Tracy Collins [00:00:00]:
When you think of Peru, you probably think of Machu Picchu or the Andes. But most of the country lies deep in the Amazon basin. In this episode, I'm chatting with one of the most well traveled and famous podcasters out there about what it's really like to explore the Peruvian Amazon and why it's far more accessible than you might think. Welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is founder of the global travel planning website, Tracey Collins. Each week Tracey is joined by expert guests as she takes you on a journey to destinations around the world. She sharing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas and practical tips to help you plan your next adventure. Join us as we explore everywhere from bustling cities to remote landscapes.

Tracy Collins [00:00:41]:
Uncover cultural treasures and discover the best ways to make your travel dreams a reality. Hi and welcome to episode 89 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. Today I'm joined by Chris Christensen, the host of the long running and hugely respected amateur traveler podcast. Now, Chris is traveled to more countries than most of us can count. So when he reached out with a list of possible topics to chat about, I was spoiled for choice. But I'll admit I was a little selfish with this one. I couldn't resist diving into his recent trip to the Peruvian Amazon. Now, with my own long term plans to spend traveling through South America, Peru is firmly on my radar.

Tracy Collins [00:01:21]:
And before this conversation, I realized I knew almost nothing about the Amazon region of the country. So Chris's experience turned out to be the perfect way to change that. Now in this episode, we talk about what the Peruvian Amazon is really like. How Chris explored it on a small group river expedition, and why it challenged many of his expectations. We cover everything from wildlife encounters and daily life along the river to practical questions like packing, mobility, connectivity, and what kind of traveler this experience suits best. Now, if you've ever wondered whether the Amazon is too remote, too difficult or too intimidating, this conversation may well change your mind. Yeah, so when I was deciding about what to chat with you, Chris, because you've been everywhere, you had a very exciting year in 2025. But I'm being a bit selfish because I chose the Peruvian Amazon.

Tracy Collins [00:02:11]:
The reason for that is that next year I'm 60, as we were just kind of talking about. And I have promised myself at least eight months exploring South America. So obviously that's going to include. Now, I had no idea about the Peruvian Amazon. I read that and I went, okay, I have. I know nothing. Literally, I know nothing. So this is a perfect opportunity for you educate me and our listeners, if they also like me don't know very much about Peruvian Amazon.

Tracy Collins [00:02:38]:
You know, we think about Peru for potentially different things, I reckon. So tell me first of all, where is the Peruvian Amazon, Chris?

Chris Christensen [00:02:47]:
So it turns out for many of us when we think of Peru, we think of the coast and we think of the Andes. The majority of Peru, and this came as a surprise to me, is on the east side of the Andes in the Amazonian basin. And so there's some two rivers that meet to form the Peruvian Amazon. Now I think it loses the name again when it gets into Brazil and then gets it again. So it is a little complicated, but it's the, it's the Amazon river, it's one of the, the tributaries of the Brazilian Amazon. But it is part of Peru that is not as visited as much. There is a large city, a reasonably large city, Iquitos, which is the largest city that isn't connected by land to, you know, to other parts of the world. Basically there's one road that leads out of Iquitos that goes down to a port city which we, we took and we went, we started our cruise from that port city.

Chris Christensen [00:03:53]:
But otherwise to get to Aquitos you have to take a boat or you have to take a plane.

Tracy Collins [00:03:56]:
Yeah. When I was, I was reading your article about it and I was fascinated by the fact that they. You literally have to do the flying in or you have to take the boat. So I'm going to ask because I know, I already know. So I'm kind of being a spoiler here, but I know you took a turf to do this. So let's just talk about kind of how you like, what made you want to go and visit this part of Peru for a start off and then like how did you decide how to do the visiting part?

Chris Christensen [00:04:24]:
So it was one of those things where I had an opportunity because I'd worked with G Adventures before and I took a G Adventures tour here. Basically they said which one of all the tours that we run do you want to do? Which that alone can just, that can use up a whole weekend thinking about what do you want to do? And this one just stood out for me as a unique opportunity to see especially what I thought. I'll tell you what I thought going in and I'll tell you what it was really like. I was thinking that it was going to be a very much wildlife centric trip, which it was and it wasn't at the same time. And it just seemed like a unique opportunity to do something adventurous. And also. So my wife does not travel with Me all the time. She does.

Chris Christensen [00:05:16]:
She's still working full time. This is not a trip she would want to do. So I can do this and there's no guilt involved in why isn't she coming. She would not come. Now it turns out it wasn't as challenging as I thought it would be and she probably would have been fine. And we'll talk more about that. But it was something that I did not think was on her wish list.

Tracy Collins [00:05:41]:
Okay. I was going to say, because I guess this is under the definition of adventurous travel.

Chris Christensen [00:05:46]:
Yeah, right. Well, and I had. The odd thing is I was Peru for the first time, but I've still never been to Machu Picchu. That is on her list. And that would get me in trouble if I had done that tour. So that's one of the reasons that I chose it. But it is definitely adventurous travel, although not as challenging as I expected.

