Peruvian Amazon Photo Tour

Few places on Earth are so alive as the vast bottle-green swathe of Amazonian jungle that covers two-thirds of Peru. Every moment in this immense, breathing expanse teems with motion. Imagine waking at sunrise in your riverboat suite as the nocturnal chorus of insects and frogs gives way to dawn’s jungle sounds that rise like a symphony crescendo. Wings rustle as scarlet macaws burst into flight. Pink dolphins leap in ink-black lagoons. And the whooping barks of red howler monkeys echo off the mirror-still waters.

Our luxury Amazon River journey is the highlight of this unique 11-day itinerary, which explores a mosaic of ecosystems, creatures, and cultures. We begin in the landlocked town of Iquitos, where French art nouveau architecture recalls its long-lost rubber boom heyday. Frenetic, chaotic, and aching with pathos, the "capital of the Peruvian Amazon" is a street photographer’s delight. From here, we’ll set out on river excursions to visit the indigenous river-dwelling Yagua and Bora tribes—a chance to learn about their deep-rooted traditional lifestyle as we photograph their ceremonial dances and daily life of a culture spanning northeast Peru and southern Colombia.

A Yagua tribesman demonstrates the use of a blow-dart gun, Jialiang Gao; Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

We’ll then spend four nights navigating the Marañón and other Amazon tributaries aboard the Arapaima riverboat offering upscale comfort and delicious South American dining. Our serene voyage explores the wildlife-rich Pacaya Samiria National Reserve—the largest protected flooded forest on Earth. Known as the “Jungle of Mirrors” for its reflective black waters, this biodiversity hotspot is famous for its flooded forest, giant water-lilies, and pink dolphins, while the surrounding rainforest swarms with birds and beasts of every description. We’ll visit during the transition from dry to wet season—the best time for spotting wildlife as the waters begin to recede, revealing hidden trails, exposed riverbanks, and a surge of life adapting to the rhythms of the floodplain.

Your photo tour leaders are well-versed in the region. National Geographic author-photographer Christopher P. Baker has explored the Amazon and other neotropical rainforests widely on assignment, including to write and photograph the National Geographic Traveler Colombia and National Geographic Costa Rica guidebooks. Emmy award-winning Univision videographer Andrés Pruna, Jr., specializes in environmental and investigative reporting. He has visited Iquitos and the Peruvian Amazon multiple times to film documentaries, working with his local guide Ashuco, who will accompany us as our naturalist guide. See "Tour Leaders" biographies.

Blue-and-yellow macaw in flight; copyright Luc Viatour, httpsLucnix.be, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

ITINERARY (subject to change)

Day 1:
Arrive in Peru’s thriving capital (most flights arrive late at night). You will be transported from the airport to our hotel, the Courtyard by Marriott Miraflores. If arriving the prior day, we can arrange for an optional city tour of downtown Lima. We’ll begin this evening with a reception and briefing in our hotel by your tour leaders Christopher P. Baker and Andres Pruna, Jr., followed by our welcome dinner.
Overnight: Courtyard by Marriott Miraflores

A young girl canoeing in Belén, Iquitos; courtesy & copyright Jim Cline

Day 2:
After breakfast, we’ll fly together to Iquitos. After settling into our downtown hotel, we’ll spend late afternoon exploring and photographing the city’s historic core around Plaza de Armas, with its early-twentieth-century Gothic church and iconic Casa de Fierro (Iron House), designed by Gustave Eiffel. Much of our photography will focus on the colorful street life, including the frenetic mototaxis. We’ll also wander the riverfront malecón, lined with exquisite 19th-century mansions that remain from the region’s rubber heyday… a perfect venue for spectacular sunsets. 
Overnight: Doubletree by Hilton

Sunset over the Amazon; copyright Christopher P. Baker

Day 3:
Iquitos’ stand-out photographic feature is Belén—a sprawling waterfront shantytown with ramshackle houses built above the waters of the Amazon. Euphemistically known as the “Amazonian Venice,” and a kind of mini-Calcutta in the jungle, it is endlessly photogenic… from kids tumbling out of clapboard houses and playing with pet monkeys to the sprawling, colorful, and odiferous open-air market teeming with exotic Amazon fish, fruits, and fauna. We’ll shoot here in the early morning and in late afternoon, including for its fantastic sunsets.
Overnight: Doubletree by Hilton

