Amazon Wonder Expeditions — Local services in Iquitos

We did the 3 day, 2 night package with Louis during the rainy season. This is an experience like no other! We did everything including boat tours, swimming in the Amazon river, piranha fishing, an impromptu piranha cooking class (thank you Louis!), looking for sloths, and more. Everything was so easy for us, as they took care of it all and helped us feel comfortable. Amazon Wonder Expeditions is an extremely friendly, safe, and fun tour company that is so helpful in making your trip what you want it to be.

This is a family run company and it is clear they all have such passion and knowledge for the Peruvian Amazon.

A bit more detail for those wondering… The first day of the trip, we were picked up from our hotel and taken to our eco lodge. We had forgotten hats, so Allen, Louis’s son, took us around the market and made sure we got a hat at a good price before departing.

We stayed at the Cumaceba Eco Lodge, which is a really unique experience in itself! Amazon Wonder Expeditions can help arrange lodging at lodges around the area that suit your comfort as well, you just let them know when you book. For us, we really liked the pre-arranged Cumaceba Eco Lodge. Americo, the lodge site manager, keeps the lodge in great condition, catches releases the wildlife that comes into the lodge, and makes sure we are all comfortable. We also loved how home-feeling the lodge was. Several of us in the group loved to hang out at night and chat. Louis has so much knowledge about Amazon legends and shares wonderful stories. Americo and my brother found great enjoyment in playing this neat game at the lodge we had never played before. You toss gold coins into holes and accumulate points… if you get a coin in the frog’s mouth, you win right away. Great touch to the lodge!

The cabins are lined well with plastic netting, so nearly no mosquitoes get in while you’re sleeping. The best part of the lodge is that it helps you connect to nature. All night you hear the jungle. It’s spectacular. We personally loved that we had the basic necessities. There is running water, WiFi, and electricity for several hours a day. This gave us the experience we were looking for in an eco-lodge! Like I said, they can arrange lodging that suits your needs as well, but this was so perfect for us to detach from our screens and enjoy the moment!

All of our tours were incredibly educational. I really appreciated that Louis runs his company based on ethical and safe practices. He does not focus on animals outside of their natural habitat. I truly lost count of how many activities/tours we did during the trip because we did so many! I believe the number was about 8. Our favorite part of the trip was piranha fishing. Our group of four caught over 10 fish during the tour! When we got back to the lodge, we asked Louis if we could fish for piranhas off the walkway, and they set us up with rods and bait! We caught two there and had quite a few bites! They helped us to handle the piranhas once we caught them to ensure we did not get bitten. We ended up cooking the biggest ones we caught! They are absolutely delicious.

The food was so fantastic too! After piranha fishing, my brother requested to watch the chef prepare and cook the piranha. Louis set up the impromptu cooking class and told us everything the chef was doing as she prepared the piranha for us! We did not expect to get a cooking class on piranha in the Amazon and are so grateful Amazon Wonder Expeditions set it up!

We also went to Monkey Island, which is a rehabilitation center for monkeys that are removed from horrible situations like captivity and animal trafficking. It was fascinating to see so much go into making sure these monkeys are rehabilitated to the point where they can be released.

I highly recommend using Amazon Wonder Expeditions, as they provide a unique and exemplary service, can cater to requests you have, and are very humble and wonderful people. Louis, thank you so much for such a...

Amazon Wonder Expeditions gave us the best experience we could have hoped for. We did the 3D/2N tour, and if you are overwhelmed by all the different options for tour operators (like we were), the let it be all-caps-clear: THIS IS IT.

We were on our honeymoon through South America, and by the time we were booking our Amazon tour our budget had shrunken quite a bit. We were kinda bummed out we didn't have more to spend to make it more "luxurious" or whatever, which in hindsight is one of the stupidest thoughts I've ever had.

I don't think I've experienced more value for money in my life. Our lovely guide Luis, a personal cook (wonderful Rosa) and our own boatman Oscar - all for just the two of us. Everything included; lodging, three meals a day with fresh juices (different for each meal!), entry fees, boots, pick up/drop off - all and everything, except alcohol and soda.