Tracy Collins [00:06:09]:
And we can go into that. I think we can kind of chat about kind of how it. How what your expectations were and how it actually. How it actually turned out. But let's. So you, you. Let's kind of go back to the beginning. So then you, you decided to.

Tracy Collins [00:06:22]:
You flew into Lima. I guess that's where you started out the term.

Chris Christensen [00:06:25]:
Yeah. Where this particular tour starts is it starts and ends in Lima. And so you fly into Lima, you get a hotel. They have a hotel that you will meet at in Miraflores. The Radisson Red in Miraflores just happens to be their base hotel. It's the base actually for a number of different tours. We the same hotel that the G Adventures group that was going to the same place but on a different boat was. And so it's just a popular place.

Chris Christensen [00:06:53]:
Miraflores in Lima is a neighborhood that's very touristy and so it's very comfortable. And so I think a lot of people use that as their home base. But it's not near the airport. It's about 50 minutes from the airport, depending on traffic, at least 50 minutes. And traffic is not great in Lima. It's congested. It's not dangerous or anything like that. It's just congested.

Chris Christensen [00:07:16]:
But so we met there, did a, you know, welcome, welcome to Peru. Hello everybody. Who are you? Introduction meeting. And then in the morning we met up, got on a bus and went to the airport and flew to Iquitos from there, drove down that 90 mile road, the only road that connects Iquitos down to the port city there on the, on the Amazon where the two rivers meet to form the Peruvian Amazon.

Tracy Collins [00:07:48]:
Okay, so you did that flight. So you didn't spend any time on Iquitos. It was just basically a transit through to then.

Chris Christensen [00:07:54]:
Correct.

Tracy Collins [00:07:55]:
Go and get the boat.

Chris Christensen [00:07:56]:
Correct. We actually went back to Iquitos. No, actually we didn't. The only thing we did in Iquitos on the way out is we stopped in a wildlife sanctuary park for. That's called the Manatee Rescue center, but they rescue all sorts of wildlife. And so on our way back to the airport, we stopped there to see the manatees and the monkeys and the parrots and all of the other wildlife that they often had taken from poachers or things like that. So it was actually an interesting chance to see some of the wildlife we did not see in the wild.

Tracy Collins [00:08:30]:
I was going to say, because you did see a lot of animals talk.

Chris Christensen [00:08:35]:
About wildlife being as they are.

Tracy Collins [00:08:39]:
It's not predictable, is it? That's the thing. You can't. You can't be what you are going to see and when. That's always also the interest. So just give us a little bit of an overview of the tour because I love doing tours like this because they're organized for you, so it's great. And I know you mentioned Victor and Eric, your two tour guides, and we'll talk about them in a little bit as well.

Chris Christensen [00:09:02]:
Wonderful tour guides.

Tracy Collins [00:09:03]:
Yeah. Sounded absolutely fantastic. And that takes a lot of the stress away because right from the minute you're kind of. You're escorted and you've got that kind of safety net of having the tour.

Chris Christensen [00:09:13]:
Around you, and it's an Amazon cruise. But that, that word is bringing up the wrong thing in most people's heads who are listing here, because I think we, I think the, the tour maxes out about 24, and that pretty much maxes out the boat maybe could hold 30 total, but basically smaller boat, a little rustic from that point of view. I wouldn't say it was a luxury boat. My cabin leaned a bit, apparently. It always did since, since they first built it. It was built there in the, in the Amazon basin, but. But I thought a very comfortable boat and, you know, wonderful crew, Peruvian crew, obviously. And you are doing a.

Chris Christensen [00:09:57]:
A cruise in the sense that you were waking up, not in a different place than you went to sleep. They don't cruise at night because the Amazon changes a lot of. From day to day, from. From week to week and from year to year. There are no charts for the Amazon. Apparently they had Navy pilots or Navy captains who tried to help out in the Amazon and it drove them just completely Crazy because there are not charts. You just know where you can and cannot go.

Tracy Collins [00:10:31]:
Okay, so it's, it's experience then. Experience based. I guess whoever is navigating again, they get in the boat, they know the area and they know the river well.

Chris Christensen [00:10:40]:
And I say that it changes from day to day. The one thing that I did not know going in that affected absolutely everything that we saw was that the Amazon changes level over the course of the year. And you know, that seems fairly normal. Rivers get deeper sometimes in the spring with a snow melt, and then they get, you know, they get lower at other times of the year depending on where you are in the world and where they get rainfall and things like that. The Amazon, this Peruvian Amazon area changes level about 45ft between the high water time of the sea of the year and the low water time of the year. And so we were there kind of in the middle. And so we were there in the, in. I was there in the summer time, our time, so winter time, your time or, or Peru and the.

Chris Christensen [00:11:33]:
Because, you know, obviously southern hemisphere. And the deal there is that in the wintertime there's a lot more people in the area than I expected too. That was the other surprise that we were not in an area that was unpopulated. There were a lot of different villages with people in them that, you know, wasn't like, it was villages like huts, it was villages like rustic houses with not a lot of, you know, things inside them in terms of furniture and things like that up on stilts. And in the high water season, for instance, the people who are there can't fish effectively. And the reason why they can't fish effectively is this. We were in a reserve. We were in a nature reserve that is kind of the size of this, the country of Costa Rica.

