We just returned from our second Lindblad Expeditions adventure planned by Linda at Sunstone Tours. She is our small ship expert since we will not put a foot on one of those mega-ships that are as big as a city.
Most amazing Amazon River Cruise on the Delfin II, with the most fun, educated and interesting 28 passengers.
Why Lindblad, when they are probably the most expensive. The answer is the Naturalists. The cream of the lot is working for Delfin ll on the dates Lindblad charters the ship. And they are very proud of who they work for. Lindblad sponsors a few of the villages by bringing medicine, doctors, and supplies for the school children. We were all asked to bring something for the school and was given a suggestion list. My wife and I brought packages of colored pencils. The children were thrilled.
We were 9 days on the ship. We came in three days early to explore Lima. We flew to Iquitos and explored the Pacaya Samiria Reserve. The Amazon is the world’s second-largest river in the world. The Southern part of the river is very wide, we explored the narrow section.
Delfin ll is first class all the way, a five-star luxury considering where you are. Chefs with open kitchen, food excellent. A mix of cultures with great variety. Tables are set each day with local products such placemats and napkins etc. Lovely and colorful. We had a chance to go to the village that makes them, and almost everyone on the ship purchased something to support the village. Naturalists are natives who have grown up around the river and even in the dark seem to know every nook and cranny. Also, a national geo trained photographer joined us.
What did we do….it was the high water season so we went on the skiff more than we hiked. More than 1/3 of the world species of birds and animals live in this area and we saw too many to mention or even count. Some we had heard of and many we had not. Tamarin monkeys, monk saki monkeys, scarlet macaws pink river dolphins, manatees, anacondas, just a few of what we saw. We went fishing for piranhas with fresh meat. That was not my favorite activity. The teeth on those things are …yuck…
Then there is a whole other side of the trip, visiting the villages. Totally fascinating and a real culture shock. these happy friendly people have nothing. They have babies very young, large families, most never leave their village. Many wearing hand me down clothes from some donation. You see those in teeshirts, Batman, Converse, Starbucks…they have no idea what their tee shirt represents, just clothes to them, and happy to have them.
To close, this was the most amazing interesting, educational trip we have ever taken. Lindblad and Linda at Sunstone lived up to their reputation a second time. Our next trip will be the Galapagos. This could be combined with the Amazon trip but we didn’t have the time to do this. So we will be back.
—Carter and Diane, Palo Alto, CA
