Amazon Essentials: 3-Day Private Culture & Nature Immersion

Excellent experience. Local guides know a lot and are always willing to share what they know and are watching you from the first to the last minute. Days full of experiences, wonder and fun. Hearty and healthy food. Certainly something you'll take with you forever. I advise you to wear socks and change extra clothes.

For us, going to the Amazon was a bucket-list trip that felt almost unapproachable. If you want to see the rainforest, you need a guide not only to make your experience more fun, not only to keep you safe, but to even make it possible in the first place. Without a guide, the best-case scenario is that I would still be lost in the jungle, stuck in mud that had swallowed my boots above the ankles. Those difficulties make the choice of a guide all the more important. You can see the rainforest in several countries in South America, but for reasons you can read about elsewhere, it is best protected in Colombia, where environmental conservation efforts far surpass those in neighboring countries. Within Colombia, the tiny river town of Puerto Nariño stands out as a model of sustainable ecotourism (as you can read in the 2024 BBC article that I'm apparently not allowed to link here). And I submit the best rainforest tour company you could possibly find -- not just in Puerto Nariño, but in all of Amazonas -- is Oxígeno Amazonas, which offers private tour groups with local guides and translators, putting money back into the local economy and revealing the wonders of the rainforest without damaging the ecosystem. Our group of three was trying to see much of Colombia -- Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena, and Amazonas -- in a single trip, so we did not have a tremendous amount of time to spend in the jungle. We wondered if three days was long enough. For us, it absolutely was. When we landed in Leticia, we were picked up at the airport by Don Carlos, an Oxígeno guide, who took us to lunch, took us across the border into Brazil for an authentic açaí bowl, and then took us to the water taxi that went two hours upriver to Puerto Nariño. There, we were met by the company's owners, Karla and Darwis; our wonderful guide, Cheo; and our translator, Aura. They helped us take our bags uphill to the hotel. And then we went for an evening hike into the jungle, staying at a cabin protected by mosquito netting. They made us dinner, fresh fish cooked in a banana leaf, and took us on a night walk during which they routinely pointed out frogs and spiders and snakes and insects that we never would have seen at all. Then we fell asleep to a murmuring chorus of birds and insects, truly a memorable experience. The next morning, we hiked to breakfast, including lots of fresh fruit and a monkey eating at the table with us, and then looked for alligators and arowana from an overlook onto a nearby pond. After we hiked back into town, we took a boat across the river into Peru, where we hiked into the jungle to look for sloths. Then we came back to the Colombia side of the river for a boat ride upriver to a lake where we looked for pink dolphins and went for a relaxing swim. Then we fished for piranhas with traditional equipment, catching several. Watching the sun set over the Amazon on the boat ride back into town, the trees and sky reflecting in the water, was a peak experience we will never forget. We had dinner at a restaurant in town and went to bed exhausted and happy. The next morning, we kayaked in another part of the river while looking for more dolphins. Then we climbed the Mirador, a breathtaking lookout over the town and the whole river; ate delicious ice cream flavored with local fruits that we had never even heard of; and shopped for handmade souvenirs from local artisans. The water taxi took us two hours back downriver to Leticia, where Don Carlos picked us up on the other end. He took us to a wildlife rehabilitation center in Brazil, where we were able to feed bananas that he purchased from a roadside market to several kinds of monkeys, some that sat on our shoulders. Then we had caipirinhas at a scenic overlook where Brazilian music was playing. We came back to Leticia just in time to hear the noisy nightly roosting of thousands of colorful parrots, a spectacle to behold, and then we had dinner at a place that served traditional Amazonian fare, including the mojojoy that we saw in the jungle. And then the guide dropped us off at the airport for our flight back to Bogotá. I listed out our action-packed itinerary in meticulous detail to show that even a few days in the Amazon was more than enough to make memories we will treasure for the rest of our lives. And none of it would have been possible without the help of Cheo anticipating and overcoming problems at every turn, keeping us safe and well cared for and happy. Karla and Darwis were incredibly proactive and responsive from the very first time we messaged them, making sure that everything is going well and immediately addressing any minor problems that come up. And they consistently choose to patronize local restaurants, local companies, local guides, making sure that the money from tourism enriches the communities and the ecosystems that in turn enrich us. Visiting the Amazon rainforest is probably not an experience that everyone wants -- but if you are willing to put up with the difficulties, the rewards are great. And I sincerely believe that the difficulties are lesser and the rewards greater by touring with Oxígeno Amazonas. I'm forever grateful to them for all they did for us, and I recommend them highly to anyone who wants the sort of experience I've described.