Thursday 26 March 2009

A day in Amazonia

As dusk sets in the boat roars up the Tapajós River headed to the forest that awaits for our arrival. In Amazonia the sky seems lower than anywhere else I’ve been before, laying just above the water that mirrors it. Fading behind us is Alter-do-Chão, which postcards portray white-sand beaches instead of the fine-breed Lusitano horses its Portuguese counterpart is known for. In front of me the reason why I came here in the first place, the immense forest I can see before my eyes.
Further ahead we leave the boat and my steps trail those of the guides who skillfully follow a narrow track inside the forest. Along the way they teach me how to distinguish the different birds’ chants and unveil the mysteries of some plants, which among other things are used to heal headaches, glue canoes and help loosing weight. Many steps and 3 hours later we arrived to the ‘granny’ of all trees, an immense wall of which my camera could not give the right perspective and of which I could not spot the top. On our way back the fauna, which made itself heard all along, decided to show up. A poisonous jararaca snake crossed our path to remind us we were not in some amusement park but in the planet’
s biggest forest, a marvelous world filled with surprises where we are just one more, a visitor in someone else’s house.
I’m feeling tired, tired and tiny. Only a dip in these river’s refreshing waters can bring me back to reality. This swim, however, cannot erase from my mind the consciousness of how small and relative my position is in this world, the biggest teaching I got from immersing myself in this forest.

Alter-do-Chão, Brazil, January 2009



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