Nieccia Miller from Thor Travel in Adelaide

Our Delfin guide located us at the airport while we waited for the other guests to come off their flight from Lima. We were then transferred to Nauta in a small minivan (air conditioned and water provided) – the drive was about 1.5 hours. We pulled up at a beautiful reception office near the banks of the river and were given a welcome drink and a refresher towel. It was a large thatched but open area with lovely comfortable lounges and décor. We completed our registrations and were then lead down a wooden stairway to a skiff and taken about 10 metres to the boat. Our luggage had already been taken to the boat and delivered to our cabins. We were shown to the cabin (deluxe master suite with private spa) and OMG – I had checked out the website but it was still quite unbelievable. I think there were tears in my eyes and I think Lou squealed like a little girl – eeeeeeeeee!! We didn’t have time to enjoy it right then as we were required on the top deck for an emergency evacuation lecture and afterwards it was dinnertime. The dining room was on the middle level and what came out of the kitchen was amazing.

The program of the day to day activities are similar to what happens at the game lodges in Africa and if you haven’t been to Africa this is what happens… We were up at 5.30/6.00 each morning to go out on an early morning skiff ride. Tea and coffee available before we left. The Delfin would be docked on the main river and we would go on the skiffs mainly up and down the smaller tributaries. We would go out for 1-2 hours looking for birdlife, sloth, river dolphins, iguana, caiman, a few different species of monkey etc. There were so many different varieties of birds. I would definitely recommend a good camera and very good binoculars. After an hour or so we would be back the boat for breakfast and then out again at 10.00-11.00 for a couple of hours, then back to the boat for lunch, a bit of a rest and then out again until late afternoon. It wasn’t always just on the skiff; we fished for piranha, went swimming in an area where the dolphins were hanging out, we went kayaking, we went for walks on terra firma around lagoons looking for anaconda (with a guide who had a machete – very safe), we went on a canopy walk through the rain forests roof top, to a local village where the ladies had set up a market then back to the boat for dinner. One morning’s breakfast was on a pontoon in the middle of a lagoon; it was just magical. Birds everywhere, monkeys playing in the trees over on land. The attention to detail was incredible for the remoteness of where we were.

If I would have been a paying passenger and know what I know now I would definitely book on the 4 night cruise. It just seemed to be over too quick and an extra day would have been just the right amount of time.