Cruises on the Amazon River

Explorations, Inc.

• Explorations, Inc. offers cruises that focus on the Amazon's indigenous cultures and the region's rich wildlife. The eight-day Amazon Jungle Safari begins in Lima, Peru, where you'll be flown to Iquitos, Peru to begin the 300-mile cruise down the Amazon River. All meals and lodging are included. You'll travel on several types of boats, including local collectivos or long boats, dugout canoes and a large, modern riverboat. Along the way, you'll stay in nature reserves and jungle lodges. Explore the treetops on the Canopy Walkway, a suspended walkway that stretches for 1/3 of a mile over the jungle. More than 25 percent of the species of life on the planet resides in the Amazon rainforest canopy, according to Explorations, Inc., so don't forget your camera. Nature walks, bird watching, boating excursions, fishing, tours of ethnobotanical and medicinal gardens, and visits to local villages round out the itinerary.

  Explorations, Inc.
  27655 Kent Road
  Bonita Springs, FL 34135
  239-992-9660
  explorationsinc.com

Green Tracks

• Green Tracks offers four-, five- and seven-day Amazon River cruises. Cruise packages include rainforest hikes, side trips in smaller boats, visits to local villages and wildlife viewing opportunities. Riverboats for shorter tours hold a maximum of 28 passengers and offer airconditioned suites. Seven-day cruises take a maximum of 12 or 20 passengers, depending on the riverboat. Most meals, cocktails and cigars are included. Cruise from Iquitos or Nauta, Peru up the Amazon to the five-million-acre Pacaya Samira National Reserve, where you'll look for river dolphins, squirrel monkeys and macaws.

  Green Tracks
  416 County Road 501, PMB 131
  Bayfield, CO 81122
  970-884-6107
  greentracks.com/Amazon-start.html

Gap Adventures

• Gap Adventures offers Amazon Explorer tours on a 19th century-style riverboat with a dining room and bar. The boat carries a maximum of 28 passengers. Gap's tours emphasize ecological sustainability, and focus on showing guests the wildlife and culture of the Amazon. Choose from four tour options. The 10-day Amazon Riverboat Adventure features tours of Lima and the Pacaya-Samira National Reserve, and daily excursions to shore destinations. The 12-day Amazon Wildlife Cruise takes you on a search for wildlife through several Peruvian destinations including Lima, Paracas, the Ballestas Islands, Nazca and Iquitos. You'll spend one night camping in the jungle. The 16-day Amazon Riverboat Adventure and Sacred Incan Empire tour takes guests through the upper Amazon region to the Peruvian towns of Iquitos, Cuzco and Aquas Calientes and the ruins at Machu Picchu. You can also choose a seven-day cruise-only tour. All Gap tours include most meals, admissions and lodgings in a stateroom, hotels or camping facility.

  Gap Adventures
  19 Charlotte St.
  Toronto, Ontario M5V 2H5
  888-800-4100
  gapadventures.com/marine/amazon-river-cruises