A&K delivers a boutique experience on its new Amazon ship

The Amazon is not your average river. And Pure Amazon, Abercrombie & Kent's first riverboat in South America, is far from your average river cruising vessel.

Think floating safari, but half a world away from A&K's African roots. So instead of lions and elephants, a good day means sightings of pink dolphins, sloths, monkeys, piranhas and lots of birds.

Pure Amazon is just the second new vessel to set sail in Peru's Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve in more than a decade. There are less than a dozen river vessels sailing the area.

The ship is part of the A&K Sanctuary collection, which also includes 13 luxury safari lodges and camps and four ships on the Nile. 

A floating boutique hotel

With a capacity of just 22 guests and a 1-to-1 staff-to-guest ratio, Pure Amazon is more like a boutique hotel than a river cruise ship, with spacious suites and exceptional personal service. 

Its design features locally sourced materials and décor, such as wood, textiles and tapestry with nods to both modern and traditional Peruvian culture and environment. In the Deck 1 lounge, for example, the ceiling is almost fur-like with off-white fibers that resemble that of the sacuara, a plant similar to sugarcane. In the suites, ceilings are covered by a woven reed called totora that is common on the Amazon and Lake Titicaca.

The large suites feel like luxury hotel rooms (or Sanctuary safari camp villas). The 10 suites on Deck 2 are more than 270 square feet, with king beds, a sitting area with daybed or chair and ottoman, a desk and a spacious bathroom with large shower. There are connecting suites for families and two smaller cabins on Deck 1 that solo travelers can book without a single supplement.

All of the accommodations have panoramic views. In the larger cabins, the beds face an outer wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. Even the shower has a glass outer wall (with a retractable shade, of course.) 

The top deck features a second bar, a comfortable lounge area that also offers panoramic views, colorful tapestries, a map room, a spa treatment area and a gym. And there are two outdoor seating areas: a back deck and a forward space with tables and chairs and a large hot tub.

Flavors of Peru

The dining area also features floor-to-ceiling windows. You might forget about looking for pink dolphins once you dig into the food. 

Breakfast and lunch are buffet-style, with a mix of traditional and Peruvian foods. Alongside the bacon, eggs and omelet station was a different type of breakfast tamale every day. 

Lunch featured homemade soups like corn chowder and a variety of local fish and meat dishes such as lomo saltado (a Peruvian beef stir-fry) and sides including baked sweet potatoes with orange glaze and sweet chili salt.

Dinner every evening was a five-course menu with international and local dishes and wine pairings, including a variety of outstanding crisp, dry Peruvian whites that, unfortunately, aren't readily available outside of Peru.

I didn't have one dish I didn't like, although my hands-down favorite was the catfish ceviche marinated in coconut milk with ginger.

Spotting wildlife, watching people

Although the Pure Amazon is new, the crew members are seasoned professionals. The guides and naturalists grew up in the Peruvian Amazon and have been working river cruises for years.

There was not an animal they couldn't identify, and they gave fascinating briefings on the region's wildlife, from the bigger-than-a-human catfish to the seemingly countless variety of birds we spotted.

The cruise offers several outings each day, including pre-breakfast skiff rides. Like any safari, there were great days for spotting animals and others that were less so, but overall we had good luck. We saw a momma sloth carrying her baby, trees full of spider monkeys, a woolly monkey, bats and pods of pink and grey dolphins feeding and playing around the vessels and during our skiff rides.

We also fished for piranha, took a jungle walk and kayaked and swam. And every night, the guides are at the ready to help guests spot stars and constellations.

One of the best parts was getting to see real life on the Amazon. We watched fishermen and families in hand-carved boats navigating the waters alongside oil tankers and ferries. 

At one village, where we were able to stop and wander among the stilted wooden homes, we watched two men with a load of coconuts and a woman and her three sons standing on the riverbank waiting to flag down a ferry that the woman said would take her on a three-day ride home.

The large open-air ferries have decks for chickens and people, with passengers able to hang a hammock for journeys that take days or even weeks on this massive, winding river and its tributaries.