There sure is a jungle (pun intended) of tour operators out there, and it's kinda stressful to pick the "right" one. It seems to me now that they mostly offer the same thing; fishing piranhas, night tour, monkey island, scouting for dolphins blabla. Here's couple of things that seems to set Amazon Wonder apart:

Entry fee to the real Monkey Island included in the tour (this is a must - it was a great experience, and be wary of operators that don't have this explicitly listed if you want to go. We met people that were taken to a fake one, and it was reeeeeeal_badman.gif). Black water river tour, where you get to see another part of the Amazon; a much smaller river with different wildlife and the local community way closer. A guide that cares for the jungle, both its wildlife and community.

Now to the longer version.

PEOPLE First and foremost our guide Luis. Born in a small river village on the Amazon and with 30 years experience in guiding? You need to look hard for a more seasoned guide. His keen eye catches about everything of significance both on the jungle floor and in the trees. If you are interested in birds, this is the tour for you. Luis sees them all, and the tour includes a trip down a blackwater river that houses some birds you won't see where the other tour operators go. Luis is a genuinely good man with a heart that beats for the jungle; the animals and their ways, the craziness of deforestation, the impact of climate change on the jungle etc.

Rosa, our cook, added a unique dimension to our tour with her meals. Using ingredients that were sourced in the region, she created dishes that really connected us to the plants and animals we'd just seen. Dining became an extension of our guided tour, enhancing our understanding of the local culture through her cooking.

Oscar the legend. That feeling of pride you get when your boat looks the best among the tour operators (don't get me wrong; it's real rustic, but very well-kept) and the satisfaction when your boat slides perfectly to shore among all the others? It's all Oscar.

LODGE The lodge is very rural and you shouldn't expect anything other than a very authentic jungle experience. With a power generator that's only used a couple of hours a day, a very warm climate and the simplest of interior a faint-hearted person probably won't be satisfied. For us though, it was perfect; we got to fall asleep to the sound of the jungle as if we were sleeping on the ground outside and wake up to the sound of roosters and the break of dawn. There was no connection or internet, which made it double up as a digital retreat (Luis said they've now gotten a Starlink for future groups - which is great, but I'd recommend against using it if I were you). We were snobby enough to use our silk-pouches for sleeping in though; mostly due to insects - the room was not free of them - as well as the warmth and feeling of hygiene. I'd recommend bringing one. You should also bring mosquito repellent, sunscreen, cash (for beers and sodas at the lodge), head lamp and binoculars.

Go with Amazon Wonder. You...

We just got back to the US from Peru - Allen the rest of the Amazon Wonders team gave us a great experience in the Amazon.

We had recommendations from a local friend for the rest of our experiences in Peru, this was the only one we found on our own. So we were a little nervous flying into Iquitos going off online reviews. We were met at the airport by a trusted cab driver known to the team. We were then taken to the river and the adventure began! It is a small operation - it was just me, my wife, and 8yo son for the trip to the lodge, along with Allen and Julio the pilot of the boat (although others were at the lodge). They found us some grey and then pink river dolphins, then we went swimming in the Amazon. They were always flexible in what activities we did when, planning each day to fit what made sense based on the weather and our preferences. My son saw so much wildlife, held a caiman, caught and ate piranha, swam with dolphins. It was an amazing experience.

On our last day our flight was late in the evening, so Allen helped us to spend some time in Iquitos rather than wait in the airport (Iquitos has a beautiful boulevard along the river). He held our bags for us and also went out of his way to make sure we had transportation to get to the airport on time. Full service!

At the lodge the food was very good. There was plenty of filtered water available for us to fill our water bottles (the only time we found this in Peru). Everyone was very friendly and accommodating, particularly to our 8yo who had lots of questions and frequently wanted to feed the chickens (or hold the resident parakeet Pepe). Highly...