"Amazon River cruise" Departamento de Loreto by JessieLang

We boarded our boat in Iquitos and began our journey upriver. 20 miles upriver from Nauta (a town of 15,000 people) the Marañon and Ucayale Rivers merge, and this is where the Amazon River starts. When we reach the merge point, we take the Marañon. The headwaters of the rivers are in the Andes, about 2200 miles from the junction, and the Amazon runs another 2300 miles to the Atlantic. Eleven hundred tributaries make up the Amazon basin, which covers 40% of South America. The Amazon is a mile wide in some places.

Our journey will be about 260 miles. When tributaries meet the Amazon, the water sometimes changes color. Where the Itaya came in, the water went from black to yellow along a visible line.

The Arapaima

The Arapaima—named for the Amazon’s largest fish—is a 24-passenger boat with a crew of 13, plus a guide and a naturalist. Alfonso, the captain, is 55 years old and has worked on riverboats for 30 years.

There are two passenger decks, and a sun deck above them. Crew quarters and a small galley are below. The draft on the boat is only 3 feet. We will stay close to the shore as we go upriver (less current there) and in the middle as we come back down.

See my travelogues and tips for more details.