ABOVE: Room with a view...

We had three excursions a day, with the first starting at 5.30am. There was no pressure to go on every trip, but most people did because you didn’t want to miss seeing a caiman or pink dolphin. (Yes, pink dolphins.) There were four guides, and for me they were the most amazing thing about the trip. They could spot birds and animals 50 metres away that I couldn’t see under my nose with a pair of binoculars. They were all born and raised in the Amazon and recounted stories about their families and experiences in the jungle.

Our guide Julio told us that his grandfather made a medicine from leaves to treat depression. “The Amazon is the biggest pharmacy in the world,” he said, “and your machete is known as your ‘second wife’, as you can’t be without it.” Their knowledge was inexhaustible and they didn’t get annoyed no matter how often I asked, “Where’s the sloth?” or, “Is that a spider on my shoulder?”

I went caiman spotting at night, ran away from a Goliath bird-eating spider, sang songs with schoolchildren, swam in the river, and even went piranha fishing with just a stick and hook. I spotted every animal and bird on my wishlist – it was a non-stop show. I saw squirrel monkeys, saddleback tamarins, red howler monkeys, kingfishers, herons, raptors, plumthroated cotingas, long-nosed bats, turquoise tanagers, macaws, white-throated toucans, yellow-hooded blackbirds and an anaconda.

We even had bucks fizz sundowners in the skiffs one day, near the confluence of the Ucayali and Marañón rivers, known to Peruvians as the ‘birthplace of the Amazon’. It was all quite overwhelming. The sheer expanse of the river and the jungle is just breathtaking.

Every night I came back to a power shower, a tasting menu and a large glass of wine. The food was amazing. For lunch one day we had a buffet which included causa (a potato dish) with freshwater shrimp escabeche and seco (braised beef in cilantro sauce) – it was nothing less than a five-star floating hotel. The trip was exhilarating and exhausting – utterly surreal at times – and easily worth the long journey. And the spiders.

The nine-day New Peruvian Amazon Discovery package with Bales Worldwide starts at £4,295, including flights and accommodation, with three nights in Lima and four nights aboard the Aria Amazon by Aqua Expeditions. Prices are per person based on two adults sharing on a mixed board basis; balesworldwide.com

Sail into a world of Amazonian discovery