Chris Christensen [00:12:27]:
So large nature reserve here in Peru. I don't remember how it compares in terms of size to Costa Rica, but it's big in the high water season, 95% of it is underwater.

Tracy Collins [00:12:40]:
Wow, that's crazy.

Chris Christensen [00:12:41]:
So everywhere we went in this kind of middle of the, the, in between the high water and the low water, we could see though where the water had been up on the banks, which were 20ft above us, up on the trees, 10ft up. And the houses were up on the banks and they were up 10ft up on stilts and they flooded last year. It was a particularly high water. And so in the high water season, the fish hide the trees well.

Tracy Collins [00:13:16]:
There's not plenty of space to do.

Chris Christensen [00:13:18]:
It in the forest. And so it is not A good time for fishing. When we were there, all of that forest had drained, and so there was a great time for fishing. There were these little rivers and inlets that would go out from the big rivers into the jungle. And we would spend most of our days going up those little rivers and inlets in a small boat. Basically, 12 passengers in one boat, 12 passengers in another boat. And we would take these skiffs, and we would go up these rivers and inlets into blackwater lakes and. And other features.

Chris Christensen [00:13:56]:
Blackwater Lake, a lake where there is so much foliage that has died that there is very little oxygen. And the lake is kind of the color of tea.

Tracy Collins [00:14:07]:
And you swam in one of those, Chris?

Chris Christensen [00:14:08]:
We did. We swam in a lake, and we also fished for piranha. Not in the same spot.

Tracy Collins [00:14:14]:
Yeah, but that would be a good.

Chris Christensen [00:14:16]:
Idea that there are piranha in these waters, but not so much in a black water area, and that's where we swam. Because most fish need to breathe oxygen, and they can't in that area, they die. Now, there are lungfish in the area, which. One of the reasons why they survive there, and they are relatively extinct elsewhere in the world, is these blackwater regions where the lungfish can pop its head out. These are very long fish, like 6ft long and longer. And so they can pop their heads out and they can breathe in that area while regular fish die, including the piranha. Fortunately for us, it's a good.

Tracy Collins [00:15:02]:
It's actually a good job. People can't see my face because I'm like, absolutely. You know, And I know. I know you kind of.

Chris Christensen [00:15:08]:
They have the same look on their face. That's okay.

Tracy Collins [00:15:11]:
The thing is, it's. I know you kind of say, you know, when you go, when you have adventures, you have trouble, so you have to sometimes put yourself out your comfort zone. And that was your kind of thing. You said you had that.

Chris Christensen [00:15:24]:
Jumping into the water and swimming was out of my comfort zone a little bit.

Tracy Collins [00:15:29]:
Yeah. I have to say, hats off to you, because that's one of my major fears is. Is dark water not seen in what's in the water. So I definitely couldn't. I was like, hats off to you. And especially when I read about those massive long fish, I was like, no, there's absolutely no chance. Or maybe dangle footage.

Chris Christensen [00:15:45]:
Those are not dangerous.

Tracy Collins [00:15:45]:
They're.

Chris Christensen [00:15:46]:
They're not gonna eat you or anything like that. They. They eat other things, so it's all right.

Tracy Collins [00:15:50]:
I'm scared of goldfish, Chris. So you're fine. It's like, I Wouldn't even as goldfish in there.

Chris Christensen [00:15:55]:
You know, there were actual piranha and they. What the guides told us is. So in the movies, right, A piranha can strip a cow in a minute and things like that. Well, that actually is true. It's just only in areas where they're in such high concentrations and the fish that they feed on normally are in low concentrations that they look for other prey.

Tracy Collins [00:16:19]:
Yeah, yeah.

Chris Christensen [00:16:20]:
So when we did fish for piranha, we were putting little pieces of meat on. On hooks and putting them in the water and very quickly getting piranhas relatively small compared to as large as they get. But if you were in one of those areas where there were a real high concentration of piranha and there was a low concentration of fish, it would be very, very dangerous. And. And you wouldn't want to. You wouldn't want to get out of a boat there?

Tracy Collins [00:16:45]:
No, no, for sure. No, I definitely wouldn't.

Chris Christensen [00:16:47]:
But that's relatively rare.

Tracy Collins [00:16:50]:
Okay, that's good. That's good to know as well. So I'll rewind a little bit because you mentioned about going off on these skiffs and you said you. You'd have 12 in a bo. Be two boats. So I'm guessing there's about 24 of you on the. The. This adventure cruise that you went on.

Tracy Collins [00:17:03]:
Exactly. So give us a little bit of a kind of makeup of the group and. And then we'll go into kind of chatting, I suppose, about kind of what once you. Once. It's always really nice when you meet people in a group because you know what it's like to start with. Everybody's a bit. Hi, I'm here. I'm.

Tracy Collins [00:17:18]:
I'm Tracy from wherever. I'm. Whatever. And those first few days are a little bit awkward. And then after a couple of days, it's like you've known everybody for forever and it's great friends and. And it's a great crap. Yeah, yeah. So tell us where they're from.

