ADVENTURE CRUISING
tipple: grape brandy, lime juice, egg white and a dash of Angostura bitters. If wildlife is the main draw of the Aria, then gastronomy comes a close second. Leisurely lunches and dinners in the glass- walled dining room were a treat, with a menu created by Pedro Miguel Schiaffino, one of country’s top chefs at the forefront of its dynamic culinary scene. While much of the Amazon basin’s bounty is still untapped, he has been dubbed the ‘Heston Blumenthal of South America’ and ‘the jungle chef’ for his use of unusual ingredients at his acclaimed restaurants in Lima, Malabar and Amaz, and his onboard cuisine utilises much Amazonian produce. He spent months in the forest learning about native produce and sources many of his ingredients directly from Iquitos’ Belem market. Over my four-night cruise, I feasted on dishes like fresh hearts of palm and arapaima fish in wild coriander and cured- beef broth; miniscule freshwater shrimps, only available at certain times of year; and a free-range hen with black quinoa, a super-food high in protein from the Andes. Other memorable dishes were bass
ceviche with sweet plantain and hearts- of-palm soufflé, and tiradito (the Peruvian take on sashimi) of sole dyed magenta using achiote paste, with juice from the tumbo fruit in the marinade, served with tobiko (flying-fish roe). At the ramshackle market in Puerto
Bellavista Nanay, I passed stalls piled high with strange fruits – red-skinned aguaje and cocona, or wild tomato – and even stranger fish. Men wrestled still-jumping catfish on to the scales, women sat on the floor peeling ucaylino beans and a child peered shyly at me from behind a mound of chickens’
innards. Nothing goes to waste here. Locals sat at rickety wooden tables
tucking into fish straight off the grill, washing it down with mingado, a sweet mix of plantain, evaporated milk and sugar or the even sweeter Peruvian institution, Inca Kola, a lurid yellow soft drink that smells and tastes like bubble gum.
people live as they have for generations, surviving on the bounty of the rainforest, including catfish, wild tomato juice, yucca and salted meat. When the river is in flood, all the hiking paths are deep underwater and so all explorations are made by boat but we were able to visit the small village of Nuevo York, named by an American cattle rancher in the 1950s. Inquisitive children rushed to greet us,
A
while their parents quickly laid out their handicrafts – necklaces made out of seeds
AQUA EXPEDITIONS FACTFILE
Aqua offer two superb river-boats in Peru, the 24-pas- senger original MV Aqua (recently refurbished) and the newer 32-passenger Aria. They will also operate a new 20-passenger ship on the Mekong River in Vietnam and Cambodia in 2014. All three will sail year-round, with 3, 4 and 7-day voyages. A three-night Amazon Discovery cruise aboard the Aria and Aqua starts from £1,609pp (full board, including all excursions, beverages and transfers to/from Iquitos).
MORE INFO: in the UK, call adventure-cruise specialists The Cruise Line on 0800 008 6677; in the US, call 1866 603 3687; or visit
www.aquaexpeditions.com. Tour operator Cox & Kings feature a 12-day Wonders of Peru tour from the UK including an Aqua cruise from £4,295pp – 0845 287 9945 or
www.coxandkings.co.uk.
large fish like a paiche could feed a family for a week and, along the riv- erbank, small communities of river
and carved wooden animals – for us to peruse. The Aria’s paramedic Ernesto came with us. Armed with the knowledge of his grandfather, who was a shaman, his aim is to unite traditional and modern medicine and he helps out the villagers when he can. While the rainforest has its share of endemic super-fruits, it’s also the world’s biggest pharmacy. As we walked to a pond filled with giant lily pads, their delicate flowers just about to unfurl, we discovered that wild garlic can cure a fever, squashed termites make an effective mosquito repellent and suri grubs can help asthma. As the sun was setting, we cut through
water bathed in a blaze of pink and gold. Back on the Aria, I stood on deck and sipped on a jungle-style Camu-Camu Sour, listened to the jungle chatter and watched for shooting stars.
Autumn 2013 I WORLD OF CRUISING
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