In the Peruvian Amazon, jungle walks reveal giant wildlife and hidden villages

We'd just emerged from a jungle walk in the Peruvian Amazon, where we were hissed at by a swollen red tail boa wrapped around a branch, and beheld a tarantula bigger than a fist, and a redback poison frog the size of a fingernail. In the 95 per cent humidity, we were drenched in sweat - a long way from the air-conditioned staterooms of the Aqua Nera river ship, which awaited us nearby on the Nauta Cano tributary, in the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve. Artisans from a local village stood at stalls with their wares for sale, bowls and platters made from Amazon timbers, and creatures of the forest woven in palm leaves. Their children gathered by the riverbank, and the common sight (and noise) of a wooden canoe with a "peque-peque" motor came into view. Oftentimes when we saw them they were transporting people and goods; this time the driver carried canoes on canoes, heading east to who knows where, but the mighty Amazon River itself was not too far away.