Chris Christensen [00:17:30]:
One person of the group who happened to be my roommate, who was. Knew it wasn't going to be a luxury cruise, but really does luxury cruises and. And I think let that ruin it for him, unfortunately. But we also had a woman who had survived A. Was 80 years old, had survived an aortic aneurysm the year before, and told her family, anybody who wants to come with me, I'm going to the Amazon.

Tracy Collins [00:18:00]:
Wow.

Chris Christensen [00:18:01]:
And so she brought two of her daughters and two of her granddaughters with her. And so we had just a, you know, she was fearless, just amazing. And it was a great group. We had people from Australia and England and us. There was one family who had booked directly with the ship that were Peruvian. They did not speak as much English, so we didn't have as much conversation with them. And they were only there for part of the trip. So this is a one week long trip and it's about five days.

Chris Christensen [00:18:36]:
Five days, five nights on the river, as I recall. Maybe it's five days, four nights on the river and then you have to get to and from.

Tracy Collins [00:18:42]:
And I guess some of those people as well would have kind of booked this, this part of the, their, the trip in their longer trip, if that makes sense. So I'm guessing.

Chris Christensen [00:18:52]:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That was even more true with the other cruise that I did in South, South America recently. But it was definitely true with this that there were people, you know, I was in and out for just this.

Tracy Collins [00:19:05]:
Yeah.

Chris Christensen [00:19:07]:
But that was probably more rare. I would say most people were doing at least two, three weeks. And they were also doing either more in the Amazon or they were doing much pe or they had done Bolivia or, you know, whatever, but they had added it on to a longer trip. Yeah, it just depends on how much time and money you have.

Tracy Collins [00:19:25]:
Yeah, well, I definitely have got it on my sets for next year. So talk me through a regular day. What was it like waking up with a boat? What did you do during the day? What was the kind of regular activities?

Chris Christensen [00:19:37]:
Yeah, so each day was a little different. But a typical day would be going out either just after breakfast or some days even before breakfast to see some of the wildlife as it was waking up. And so the wildlife you'd be looking for would be monkeys and sloths and, and then lots and lots of birds. I would say if you're not a birder, you will be at least for those five days. Because when there are macaws flying overhead or toucans or egrets, it is, that is the wildlife that's always there. That's the wildlife that always shows up. Right. You, you may or may not find monkeys today.

Chris Christensen [00:20:21]:
You may or may not find sloths. So we, although we did multiple types of monkeys, including like the world's smallest primate. And the guides had, I asked the guides, I said, you can't have, couldn't have seen that from the boat. You must have heard it. And he said, yeah, he heard, he heard the cry. And then we, we got off on, you know, got off on the shore and clambered up the, the muddy shore to get to where he thought he was. And we, and we saw this, you know, very, very tiny monkey. Basically, you could hold it in your hand.

Chris Christensen [00:20:55]:
And so the guides were amazing in terms of their ability to spot and identify and such. And they were, they were native. They had grown up here.

Tracy Collins [00:21:03]:
Yeah. And I know, actually you do say that, you know, when you listen to that kind of cacophony of the noise from the forest to us, you know, we can't, we kind of don't know. We're just hearing a lot of noise. But, but quote that you. I'm going to, I am going to quote you here where you say to them it was a language that told them exactly where to look. And, you know, I love that. It's just.

Chris Christensen [00:21:22]:
Oh, I like that.

Tracy Collins [00:21:23]:
Yeah, it's a great quote, Chris. Great, Chris. And I think. And that, you know, having, as you say, you've got guides who grew up there, so they, they can interpret that, the language for you.

Chris Christensen [00:21:34]:
And they have seen this area change a lot as more Western culture has come in and more conveniences and things like that. But the people who live there, I mean, they dress like us, their houses are more rustic, but they, you know, they look like a house, you know, and some of them had solar projects and some of them had, you know, a butterfly project that they're working on to make money. But it's relatively tough going in terms of making a living here because so what happens is most of their farming and fishing. Well, farming, you can only farm when the land is there, right? And so literally when the sand banks uncover as the water drains, they have about five months to plant their crops and. And then that's. That will be their harvest. And so they plant their bananas and their rice and, you know, all of the different plants that they're growing. And it's wonderful rich soil because it just washed down from the Andes and it's renewed every year.

Chris Christensen [00:22:42]:
But then basically they have five months before it covers back up again with water. So. Interesting place. And then they'll dry the yucca and the fish and salt it. And that's what they're going to be eating during the high water season. And we went back to the port town, Nantes, to go to the market and look around at that town as well. And when we're in the market, they were telling us, you know, it's still the case that a lot of people there, the day they work is the day they eat that they're, you know, they don't have sort of, they're doing more day labor in. In some sense.

Chris Christensen [00:23:24]:
And if they're not one of the farmers, you know, growing their crops and keeping their crops, then they're, you know, buying what they can in the market with what they made today. So it's. It's a tough place to make a living, but very verdant, very green. Obviously, water everywhere, even the terra firma that. That other 5% that doesn't get inundated with water. We went. We did two different hikes where we went up into the jungle. So you said, what do you do during your day? Basically, you'll have, say, two different excursions a day, maybe three.