Night monkey in an Amazonian riverside market; copyright Christopher P. Baker

Day 4:
This morning, we’ll visit a non-profit wildlife rescue center whose animals—birds, snakes, tapers, capibaras, monkeys, etc.—have been rescued from poachers or traps. The center provides a wonderful opportunity for close-ups of tamer wildlife as prep for our far more challenging wildlife shoots in the jungle. We then head to the port town of Nanay to spend the balance of the day visiting Bora and Yagua tribal villages, only an hour but a world away by boat downriver. 
Overnight: Doubletree by Hilton

An Amazonian indigenous male blows a stimulant up the nostrils of another tribe-member; copyright Christopher P. Baker

Day 5:
Transfer to the port city of Nauta, stopping enroute to photograph poison-dart frogs. At Nauta, we’ll board our floating hotel for a five-day cruise on the Marañón and Amazon rivers within Pacaya Samiria National Park. Our luxurious vessel—the Delfin II—features 14 berths, including four Master suites, all with panoramic windows.  
Overnight: Riverboat on Amazon

Rainbow boa, Amazoniia; copyright Christopher P. Baker

Day 6-8:
We’ll spend our next three full days exploring the Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, a pristine swath of seasonally-flooded rainforest spanning more than five million acres and sheltering some of the Amazon’s most diverse flora and fauna. The reserve is bordered by the nutrient-rich Marañón and Ucayali rivers, which converge to create the Amazon. These waters are famed locally as the “Mirrored Forest” for the reflections created by its tranquil glass-like black-water lakes.

A pink dolphin leaps in an Amazonian tributary, Peru; copyright Christopher P. Baker

We’ll set out to explore this remarkable wilderness of dizzying biodiversity on daily excursions by skiff and kayak, plus hikes ashore on dry land as we venture deep into the rainforest on narrow tributaries. Our photographic opportunities range from scarlet macaws darting through the forest canopy to river dolphins flashing pink as their sleek bodies fleetingly break the surface of the Dorado and Ucayali Rivers. Giant Victoria regia waterlilies with floating leaves up to 10 feet across add to the photogenic appeal of this region, where Amazonian manatees move unseen. Our eagle-eyed naturalist guide will help us spot sloths, snakes, capybaras, and such monkeys as variably colored saddleback tamarins, black spider monkeys, and shaggy-tailed red-faced saki monkeys. Plus, the reserve is home to more than 500 bird species, from hummingbirds and parrots to endangered scarlet and blue-and-yellow macaws, king vultures, harpy eagles, and the prehistoric-looking hoatzin. And at night, we’ll thrill to a guided night-safari by skiff using a spotlight to find frogs, fishing bats, and caiman, whose eyes glow red in the beam of a flashlight.

Squirrel monkeys; copyright Christopher P. Baker

One of the greatest pleasures is photographing the traditional Amazonian ribereño life and culture. We’ll visit one or more of the riverside communities to interact and photograph these hardy people, living in harmony with their environment as the forebears through countless generations before them.

After every lunch, you’ll have daily options for paddling a kayak or swimming in calm blackwater lagoons, possibly in the presence of pink river dolphins. Or you might opt to fish for piranhas, catfish, or even the armor-scaled paiche—at three-meters, one of the world’s largest freshwater species.

As we sleep, Delfin II cruises upriver to our next destination.

'Arapaima' at dusk on the Amazon; courtesy Arapaima Expeditions

Day 9:
After a final breakfast onboard Delfin II, disembark in Nauta. We’ll spend time photographing the colorful riverside activity and local markets before stopping at the Amazon Rescue Center on the drive to Iquitos. The afternoon is at leisure.
Overnight: Doubletree by Hilton

Spectacled caiman, Amazon; copyright Christopher P Baker

Day 10:
This morning we’ll photograph artisans and their unique textiles and other traditional art pieces in the Shipibo market. The Amazonian indigenous tribes are renowned for their geometrical textile designs, which they use to decorate their handmade ceramics and textiles. We'll visit a communal house and workshop of the Shipibo-Konibo indigenous people to photograph the women at work. 
Overnight: Hilton

A pink dolphin leaps in front of fishermen, Peruvian Amazon; copyright Christopher P. Baker

Day 11: 
Today we depart Iquitos as a group for Lima and either your onward flight home, or your personal extension.