.
• Daily Life in the Amazon – Excursions, wildlife viewing, and cultural interactions.
• Accessibility & Comfort – Why this trip is easier and more comfortable than many expect.
• Cost & Planning – Typical pricing, trip duration, and how to structure your itinerary.
Links referenced in this episode:
Mentioned in this episode:
Check out all of our other travel podcasts from around the world
This podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape.com. For advertising or sponsorship opportunities across the network, see the link below.
Check out the Smart Travel Podcast
This week's show is supported by the new Smart Travel Podcast. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Check out Smart Travel at the Link below:
Transcript
So if you listened to our podcast last week, we hope you've decided to.
Speaker B:Go to the Amazon.
Speaker A:But now you might be asking yourself, how do I actually do it?
Speaker A:Because this isn't necessarily your typical trip.
Speaker A:Getting there, choosing where to go, even deciding how your experience, it's very different from a lot of other vacations.
Speaker A:So part one, we talked about what it feels like to get down into the Peruvian Amazon.
Speaker A:The wildlife, the culture, the experience.
Speaker A:If you haven't listened to that episode, we encourage you to go back and listen to last week's show.
Speaker A:But today we're getting a little bit more into the logistics.
Speaker A:I'm back again with Chris Christiansen from the Amateur Traveler podcast, talking about his trip to the Peruvian Amazon.
Speaker A:Breaking down how to plan a trip like this, what your options are, and what it's really like to travel by river cruise in the Amazon.
Speaker A:In terms of some of the logistics of the trip, I mean, first of all, how did you get there?
Speaker A:I guess is my first question.
Speaker B:Well, well, so in this particular tour that g does, you fly into Lima, and then they cover everything from there, including the flight to Iquitos.
Speaker B:So you fly into Iquitos and then you actually drive down From Iquitos about 90 miles on the only road that is connected to Iquitos.
Speaker B:So Iquitos is all supplied by air or by the river.
Speaker B:You're six days from civilization on the river in terms of supplies coming in from Peru.
Speaker B:And so you drive down to a port city and than of Nata and then you get on the boat at that point.
Speaker B:So we, from there we went up to the Amazon, but then we actually spent most of our time in the two tributaries in Peru that form what it, what Peru calls the Amazon.
Speaker B:Now, the, the name of the Amazon river changes as it goes over borders somewhat.
Speaker B:So if you look at a map, it can be a little confusing because Brazil would consider, you know, different rivers, the Amazon, than Peru does.
Speaker B:But we were on the.
Speaker B:You translate them.
Speaker B:The one is the Canoe Breaker river and the other one was Cashew Nut.
Speaker B:But we did not, fortunately, have a problem with breaking any canoes as we were on that river.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:But you're actually kind of around these, where those two rivers meet and form the Peruvian Amazon.
Speaker A:And in terms of getting to Lima, is that.
Speaker A:Can you do direct out of San Francisco?
Speaker A:Is that how you got down there?
Speaker B:Oh, we flew, yeah, direct out of.
Speaker A:San Francisco to Lima last night and then.
Speaker A:And then explore from there.
Speaker A:And so you're saying this is a river cruise?
Speaker A:I'm assuming Are you staying on the boat?
Speaker A:Are you staying in villages?
Speaker A:Staying on the boat and staying on the boat.
Speaker B:You have cabins.
Speaker A:What was that experience?
Speaker A:Like what, what sort of accommodations?
Speaker B:Well, this is not.
Speaker B:There are luxury cruises.
Speaker B:I would say this is not quite that the boat is a little more character than that.
Speaker B:I.
Speaker B:A little slant in my cabin, for instance.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:But the food was good, the crew was terrific, the naturalists were wonderful.
Speaker B:So I didn't really feel a loss of, you know, we probably didn't get the ice sculpture at dinner or, you know, our dinner dessert might be pudding instead of, you know, something really fancy from a pastry chef.
Speaker B:But it's a relatively small boat.