Chris Christensen [00:24:03]:
So you might go out early in the morning, and then you'd come back for lunch. There were a couple times we ate out on the boats if we did something longer. But generally you came back for lunch and then you might go out later in the afternoon. And there were a couple night cruises where we went out at night with. With lights, and we were listening for. And watching for the Caymans in the water or. Or the monkeys or the sloths or. Or the birds or whatever in that.

Chris Christensen [00:24:34]:
But I would say two to a day, and then the rest of the time you're back on the boat. And those outings would be, I'd say, two, three hours. You know, there's. There's somewhat limitations. The, the restroom facilities, as you could imagine, if you're just going out wildlife hunting are. If someone needs to stop, you have to find a tree.

Tracy Collins [00:24:58]:
Yeah, yeah.

Chris Christensen [00:24:59]:
So that. That part is. Is relatively basic, but we might be, you know, we did at least two or three stops in villages where we went and saw what they were, you know, what projects were going on in the village, met the villagers, talked about life there. We. We had a. A meeting with a shaman, a woman who is a shaman, which is unusual, who talked to us about practicing natural medicine and how she'd learned it from her grandfather. And she was required to basically go off into the jungle, I think it was, for five. Five years, and survive and.

Chris Christensen [00:25:39]:
And learn, you know, from her grandfather what various things could be used for what so fascinating experience. And then, of course, when you're meeting with the locals, they'll also have some artwork that they have created out of the local materials that they. They want to sell you. That, you know, honestly, that a lot of us were interested in. In buying. There was. There was a fair amount of shopping. It was.

Chris Christensen [00:26:03]:
It was all native stuff. It was all things that they had created. There were no. No crafts from the indigenous people of China available there.

Tracy Collins [00:26:12]:
I was going to say that's a great way as well to support, to support the local people when you're, when you're traveling this area.

Chris Christensen [00:26:17]:
And one of our visits we had lunch in the village and the, they do that to help support the village, obviously, but also they, you know, make sure that the. What you're drinking, for instance, has come from filtered water. You know, there's some things that they need to people there, they probably drink the water that we shouldn't and have immunities that we don't. And so they have worked with the people to make sure that it's a safe meal. But it's a typical meal. You know, this is the kind of things you, you can find there. And you know, this is cooked in banana leaves and this is cooked on the fire and this is chicken and this is, you know, whatever fish. And it was an interesting experience.

Chris Christensen [00:27:03]:
But they, you know, they were telling us you could eat everything here, you know, you can drink everything we're giving you, but we've taken some care to make sure you can.

Tracy Collins [00:27:12]:
Yeah. Now that sounds, that sounds good though. That sounds. Having the opportunity to do that as well and, and try some of the, the local food. Did you enjoy it? Did it? Is the food good?

Chris Christensen [00:27:21]:
Both the food on, on the boat as well as the food? The local food experience that we did have was enjoyable, but in fact, I think the both, I think they did a wonderful job. They also just. Every time you walked into the dining room, there was some new decoration that was probably purchased from one of the local villages that was woven animals and things like that from, from the local plants and things like that was the kind of things they were using for decorating the dining room. So it was great fun.

Tracy Collins [00:27:52]:
So obviously you said this was, this was about a week, this trip. So did you, did you travel far? I'm just thinking like you were traveling during, during the day, but I'm sure you won't go very fast in the boat.

Chris Christensen [00:28:01]:
But you don't go very fast and you don't go very far.

Tracy Collins [00:28:03]:
Okay.

Chris Christensen [00:28:04]:
No. Yeah. It basically is all taking place sort of in and around Nantes, which is that, that port town. And Nantes is just up river from the Amazon. And so we went to the Peruvian Amazon. That was one of our first stops was there. And. But then most of the rest of the time we're actually in between those two rivers that form the Amazon there in portion of that reserve.

Chris Christensen [00:28:33]:
Natural reserve.

Tracy Collins [00:28:34]:
Okay. Okay. Just going to ask a practical question because it crossed my mind.

Chris Christensen [00:28:38]:
Yes.

Tracy Collins [00:28:38]:
So obviously when you're Purchasing some of these goods that the local people have made. Cash, obviously.

Chris Christensen [00:28:45]:
Yes.

Tracy Collins [00:28:46]:
So where did you get the cash? Because this is the sort of practical question that, you know, people will be like, so where did you get the cash from?

Chris Christensen [00:28:52]:
Yeah, we came in with the cash.

Tracy Collins [00:28:54]:
Okay. So you got that in Lima from.

Chris Christensen [00:28:56]:
An atm and I think they were taking dollars, as I recall, or potentially euros. But yeah, had. Had changed, exchanged money and mostly in Lima.

Tracy Collins [00:29:06]:
Okay, cool. That's good to know. It's like those little practical things that, you know, you go and you think, oh, so. So how did Chris do that?

Chris Christensen [00:29:12]:
No, nobody. Nobody broke out a credit card machine?

Tracy Collins [00:29:15]:
No, I didn't expect that. So I guess connectivity.

Chris Christensen [00:29:18]:
There were a couple places, though, we. They did have solar power. And so, you know, it's. It's theoretically possible that next time you go down they would, you know, bring out their credit card machine, but probably not.

