The Amazon

It’s a bit of a contradiction that the Earth’s lung will take your breath away, but the Amazon rainforest is full of astonishments — the first of which is the river itself, so huge you won’t believe it, fed by other rivers that it seems an insult to label as mere tributaries.

Whether you enter Amazonia through Brazil, Peru, Ecuador or Argentina, you’ll find lodges, or refugios, tucked away in the jungle, reached by several hours of chugging along the brown water in a narrow wooden boat. Don’t nod off in the humid heat: you may miss seeing a family of capybaras squelching through the mud along the bank, or scarlet macaws swooping across the river, their long tail-feathers dangling, or a log lumpy with turtles sunning themselves.

There could be a frog in the shower of your open-walled room; or a hummingbird may dart across your breakfast table — you’ll certainly come home with stories to tell and memories to cherish. Watching from a tower as dawn washes over the jungle and monkeys swing through the treetops below? Priceless!