Speaker B:So you're talking about a. I think the boat holds.
Speaker B:Was it 24 people, some somewhere in that range.
Speaker A:So this is kind of a small, small expedition boat.
Speaker A:More getting you into a little bit more remote spots, I would think.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:And the interesting thing is you spend most of your time then not on the.
Speaker B:The big boat, as it were.
Speaker B:It was like three stories tall.
Speaker B:But you spend it in the launches, which are.
Speaker B:Which I think you would fit all 24 passengers in one launch.
Speaker B:But they spread them between two different launches so you have some room.
Speaker B:But then you're going up the smaller tributaries into these waterways.
Speaker B:And where you can go depends a lot on the time you go there.
Speaker B:So some of the tiny rivers that we were going up, they said two weeks from now this will be a trickle, we won't be able to go up this river anymore.
Speaker B:And so they have to change the itinerary weekly pretty much.
Speaker B:So that's kind of an interesting thing.
Speaker B:And there, I guess they said they had people from the Peruvian navy who, who tried to become captains on the ship.
Speaker B:And they were a little stunned that there aren't really charts and you don't have the same sort of thing because the river changes so much and it's really just a lot of experience.
Speaker B:So you have pilots who've been gone the rivers for, you know, decades, but the navigation, you know, the boat is obviously trying to stay relatively safe places.
Speaker B:And you know, we'll pull off to the side side of the river to dock at night and tie up.
Speaker B:But then you're going out in these launches into the.
Speaker B:The shallower areas and into the more wilder areas.
Speaker A:And what, I mean, what does a typical day on board the boat look like?
Speaker B:So you would get up, you know, it might be six o', clock, it might be eight o' clock or whatever.
Speaker B:You would sometimes go out before breakfast, sometimes after.
Speaker B:I would say you typically would out on a launch, a coup a day, and then you might do a community activity where you're doing something more in the middle of the day, doing a village visit or meeting the shaman or.
Speaker B:Or going into the.
Speaker B:The port city.
Speaker B:Going back to the port city and touring the markets or something like that during the day.
Speaker B:And then a couple times during the week we did, you know, shore excursions, a couple.
Speaker B:Or, you know, going out into the jungle.
Speaker B:Jungle hikes.
Speaker B:That was probably the only time that I really was feeling the, the bugs and the humidity.
Speaker B:That was.
Speaker B:The thing that was surprising is there weren't as many bugs as I expected and there.
Speaker B:And the humidity wasn't as oppressive as I expected or the heat.
Speaker B:It was much more temperate than I expected.
Speaker B:You'd get up in the morning and it would just be lovely weather and in the evening it'd be lovely weather, except for that one hour after sunset when you'd want to vacate the large open deck and go inside because of the bugs.
Speaker B:But mostly we weren't really noticing the bugs that much until you were actually doing the hike.
Speaker B:And the.
Speaker B:What they call terra firma, you know, that 5% of ground that stays dry all year round.
Speaker B:But it's.
Speaker B:It's more terra than firma, I think is what I ended up writing about it.
Speaker B:It's pretty muddy and you're wearing boots and things like that and so.
Speaker B:Yeah, and then you'd have, you know, I think three nights during the trip, the, the local crew formed a band and played for us.
Speaker B:And, you know, the entertainment is.
Speaker B:Is fairly simple but enjoyable.
Speaker A:Anything that, that surprised you on the trip, anything either either good or bad, that wasn't.
Speaker A:Wasn't what you expected.
Speaker B:My, My biggest surprise is that just.
Speaker B:It was easier than I thought.
Speaker B:It's something that I really think my wife, for instance, could have done and could have enjoyed.
Speaker B:I don't know if she would have done the, you know, doing the jungle hikes or would have enjoyed those quite.
Speaker B:She could do the jungle hikes.
Speaker B:I don't know if she would enjoy them quite as much.
Speaker B:We, you know, went out to some suspension bridges at one point and we're hiking over anacondas and things like that.
