Below, a few of the striking images which are sure to make your mouth water…

See the full article below and check out more of the delicious Amazonian recipes by Pedro Miguel Schiaffino.

http://www.aquaexpeditions.com/userfiles/file/AquaExpeditionsFoodAndWineJuly2011LR2.pdf

As a Gold Award winner, Aqua Expeditions and WEILL associates will now have a chance to win a Platinum Award at a Gala event being held by HSMAI in New York City this coming February. Watch this space…

The New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign was launched following the election of the New 7 Wonders of the Man-Made World and, as the slogan goes  “If we want to save anything, we first need to truly appreciate it!”  this message aims to raise awareness of the variety and beauty of nature around us and how we need to preserve it for future generations.

A few interesting facts and some reasons why the Amazon most definitely deserves your vote:

• The Amazon Rainforest, also known as Amazonia, the Amazon jungle or the Amazon Basin, encompasses seven million square kilometres (1.7 billion acres),
• The forest itself occupies some 5.5 million square kilometres (1.4 billion acres) across nine nations.
• The Amazon River is the largest river in the world by volume, with a total flow greater than the top ten rivers worldwide combined.
• Not a single bridge crosses the Amazon.
• It accounts for approximately one-fifth of the total world river flow and has the biggest drainage basin on the planet.
• The Amazon represents over half of the planet’s remaining rainforests and comprises the largest and most species-rich tract of tropical rainforest in the world.

Voting closes on the 11^th November so be sure to make your voice heard and place your vote here before the deadline.



Congratulations Mike!

All of Mr. Harper’s Grand Award winners possess exceptional character, a commitment to classic hospitality and a profound sense of place. Mr. Harper does not make his recommendations by means of a checklist, but uses his three decades of experience to distinguish the truly enchanting from the merely excellent.

“All in all,” says Mr. Harper, “2010 has been a bumper year.” And “despite difficult financial times, the quality of these new discoveries is truly remarkable.”

Congratulations to all of Aqua Expedition’s staff for the super start to 2011!

#6. Iquitos

After days forging by boat along rainforest-fringed rivers, Iquitos, mighty megalopolis of the Peruvian Amazon, comes as a shock to the system. Pulsating with life, the city’s latest boom is tourism: visitors may flock to reconnoitre the rainforest but taking time to imbibe Iquitos itself is imperative too. This is a sultry slice of Amazon life: Brazilian, Colombian, indigenous and expat. Clubs bounce to salsa and rock until the early hours with the vigour you’d expect of Peru’s jungle capital, but Iquitos is also a cultural hub: expect works by Peru’s top artists, opulent rubber-boom mansions and a museum on Amazon ethnography for starters. As a trading post for rainforest tribes, market mayhem and riverboat bustle are part of the package, all conspiring to fill the city with an addictive, round-the-clock energy.” (Courtesy of Lonely Planet)

The full list of destinations can be found here: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/usa/new-york-city/travel-tips-and-articles/76165#

The winning hour-long episode of Food Trip, filmed on-location in the Peruvian Amazon, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, highlights the best of Peruvian cuisine.  In the Amazon, chef English was guided by Peruvian star chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino and visited local markets, where he sampled various exotic ingredients.  Amazonian snails and catfish from a local market served as inspiration for a ceviche-cooking segment aboard the luxury vessel MV Aqua, which was topped off with Chef Schiaffino’s special Camu Camu Pisco Sour.

Aqua Expeditions’ public relations representative in the U.S., Nestor Lara-Baeza of WEILL PR, was fortunate enough to have been asked to accept the award for chef English as he had a previous engagement that evening.

Congratulations to Todd English for being nominated for a prestigious James Beard House Foundation Award!

Todd English and his crew from PBS’ Food Trip with Todd English recently spent several days with Aqua Expeditions’ Executive Chef, Pedro Miguel Schiaffino, exploring the Peruvian Amazon and its unique cuisine. The 30-minute piece they filmed in Iquitos and onboard the M/V Aqua — along with the 30-minute piece they filmed in Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley — secured the nomination for a 2010 James Beard Foundation Broadcast Media Award for Best Television Special.

The James Beard House Foundation will hold its annual gala event on May 2, 2010, in New York City to announce the 2010 award winners.

Good luck to Todd and his staff; or as we say in Spanish, “buena suerte!”

Each year, readers of Travel+Leisure, the top travel magazine in the US, choose from among the world’s top hotels, resorts, spas, cruise lines, airlines, travel companies and destinations, to determine the winners of the World’s Best Awards.  This is the first year that Aqua Expeditions is included on the prestigious readers’ ballots.

Readers who cast votes in the readers’ poll at www.tlworldsbest.com through March 31, 2010, are also entered to win a $10,000 dream trip to the destination of their choice.  Results of the survey will be announced in the August 2011 issue of Travel+Leisure magazine. Log on to the site and vote for us!

The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) has recognized Aqua Expeditions and its PR firm, WEILL (Geoffrey Weill Associates), with a gold award for public relations excellence in the 53^rd annual Adrian Awards Competition; the world’s largest and most prestigious travel marketing competition. The Adrian Awards are considered the “Oscars” of travel and tourism promotion, attracting nearly 1,100 entries from around the world this year.

Aqua Expeditions’ gold award came as a result of the PR and media campaign during the pre- and post-launch of its vessel, the M/V Aqua.

Congratulations to WEILL PR and to the entire Aqua Expeditions staff for making the launch of the M/V Aqua a huge success!

This October 2009, Condé Nast Traveler listed Aqua Expeditions among 26 travel and tourism companies that it recognizes as “World Savers.” The list honored those companies that, according to the magazine, are “turning travel’s enormous potential to improve the planet into reality.”

Nominations were made for excellence in the areas of education, poverty, wildlife, preservation, and health. Aqua Expeditions, however, was honored to find itself on the “doing it all” list, reflecting its efforts in every one of the above categories.

Aqua Expeditions is dedicated to delivering a world-class Amazon experience, in an environment of comfort and safety. Its team onboard the M/V Aqua equals that of the finest small ship operators, anywhere in the world. Management has a total commitment to excellence.