Tracy Collins [00:29:33]:
So I guess this is also an adventure where you get a chance to unplug a bit because you're not going to have that connectivity that we just used to 24 7.

Chris Christensen [00:29:42]:
Yeah, so they did have WI fi on the boat. It was cellular powered. It wouldn't be something that I would have been uploading my photos or my videos or things like that, but it was sometimes enough that I was able to check email and not be copied completely out of touch. But it. But yeah, you should plan on being mostly out of touch. We weren't quite as out of touch as I thought we would be. So that was one surprise. The other surprise is how much cultural interactions.

Chris Christensen [00:30:12]:
I mean, it said it in the tour description, but I just wasn't expecting that many people there. You know, it wasn't completely undiscovered. There were lots of people living in this neighborhood, basically, and had no clue what the impact of rivers getting lower and higher, lower, and what that would mean for them. And then the other thing I said is it wasn't as challenging. So I expected. I've read about Teddy Roosevelt, who nearly died going up the Amazon, and I expected that there would be lots and lots of mosquitoes and that would be hot and humid, and both of those were true. In the evening there were a lot of mosquitoes. Just like that one hour, right around dusk, which we just went inside and there was a place in the back of the boat, in the stern of the boat, which was an enclosed room where the band from the crew members would play and people would dance and did that sometimes in the evenings where the rest of that top deck was open and it was Lovely.

Chris Christensen [00:31:21]:
During the day it was great. In the morning you'd get up in the morning, there'd be mist on the, on the water and pink dolphins jumping and, you know, just amazing. And I wasn't expecting when you were in the small boats and when you were in the big boat, most of the time there was a lovely breeze. And so even though you were in the jungle, it really wasn't that hot and sticky. Now when you went for hikes, the two times we went for hikes then, you know, I was so sweaty you could have hosed me off and I wouldn't have been any wetter. But we also hiked up in one place where they had, there'd been a failed resort and they still had these suspension bridges that the community was keeping up. And so you're, you're hiking out and going with a local guide who's pointing out the tarantula or that this is a curare tree where they used to get the poison from for the poison darts. And you know, all of the different trees along the way, including some of the hardwoods which are still, still which are very rare.

Chris Christensen [00:32:22]:
They've forested a lot of the mahogany trees and things like that. But there are still some that are preserved here in this place, in this reserve. And so they would point those out along the way and then you got further in and we got to go on these suspension bridges and two at a time crossing so that you didn't put too much strength on them and that was great fun. But that part was hot and sticky and with lots of bugs.

Tracy Collins [00:32:47]:
Yeah. So take plenty of water. I guess is the, is the tip for that one.

Chris Christensen [00:32:51]:
Yeah, I think the first, the first one I did not take enough water. That was when I really used my long sleeve shirts too. So, you know, it sounds strange to go into the jungle and wear long sleeve shirts, but you're wearing them because of bugs.

Tracy Collins [00:33:04]:
Yeah, yeah. Well, that you kind of mentioned a tarantula. So that segues so nicely into me asking you all about the wildlife that you saw. So obviously you saw some things that I probably wouldn't be so keen on seeing. But then again, I still would want to see a church, even though I'd be like, tell me what you saw. What were the highlights of the animals that you saw? Because I know you saw quite a lot.

Chris Christensen [00:33:24]:
Sloths are, sloths are always amazing and monkeys are always great. But, but again, the bird life. My favorite pictures that I took were of some of the birds and I ended up doing a whole beginner's Guide to Bird Watching in the Amazon post just because I came back with photos that I just loved from some of the birds that we were seeing. You know, the colorful macaws and the toucans, the, the, the raptors, so the fish hawk, for instance, and, and other hawks and vultures and it was just very interesting. And then, you know, you get weird birds like the horned screamer that sounds like a car alarm. I read that so. Or the one that sounds like a donkey. And I'm forgetting off the top of my head which one that was.

Chris Christensen [00:34:12]:
But. So the bird life was. Was surprise. I shouldn't say surprisingly interesting because I've been on African safari too, and it's am much time you spend looking at birds there as well because there's such variety and so interesting.

Tracy Collins [00:34:26]:
Well, I've just come back from Antarctica, Chris and I, I got totally into. I can now name five different types of penguin. I can tell you all about quite a number of the different birds that we saw. The different albatross and then. Oh yeah, skewers. It was just amazing. So actually I, I don't think that I was that interested in. In birds, but I came back with a form of appreciation of it, I have to say, say, and interest.

Tracy Collins [00:34:48]:
And the sloths, I mean, they just look so cute.

Chris Christensen [00:34:52]:
So some people want to keep sloths as pets, which they very much discourage. One of the reasons why people like them as pets in the wild, a sloth will poop once a week. So it will climb down its tree so that it doesn't just drop its poop from the tree and go some distance away and poop and bury it and then climb back up its tree. And because sloths move so slowly, that takes about a week and so they are adorable. One of the kids did have a pet sloth in one of the villages we went to and they had pet parakeets and things like that, which is more common in the villages. But what they, you know, certainly discouraged is poachers coming in and trying to sell those as pets to us.