Speaker B:But it was.
Speaker B:We had somebody on our tour who was 90 who was there with her two daughters and two.
Speaker B:Two of her granddaughters or two of her daughters and two of her granddaughters.
Speaker B:And, you know, she needed to help up some of these banks because they're.
Speaker B:They're muddy and they have to rebuild the steps every Season so you can get out of the river and up to the, up to the village.
Speaker B:And so it's a little, you know, haphazard.
Speaker B:But that was probably the trickiest part of the trip was just getting in and out of the river from the banks.
Speaker B:And so it really, as somebody who was listening to it said they had actually been on the Netgeo tour the exact same week we'd flown in on the same flights.
Speaker B:And they said they had the same reaction.
Speaker B:Easier than they expected.
Speaker B:Not as humid, not as buggy.
Speaker B:Just a more accessible trip than I expected it would be and quite enjoyable.
Speaker A:In terms of accessibility.
Speaker A:What are we looking at price point for a trip like this?
Speaker A:Do you have a kind of a approximate range and how much time do you need?
Speaker A:How long are we talking?
Speaker B:So this is a week long tour.
Speaker B:So it's not bad in terms of it doesn't take that much time.
Speaker B:And a week long was a good, I think the right amount of time.
Speaker B:I don't know that I would have needed a two week tour there.
Speaker B:And the price point for the G Adventures as I recall was a little over $2,000 per person including, not including your international flight obviously, but including your hotels in Lima and then your accommodations on the ship.
Speaker B:I think it was $2,400 was list.
Speaker B:And then the actual week I was there, if you'd done it last minute, it actually dropped below $2,000.
Speaker B:Did you get a bit of time.
Speaker A:In Lima as well?
Speaker B:We got one day in Lima.
Speaker B:It just depends on when you flew in.
Speaker B:They covered one night in the hotel.
Speaker B:So many people flew in the night before.
Speaker B:I think I did an extra night in the hotel at my expense, but I didn't get a whole lot.
Speaker B:I didn't see a whole lot of Lima in there.
Speaker B:Cause I had some work that I was doing that day.
Speaker B:As you know how it is when you're on the road, sometimes you are also working with what we do.
Speaker A:And I imagine a lot of people must pair this together with a, with a Machu Picchu trip as well.
Speaker B:A lot of the people who were on the boat were.
Speaker B:Yeah seeing spending much more time in Peru than I was or, or other places.
Speaker B:We're off to Bolivia or we're going someplace or we're coming from someplace and heading off to someplace else.
Speaker B:So yeah, easily you can pair this in with.
Speaker B:With some other larger trip.
Speaker A:Amazing.
Speaker A:Well, it sounds like a phenomenal trip.
Speaker A:Any, any final can't miss or thing that you would say if people are going to the Peruvian Amazon, either something they can't miss or something they should definitely bring with them or on the trip to make the most of it.
Speaker B:If you're a photographer like me, bring your zoom camera and bring something with a zoom lens, because you know that sloth you're seeing is not six feet away.
Speaker B:That sloth you're seeing is the top of a tree and that, you know, the birds that you're trying to take a picture of.
Speaker B:I would say I was trying to do a lot of pictures of birds in flight or birds on branches and things like that.
Speaker B:And 80% of my photos I just deleted before I showed anybody.
Speaker B:And the photos that I didn't delete were some of the most interesting and beautiful pictures I've ever taken.
Speaker B:So it's an interesting experience trying to do the wildlife photography in that area.
Speaker A:Amazing.
Speaker A:Well, if people want to check out more of your podcast, Chris, where.
Speaker A:Where can they find you?
Speaker B:You find me at amateurtraveler.com, the podcast, and the blog.
Speaker A:Amazing.
Speaker A:Well, thank you for taking the time.
Speaker A:It sounds like a great spot and definitely somewhere I want to go explore more of that part of the world.
Speaker B:Excellent, Ra.
