Morning departure from London Heathrow flying via Madrid (2 hours 20 minutes), to Lima (12 hours). On arrival you will be met and transferred to the Casa Andina Private Collection, Miraflores. Stay here for 2 nights.

You will have a half-day tour of Lima, the country´s capital. It was originally named “La Ciudad de los Reyes” (the City of Kings). The Plaza de Armas and now Plaza Mayor; used to be the city’s most popular meeting point and main market. Around the great Plaza Mayor stands the Palacio de Gobierno, the Cathedral, the Archbishop’s Palace, the Municipalidad and the Club Unión. In the centre of the plaza is a fountain dating from 1650. Some blocks from the main square, stands the Santo Domingo or San Francisco, Churches and Monasteries. Inside are valuable collections of paintings, dating from 16th century.

The morning is free. In the early afternoon, you will be transferred to the airport for a LAN flight to Iquitos (1 hour 30 minutes), where on arrival, you will be transferred to the dock to board the M/V Aqua. Your days in this hidden part of the world will be a dramatic study in contrasts. Imagine seeing rare howler monkeys and pink dolphins and harpy eagles (not to mention exotic six-foot-wide water lily pads) by day, and then returning to exquisite gourmet meals, paired with some of the finest wines from all of South America. In the evening, you may go on another expedition, or you may simply want to sit out on the top deck, sip a Pisco sour, and count the stars. The choices are yours.

Having cruised overnight, you awake on the Yanayacu River. Keep your binoculars with you on your early morning bird watching excursion, to catch sight of russet and blue tiger herons, vivid masked crimson tanagers, graceful storks, blue and yellow macaws, and black-headed parrots . . . just some of the 250 species of birds that you will spot as you glide along the river. In the afternoon, you will board the ship’s small skiffs and float to Corriente Lake, where you will have the once in-a-lifetime chance to fish for freshwater red-bellied, black, white, and purple piranha. The fishing is good year round, but is spectacular in the dry season. Amazonia is home to more than 2,700 species of fish . . . more than can be found in all of the Atlantic Ocean. Later in the day, visit the small village of San Juan del Amazonas, where some 80 descendants of the famed Cocama Indians still live in thatched stilt houses, carrying on their tribe’s traditions and earning their living by fishing. After dinner, your naturalist guides will take you on a night excursion to find caimans, frogs, tarantulas, bats (there are 88 species in Amazonia), arboreal snakes, possums, owls, and other nocturnal birds.

Today you have a choice of two excursions EITHER a full day excursion to remote Chingana, a small creek where giant river otter usually nest. These handsome animals were killed in great numbers for their pelts, and are now threatened with extinction. On this excursion, you will also see howler and capuchin monkeys, the squirrel sized monkeys called tamarins, pink and gray river dolphins, and a vast variety of birds; OR a morning guided jungle walk where your Park Ranger will tell you all about sustainable resource management projects in Amazonia, and will take you to visit one of the projects, where villagers are planting palms to obtain oil. The ranger may also show you the artificial nests created on the sand to protect turtle eggs. After lunch and a siesta, your naturalist guide will take you on a Monkey and Dolphin Expedition. You are likely to see all four of the most common species of freshwater dolphins—including the unusual pink ones—found in the Amazon. Later, keep your eyes directed toward the jungle canopy, where you can spot at least 10 of the 13 species of monkeys resident in the National Park, including tamarins and howler, woolly, and pigmy marmoset monkeys. Watch for alligators, and keep your binoculars at the ready, as you are likely to see more than 200 species of birds. After sundowners on the top deck, dinner, and an optional night excursion, the M/V Aqua will set sail toward Nauta Caño.

Today, the M/V Aqua skirts the edges of the vast Pacaya Samiria Reserve, a flooded forest covering five million acres at the headwaters of the Amazon basin. You rise early and be on your skiffs at 5.30am to view one of the great spectacles of the Southern Hemisphere: the sun rising over the birthplace of the Amazon River. Here - where the union of two major tributaries, the Ucayali and the Marañon, form the world’s greatest waterway - nature is at its most dramatic. Your dawn excursion will be accompanied by abundant bird song, as you glide in small boats past river banks populated by large-billed terns, laughing falcons, gray tanagers, sandpipers, five kinds of parakeets, the exotic short-tailed parrot, and dozens of other birds. A post-breakfast excursion to Nauta Caño takes you into a wilderness populated by squirrel monkeys, saddleback and black mantle tamarins, iguanas, tagu lizards, and an abundance of tropical birds. An afternoon excursion takes you on the Ucayali River to visit Puerto Miguel village.

Today begins with an early morning journey via skiff along the remote Tapiche River, to search for the magnificent, 3 1/2-feet-long harpy eagles. Chances are good that you will also see umbrella birds, tanagers, stern looking chachalacas, puff birds, and more on this expedition into the deep wilderness. After breakfast, you can fish for piranha on the Tapiche (where they are bigger than elsewhere). As you sail today, you will catch wonderful glimpses of life along the river . . . fishermen paddling along on canoes made from tree trunks . . . children waving from riverside villages. Those who want to venture out into the night will be richly rewarded at El Sapote Creek (only available in the wet season), where it is possible to see night jars, night hawks, frogs, tarantulas, bats, falcons, porcupines and night monkeys.

Today is devoted to a full-day excursion into the wildlife-rich Pacaya Samiria Reserve, so vast that it is the size of some Central American countries. Travelling into the reserve in small boats, you will enter the black water lakes collectively known as the Mirrored Forest, where you will view the almost magical reflection of the towering trees in the glistening water. In addition to the birds, caimans, monkeys, and dolphins of the Amazon jungle, you will also see a rich array of flowers in a riot of colours. In the wet season, as the water level rises, it is possible to travel deeper into the reserve, exploring its farthest reaches. In the dry season, you can spot turtles, and the massive jabiru—pink storks standing five feet tall, with nine-foot wingspans. After dinner, those who choose to go out on the skiffs will have a chance to experience the nightlife along the river—an intimidating array of yellow-crowned brush-tailed bats, fishing bats, snakes, frogs, and tarantulas.

Today begins with a cruise down the Ucayali and Amazon Rivers. A stop is made to visit the small, banana growing village of Sapo Playa, where you will need items -t-shirts or school supplies—to barter for purchases. These friendly people are eager hosts. You will have a delightful time with them and will get some great photographs. Later that day and early evening, we will visit “Jurassic Park,” a prehistoric-looking swamp where the giant, six foot in diameter lily pads grow. Here, during the wet season, you will also have the chance to visit lovely Chontilla Lake, rich with monkeys, birds, and dolphins. An optional night expedition lets you view the massive water lilies again, and gives you a good view of bats and night birds. Return to the Aqua which sails towards the Tahuayo River.

You awake for an early morning excursion on the Tahuayo River, to capture your last sunrise photos. The morning light is a perfect time to snap pictures of the rare pink dolphins, terns, and parrots. You will also have another chance to see the famous, giant, six-foot-wide Victoria Regia lily pads. During the four-hour voyage to Iquitos, you will enjoy breakfast and can pick up some last minute souvenirs in the ship’s boutique. Disembark in Iquitos, accessible only by river or air. This bustling town, complete with a house built by Gustave Eiffel, was once a rich centre of the rubber industry. After lunch and a visit to a butterfly farm, you will tour the city before heading to the airport for your flight to Lima. Stay overnight at the Casa Andina Private Collection Miraflores.

The morning is free. In the afternoon, you will be transferred to the airport for your LAN/Iberia codeshare flight to Madrid.

Arrive at Madrid, where you continue by Iberia/British Airways codeshare flight to London Heathrow.