Tracy Collins [00:35:37]:
Yeah, I can imagine that that's a problem. So as well as some of the kind of cute. I know you saw pink dolphins as well, which. Which sound amazing and great.

Chris Christensen [00:35:45]:
Orphans also.

Tracy Collins [00:35:46]:
Yeah. Which is fantastic. But I'm also kind of always a bit fascinated by the smaller insects as well. So I know that you saw. And this, this fascinated me. Bullet ants. Because I, I don't like ants. Right.

Tracy Collins [00:35:58]:
I ever think I'm terrible with fish and I'm terrible at ants, but I was Reading in your article about these bullet ants that eat the seed of the philodendron and then it grows and it germinates inside the ant and kills it. How is it. How spectacular is nature? I mean, incredible. I had no idea. So I'm guessing obviously your guides are.

Chris Christensen [00:36:20]:
The people who are the knowledge. Oh, yes, yes.

Tracy Collins [00:36:24]:
Yeah. So they're pointing out all these animals, these insects. I know you saw a snake as well when you were going around. So you're like, you have a walking insect.

Chris Christensen [00:36:35]:
Anaconda is something you want to go for.

Tracy Collins [00:36:37]:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. They're not, not small.

Chris Christensen [00:36:40]:
Stepping around it on the path and then it jumped and I. One of the young gals just ran right into me trying to get away from. Quite startled us.

Tracy Collins [00:36:55]:
So I think, you know, on this trip you get the kind of exposure to the culture of the. Of the Peruvian Amazon. You get an exposure to the wildlife in that area as well. And I guess they are. Those are, I guess, the two main themes that make up that kind of pivotal to this trip.

Chris Christensen [00:37:12]:
Yeah, yeah. I think you also do get some appreciation for the tensions in development in this kind of areas. You know, this is not an area where you were seeing a lot of the deforestation as you'd see in some parts of Brazil, but you do get a sense for. You got people here trying to make a living, and you also have these natural resources and there is attention.

Tracy Collins [00:37:40]:
And I guess that there must be an impact from climate change as well. I'm guessing they will be. They'll be seeing that.

Chris Christensen [00:37:46]:
Probably we. I would say I almost said that and. But I don't know that we saw it quite as much here as, for instance, I was just on a. You were down in Antarctica, I was down in Patagonia. And there you absolutely see that sort of impact.

Tracy Collins [00:38:02]:
Okay, okay. But. Okay. So central to it, the wildlife. Central to it is a culture and also kind of, I guess, you know, going into a country that. That many of us have probably not been to before or not been exposed to that. That kind of culture or seeing that wildlife outside of potentially going to it to a zoo. So, you know, you come away, I guess, with a, an appreciation as always when we travel of, of, you know, a different era, different culture.

Chris Christensen [00:38:32]:
Well, and you were also are going through Lima, so we did not take extra day to see Lima on this trip, but I went through Lima again on the way down to Chile and Patagonia. And we did get a chance to go down into the UNESCO World Heritage Site in the. The main downtown and and see that and appreciate that as well. And you probably should. Even though I didn't. Just because you do have to get there, you know, go through there. So, yeah, it is a. It behooves you, Seymour, if you can.

Tracy Collins [00:39:02]:
Oh, yes. Well, I'll definitely be stopping off in Lima for sure, but I'm very interested in doing this trip. So obviously you mentioned you had a wide range of ages on this trip. So you call it adventurous, but not quite as kind of on that kind of more extreme side of adventurous that you wouldn't describe it. They say it more gentle.

Chris Christensen [00:39:22]:
So the things where you need to be aware is, you know, we had people from, I would say mid-20s up to 80. The person who was 80 who again was fearless, her granddaughters and her daughters were helping her get in and out of the boats. Well, the guides help everybody get in and out of the boats. That's, you know, the thing they do. But also you have to get up into some of these villages. And so we had a couple people on the cruise who were more overweight than me. That was more difficult because if you think about it. So where we were, I said it was in the middle of the high and the low water.

Chris Christensen [00:40:08]:
Some of the creeks we went up or were rivers today, you know, the day we're going up them. And our guides were saying, two weeks from now we won't be able to go up this river. This river will be a creek. And so if you think about it, when you're going to a village, they have to rebuild whatever steps you're going up to at least every year. And so their ramshackle would be probably the right term. And so you're sometimes a little more concerned about, you know, are you going to get, are you going to fall in the mud as you're trying to go up this, you know, 20 foot bank or whatever is a place where some of the people were definitely less comfortable if they had less mobility and you know, just that, that issue. So mobility is something that would be helpful to have. There's also no elevator on the boat.

Chris Christensen [00:41:03]:
I mean, it's not a, it's not a big boat, it's a three story boat. But you know, you have to be able to do stairs, get in and out of a boat and then more importantly, get up these, you know, a little bit improvisational stairs and steps and, and things like that to get up into the villages or to get up to do the hike that you're going to do or whatever, whatever. So some people just did the boat Excursions.

Tracy Collins [00:41:27]:
Okay.

