All aboard the jungle cruise

As alligator-wrestling goes, it wasn't much to brag about. After a two-hour hunt for the elusive Amazonian cayman, the scaly creature we captured was less than a foot long. Luckily for us, he was only a baby, with tiny claws and needle-thin teeth. Luckily for him, our "hunt" ended simply in our stroking his suede-soft skin before releasing him.

Still, not many people can say they've held a prehistoric beast on their lap - and the journey we'd made to do it was as memorable as the cayman. By the light of a gigantic full moon, our wooden canoe had left harbour on the Amazon's 400-island Anavilhanas archipelago to cross mirror-smooth water, the air filled with twinkling fireflies and the harsh rasp of tree frogs.

Frogs in trees? In this topsyturvy world, you'll find fish there as well. When the mighty Amazon is at full flood, it reduces 40ft trees to squat bushes, their tops protruding from the water. Like the trees, I was swamped by the sheer scale of this ocean-river, which runs for 4,000 miles and - at full flood - discharges 121 million litres of fresh water every second. But no statistics can match the impact of the real thing.

There are various ways of exploring the Amazon; the local tribes people get about from their wooden stilt houses on brightly painted canoes or small motorised "ferries" crammed with colourful hammocks. I did it rather more stylishly aboard the 296-passenger Silver Cloud, one of the world's most luxurious ships, which took me from Barbados to Manaus via Devil's Island - home to the infamous prison described in the novel Papillon.

A few days later, from the Jungle Tower Hotel on the banks of the Amazon, I braced myself for a climb through smothering heat to a boardwalk high above the rainforest, planning to end the day with chilled champagne, a shower in a marbled bathroom and a leisurely haute cuisine dinner. Even without such consolations our rainforest hike was worth the sweat. Flame-coloured monkeys swung past like flamboyant trapeze artists, Day-Glo-tinted macaws and parrots squawked through the vegetation. Luxury followed us ashore, too; a Silversea Experience excursion saw us dining in style on an isolated beach, served drinks by white-gloved waiters as we ate freshly caught fish off fine china at linen covered tables.

And at the small town of Parentins, we discovered the human inhabitants of the Amazon could be as eye-catching and noisy as the wildlife - at least when their annual Boi-Bumba festival is in full swing in June. This music, dancing and whistleblowing-fest is small scale but has all the birds-of-paradise colour of the Rio carnival. Each of the hundreds of Amazonian tribes has its own culture dating back to prehistory. One of the best places to learn about them is the Indian Museum at Alter do Chao, a mystical place filled with haunting pipe music and ancient artefacts.

I could have waited to visit the Museo du Homem do Norte or the Museo de Indio at Manaus, but I doubt either had more atmosphere than the Alter do Chao Museum, which had the bonus of a sandy beach, laughing children and sloths dangling from trees.

There wasn't much time at Manaus to see anything but the Teatro Amazonas opera house, which had little more to recommend it than any plush-curtained Victorian theatre. Ironic that, with such a vivid country and remarkable culture to celebrate, Amazonas's city fathers chose instead to ape the grandiosity of 19th century Paris.

WAY TO GO

The next Amazon sailing with Silversea Cruises (0870 333 7030, www.silversea.com) is 12-22 November, aboard the all-suite Silver Cloud. Ten nights, from Barbados to Manaus, Brazil (23 November-2 December Manaus to Barbados). Four departures in 2003: 26 January, 9 February, 4 November and 18 November. Prices from £5,195pp in a non-balconied suite to £11,195pp in the Grand Suite, with flights, a night in Miami, gratuities, drinks and one excursion.