AMAZON--CRUISE

Welcome to the legendary Amazon!

Hello, Eve here (Agent 404), inviting you to come along with me:

As we cruise on the Amazon we will make a great number of stops and explore the extraordinary river world both by small launch and by foot - always accompanied by our expedition guides.

The captain and head expedition guide determines our daily itineraries, dictated by river tides and wheather conditions.

Early-morning and late-afternoon excursions are a daily routines our experienced guides reveal a world of rare plants,animals and birds.

The expedition guides will make every effort to ensure that you get the opportunity to experience as much as possible of this extraordinary environment whether it means spotting sloth and monkeys in the canopy, fishing for piranha and catfish or exploring the river by night on the lookout for caimans their eyes shining through the vegetation.

Encounter tribal people. Partake of their age-old customs. In addition, hear fascinating tales of Amazon lore...

And there is always the fascinating life on the river itself; darting dolphins, brilliant macaws preening in the tall trees, flocks of egrets wheeling high in the sky and native boats loaded with fresh fruits and produce.Travel up uncharted tributaries deep into the jungle and be surrounded by the mysterious sounds of the rainforest.

Part of the journey will be, to pass through the Narrows where we maneuver through the small channels, actually seeming to brush the surrounding rainforest.

It is impossible to behold such immense masses of water in the center of a vast continent, rolling onward to the ocean,without feeling the highest admiration -Richard Spruce-

Travel with us on board the "Marcelita"(a new ship)to the remotest parts of the amazon river. Travel with us in style and comfort 1200 miles on the amazon and see the amazon as it realy is.
The incredible Amazon region is located in on the northern part of South America and extends across eight different nations. Its area of 4.7 million square miles equals the size of (countries or well known states).

The majority of the Amazon is within Brazil, yet most of it is still unknown and untouched. Amazonia is the largest tropical rain forest in the world. Originally, more than 2 million square miles of the region were covered by dense tropical forest. For centuries, its vastness and inaccessibility have protected the preponderant part of the forest, and still do so today.

The great river begins, as hundreds of tiny streams, high in the Peruvian Andes, some of them within 100 miles of the Pacific Ocean. Rushing down the slopes, stream after stream continues to merge to form larger and larger rivers.

Near Iquitos in eastern Peru, the northeastward flowing Ucayali and the Rio Maranon, the two main headwaters of the Amazon, unite to form a truly major river. Iquitos is the point farthest upstream that shallow draft-freighters and passenger vessels can penetrate (deep-water ships can reach as far as Manaus in central Brazil. Although there are a few sizable cities along the river's banks and scattered settlements inland, Amazonia is largely uninhabited.

Here and there, plantations have been cleared in the jungles, and natives ply the streams in search of latex and Brazil nuts. But mostly the great green luxuriant rain forest is still pristine wilderness, one of the few large areas left on Earth where nature's creation remains more or less unspoiled and intact.

Though it is not the longest river in the world, the Amazon is certainly the greatest.Extending from the lake Lauricocha, in the Andean region near the Pacific ocean,to the Atlantic.
With 4000 miles of extension and one quarter of the world's fresh water, the Amazon river has over 1000 tributaries and houses some 2500 different kinds of fish.