Chris Christensen [00:41:28]:
They basically opted out after a while. They were like, I'm not comfortable doing those. I'm just gonna do the. And there's so much of it that is just boat based that you could still have a decent trip. But I think you really ought to, you know, hit the gym when you have the mobility.

Tracy Collins [00:41:42]:
Yeah, hit the gym, hit the gym.

Chris Christensen [00:41:45]:
But you know, I am not in the. You, you've seen me, you know, I'm a, I'm more of an advertisement for a man who loves food than an athlete. So you don't need to be athletic by any shape or form, but it's good to have some mobility.

Tracy Collins [00:42:00]:
What about footwear? I'm just thinking about packing because obviously if I'm going to be away for eight months traveling around South America, I need to be really conscious about what I'm taking. But is there anything in particular you see footwear wise or clothing? I know you mentioned obviously long sleeves.

Chris Christensen [00:42:13]:
Well, for the hikes, close toed should shoes. But I think I did wear, I also brought my water shoes for sometimes that I, you know, didn't think I would need. You know, it's like you're going to be in the boat the whole time. But for the hikes, close to, close to shoes didn't have to be hiking boots. I didn't bring my hiking boots.

Tracy Collins [00:42:36]:
Okay.

Chris Christensen [00:42:37]:
They did have rubber boots that we could occasionally borrow for when we were doing like when I was doing the, you know, up in quote unquote terra firma, which I think I put in the article was more, more terra than firma. It was very, very muddy. It was helpful to have boots on some of those trips. But they did provide those and your.

Tracy Collins [00:42:58]:
Long sleeved shirts for the mosquitoes. And don't forget your binoculars. I guess that's another one if you want.

Chris Christensen [00:43:02]:
Don't forget the binoculars for, for photography. You really are. You can take pictures with your, your cell phone, but you're really going to, if you're a photographer. Want to have a zoom, Len, but remember, you're also shooting from a moving boat.

Tracy Collins [00:43:18]:
Yes. Well, you've got some remarkably good photos considering there, Chris.

Chris Christensen [00:43:22]:
Yes. But you, you know how you become twice as good a photographer?

Tracy Collins [00:43:25]:
You take twice as many overnight. Oh no.

Chris Christensen [00:43:29]:
Throw away half your photos before you show them to anybody.

Tracy Collins [00:43:31]:
Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Christensen [00:43:32]:
So in this case I probably threw away 80% of the photos because I'm, I'm zoomed way out at a bird in flight.

Tracy Collins [00:43:40]:
Right.

Chris Christensen [00:43:41]:
And so, you know, a lot of those photos didn't come out and some of those photos are the best photos that I' ever taken. And it's, it's the range. But it was. I was glad I had a camera with a good zoom lens. So I don't have a. I didn't bring my SLR camera. Yeah, I actually have a sub SLR with a built in 60x video. Sorry analog zoom.

Chris Christensen [00:44:07]:
So that's, that was useful enough. But again then you get into burst mode, you take a lot of pictures and you throw them away.

Tracy Collins [00:44:13]:
Yeah. Choose which one you want. Absolutely. Well, I always end the podcast with the same question, whether it's the UK podcast or whether it's the global travel podcast. So what is the one tip, Chris, you'd share with someone thinking about visiting the Peruvian Amazon for the first time?

Chris Christensen [00:44:28]:
It's easier than you think. That was the thing that I said on my podcast at the end and I had somebody who wrote in who we decided she was there the same weak that I was and she was in that group in the, the Radisson Red in Lima in Miraflores going out on the Nat Geo one. So we were there at the same time and she said I had exactly the same impression. It was. It was not as challenging as I thought it would be and great fun I thought it was. I certainly highly recommend it for the. For the right person.

Tracy Collins [00:45:03]:
Well, it sounds exciting. I can't wait. I'll have to come on. I can't come on your podcast and talk about it because you've already talked about it on your podcast Chr. But I will link to your podcast and I'll link to your article in the show notes. But as always, it's great to catch up with you, Chris. Yeah, thanks for coming on and sharing your experience in the Peruvian Amazon.

Chris Christensen [00:45:22]:
Well, thanks for having me.

Tracy Collins [00:45:25]:
Thanks again to Chris Christensen for joining me on the podcast and for sharing such a fascinating insight into the Peruvian Amazon. Now, if the Peruvian Amazon has been sitting in your one day maybe category for you, I hope this episode has shown just how achievable and rewarded it can be. So it's definitely somewhere I am hoping to get to next year. Now you'll find links to Chris's detailed article about the Peruvian Amazon and his amateur traveler podcast in the show notes@globaltravelplanning.com forward/episode89 so you can explore this destination further and dive into more of his travel stories. I've also shared some of his amazing photos from that trip as well in the show notes. Now, if you've enjoyed this episode, please make sure you're following the podcast and consider leaving us a review, please in your favorite podcast app. It really does help more people find the show. And who knows, one day I might be as famous as Chris now.

Tracy Collins [00:46:22]:
As always, thanks so much for listening. And until next time, Happy Global Travel Planning. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning Podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes@globaltravelplanning.com Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy Global Travel Planning.

Chris Christensen [00:46:57]:
Sam.