On, and Over the Site

Four separate week-long trips to the site and numerous shirtsleeve, working sessions with the clients and their many local experts (biologists, historians, animal experts, an archaeologist, and various researchers) contributed greatly to the team's understanding of this expansive and complex site. During all site analysis trips, the clients provided local guides from the Policia Ambiental Militar whose job it is to protect the forest, and to impart some of their knowledge of the site gained over many years of being on it daily. Many times we would stop along the way for one of the guides to cut a flower, fruit, or seed from a plant to show us the traditional native's use for it as food, drink, or even body paint.

The earliest trips to the site were more often vehicle-based--in pickup trucks, boats, planes and helicopters--in an effort to gain a better general understanding of the overall site and the region. Hot, bumpy rides on dirt roads in the back of a pickup and an unforgettable boat trip under the jungle canopy on the Taiassui on an incoming tide all added to the team's appreciation and reverence for the site.

So much was learned by just walking the land and communing with the spirit of the place. Many of the excursions paused at the residences of indigenous families who provided the team with additional insight about living on and adjacent to the site, the region, and life in the Amazon.