Our 4 day/3 night trip on the Rio Amazonas allowed us to comfortably enjoy Peru's Amazon in style.

After settling into our cabins and listening to a briefing about the ship, onboard safety and planned excursions for the next few days we headed to chairs on the upper deck to spot birds and more as the ship passed close to Monkey Island, a location teaming with wildlife. Armed with cameras and binoculars we listened as our guide identified birds in flight, plants and trees on shore, and the occasional monkey high in the canopy. We sat on deck and watched a spectacular sunset and then joined our Australian and Swiss shipmates in the dining room for dinner and conversation.

This oft updated 100+ year-old ship boasts large air-conditioned cabins with private baths, a comfortable air-conditioned dining room, a breezy, shaded deck bar, sundeck and whirlpool tub. Meals are buffet style and draw on the area's fresh seafood and produce. One day we saw a native canoe come alongside to sell freshly caught fish to our chef.

Unlike on eco-cruises elsewhere, the chirping birds that awaken you on the Rio Amazonas are the real thing. If the chatter of birds on shore doesn't do the trick, a member of the crew will knock on your door to make sure you don't miss breakfast. I enjoyed rising early and taking my pillow, binoculars and camera to a hammock on the aft deck to greet the day. The dining room is ready for early risers with hot water for tea and coffee. (Note: Passenger cabins are stocked with two bottles of water, which may be refilled from a large container of fresh water in the dining room. We applaud this ecologically sensitive way to keep passengers hydrated without adding cost to travel or the environment.)

After a typical breakfast of juice, eggs, ham and fruit, we boarded small motorboats and headed to shore to explore the jungle. According to Paul Wright, owner and operator of the Rio Amazonas' parent company, Amazon Tours and Cruises, "No two cruises are ever the same." He explains that the crew and guides determine during each cruise which locations to visit for jungle walks, the evening boat rides for caiman spotting and the daytime piranha fishing excursions. "Otherwise our crewmembers would get bored and we wouldn't be able to maintain a staff that cares so much about this area and takes such pride in showing it to guests," Paul continued.

Our jungle walk was highlighted by spotting squirrel monkeys in the dense canopy and a chance to learn from our locally born guide many of the uses the plants we were seeing are put to by jungle dwellers. At the end of the hike we tasted zapote, a locally grown fruit, before boarding the small boats that would take us back to the Rio Amazonas.

After lunch and a siesta we boarded the launches again for a visit to San Pablo and a chance to purchase wood carvings from the lepers who have made woodcarving their livelihood. Years ago Paul Wright was escorting a group of Australian nurses on an Amazon cruise who insisted on visiting the leper hospital at San Pablo. Upon their return to Iquitos they dropped off a package at Paul's office that held woodworking tools from a local hardware store. They insisted that Paul deliver the tools to the hospital and encourage the patients to use the wood from the nearby forest to fashion handicrafts. A few months after delivering the tools Paul put in at San Pablo and was impressed by the carvings he saw. Now the village is a stop on the Rio Amazonas' up-river itinerary, one of those tourism relationships that benefits everybody.

That night before dinner we boarded the launch with flashlights in hand and headed into a small river to look for the luminous eyes along shore that would indicate the presence of birds, mammals, and caiman. The only creature our guide was able to corral that night was a tree frog, but the chance to quietly float along and experience the sounds of the jungle and look deep into the Southern Hemisphere's night sky without the glare of city lights was unique to this corner of the world.

The next morning's excursion led us to a Bora Indian village where we were allowed to view and invited to join in a demonstration of their traditional dances. A wide range of handicrafts from the area were displayed and the Boras were more than willing to trade for western merchandise - pens, pencils and small bottles of hotel shampoo and condtioner.

Next we headed to the home, gallery and studio of Francisco Grippa in the Amazonas village of Pevas. Grippa is a world-famous artist trained in Paris, London and New York who has made a home in this village halfway between Iquitos and Leticia. He brings his vividly colored paintings of the flora and fauna of the jungle to galleries in Los Angeles, New York and Miami and warmly welcomes visitors to his hill-top home overlooking the Amazon. As we climbed the stairs to his home, classical music drifted down to meet us. We entered his galleries where large paintings lined the walls and polished furniture of nearby origin filled the bright, airy space. One level up is the artist's studio where brushes, jars of paint, unfinished canvases and a view of the Amazon River below cast a glimpse at what's to come. This is one of the few places on earth where you can purchase a thousand dollar painting, a $30 print or a $1 postcard and be personally tended to equally by the artist who created it.

Later in the day we tried our luck at fishing in a small river. After baiting our hooks with bits of beef we stirred the water a little before dropping our lines into the muddy water. Several fellow passengers got lucky catching small catfish and such, but no one caught the area's famous fish, the piranha. At dinner that night the day's catch was there for the tasting in addition to the regular menu.