Only rivers and trees

It is almost five weeks since my holidays ended and six weeks since they began. I spent nine days dividing my time between two places, the Amazon and Bonito. The two places differed greatly in terms of terrain, the Amazon being masses of trees separated by huge rivers so wide it was at times impossible to see the other side, and Bonito with its dry earthy land, of soil an unimaginable bright red.

Leaving the small island on which I live I flew from one end of the country to another in order to reach the Amazon. High in the sky and looking down at the land as one manicured field met another, the fields formed a patchwork quilt stretching as far as the eye could see. Uninterrupted land for miles, with not one building in sight and very few tracks snaking between the fields. As the plane crept closer to the Amazonian region small rivers began to penetrate the land, creating an appearance of a tree in winter without it leaves. The larger of the rivers formed the trunk of the tree, and the numerous small streams leading from it the bare twisted branches. And then the fields stopped and the forest began, a sheer blanket of green.

The size of the Amazonian forest is truly unimaginable to those that have not visited it, as is the size of its rivers. One hour and thirty minutes past from first sight of the forest to landing in Manaus, in the middle of the Amazonian region. Leaving the plane the humidity hit me like a brick wall, and came as a welcome relief having come from a cold winters day in the south of Brazil. Within half an hour of landing I boarded a boat and begun the two hours boat ride to the hotel in which I was to stay for the next 4 days.