Passenger boats abandoned Colombia's Magdalena River around the time the steamship era faded, and nobody cruised there again — until now. AmaWaterways has launched a seven-day sailing between Cartagena and Barranquilla aboard its low, bargelike AmaMelodia (sister ship AmaMagdalena runs the same route), and the river is so quiet that the only other vessel you'll pass is its twin. Think of it as the anti-Danube: no queue of riverboats, just brown water, fishing villages, and a stretch of country immortalised in Gabriel García Márquez's Love in the Time of Cholera.

What makes this itinerary different from a standard river cruise is how deliberately it funnels money to local makers. AmaWaterways spent five years scouting riverside towns — managing director Beno Atan literally rented a boat, stocked an ice chest with beer and sandwiches, and started talking to people. The results show up in the excursions.

In Usiacurí, an hour outside Barranquilla, artisans work with iraca palm, boiling cut fronds and stirring in powdered dye until they hit the right shade, then weaving bags, baskets, fans and jewellery. Travellers can try the braiding themselves — usually badly — before buying directly from the craftspeople in the stalls outside the workshop. In Mompox, a UNESCO-listed town beloved by domestic tourists, courtyard workshops practise Colombian filigree, twisting threads of silver and gold into lace-like shapes over an open flame. At Santa Barbara de Pinto, a fishing village where AmaWaterways had to build a dock from scratch, you can buy hand-rolled cigarettes (eight for $5) and watch fishermen demonstrate their net-casting in the village square.

Some towns proved too hard to reach — El Banco was cut because the river bends too aggressively to approach it — so instead, cumbia performers bus in with handcrafted drums, including the two-headed bass tambora, for onboard demonstrations. Colombian guides liaise and translate at every stop, including Palenque and Calamar.

For travellers, this is a rare chance to see a river route that's been effectively closed to tourism for six decades, with all the low-key authenticity that implies — plus a genuinely cultural alternative to Europe's crowded waterways. Sailings run from $3,299 per person for the seven-night Magic of Colombia itinerary, based on the most recent pricing reported by Condé Nast Traveler.