Donna Vitoria Da Riva Carvalho is a remarkable woman! Since 1990, she has been responsible, almost single-handedly, for buying and preserving 26,000 acres of pristine Amazonian rainforest at its very vulnerable Southern edge.
So as I sat here earlier this evening, looking at a huge Amazon flat fish being barbecued on an open fire in preparation for an alfresco supper, somebody with sharper eyes than me detected two large and two not so large shapes dimly lit up by the fire.
We stood on the huge tower, the sky gradually cleared and lightened as we scrutinised the myriad treetops and over the next three hours or so – while we swayed gently at the top of our tower – the Cristalino forest revealed an extravaganza of treasures. We had a very lucky morning!
I finally reached the southern edge of the Amazon rainforest, stretching like a green wall on either side of our straight red road. A further fifteen minute drive through a green tunnel saw the road suddenly incline sharply down to the edge of the Teres Pires river
It’s a long way from Warwick Parkway Station in the West Midlands to Rio Cristalino Jungle lodge at the Northern edge of the huge Central Brazilian State of Matto Grosso. And it takes a three-day journey to get you there – to what is now the Southern edge of the vast Amazon Rainforest.
I saw my first Harpy Eagle just after dawn on the 24th April 1995 at the La Selva Lodge on the Rio Napo river in Eastern Ecuador
