Brazil

The Rhythm of water

Searching for slowness in the Amazon
brazil

The Rhythm of water

When you study a map of the Amazon, it looks like the roots of an ancient, sprawling tree.

But maps are just that: abstractions. To really understand the Amazon, you have to spend time in the Amazon. This new trip – which can't be booked anywhere else – offers you all the time your family will need.

Following from the streets of Rio, its "heart" is a private river journey that will carry you up the Rio Negro and into stretches of the rainforest that travelers rarely – if ever – get to see. Through a host of carefully curated encounters, we've prepared a journey whose heartbeat is a kind of beautiful "boredom" – where silence, nature, and human connection will guide and give structure to your days.

When

Mar - Nov

Price

From $16,640pp excl. flights
Price includes all accommodation, experiences, guiding and transfers. Based on traveling off-peak and may increase if traveling over peak season. Price excludes international flights but these can be arranged on request. See here for more information.
(based on 2 ppl sharing)

How long

8 nights
Ideal length
Days 1-2

Rio de Janeiro

You can’t jump straight into the Amazon. First comes Rio: a city – dating to 1565 – overlooked by Corcovado and Sugarloaf Mountains, wearing its UNESCO World Heritage status with pride, bristling with its own urban rainforest. For two days, we’ll help you find your bearings and drink up a little of that electrically Brazilian way of life.

Fasano Hotel Rio
Day 1
Swings so cool and sways so gently

For the next two nights, you’ll be mailing up at Fasano Rio de Janeiro – enjoying an oceanfront room whose balcony overlooks the blissful boho beach of Ipanema. Just like the song. This area has a glamorous and easy-going reputation totally unbothered by the city’s more touristy hubs. Today is about being here. No rush, no hurry. Our local guides will be more than happy to help you find an unfussy local dinner.

Day 2
Real to reel

You can’t see all of Rio in 48 hours. But we’d stake our reputation on introducing you to its rhythms in a day. The best person to affect this understanding is Vitor Marigo – a Rio photographer and close friend. He’ll be your guide, your insider, your “man in Rio” – taking you on a relaxed, story-driven digression through this ever-changing city. There’ll be the right amount of patience and the perfect conditions for spontaneity.

Day 2 continued

Lunch is at Aprazivel – one of our favorite Rio haunts. It’s the best possible place to blend into the scenery and watch how Brazilians spend their time.

After lunch, Vitor will introduce you to one of Rio’s most cinematic perspectives – taking the cable car to Sugarloaf’s summit, 400 meters above sea level. From here, Guanabara Bay is spread out before you. Sunset back at your hotel. A spa treatment, dinner, and all the quiet pleasures of Ipanema.

Day 3
Manaus – The gateway to the Amazon

No roads lead to the Amazon. But you can fly. Manaus – the largest city in the state of Amazonas – is an essential stepping stone on your way into the great, living ecosystem that lies beyond.

Villa Amazônia – your hotel for the night – offers a gentle introduction to the Amazon. Practically bursting with native plants and flora, it was built around a 19th century mansion – tapping into the history of the rubber industry that once defined the region. It also has serious regenerative credentials: no plastic bottles, locally sourced products, working with community cooperatives. It’s the kind of hotel we love working with.

Fasano Hotel Rio de Janeiro
Days 4-10

The Amazon Basin

For nature writer Robert MacFarlane, “our fate flows with that of rivers – and always has”. The Amazon is faceted. It has sediments and layers and endless living things.

And we want to take you into reaches of its basin that are all but untrodden by travelers. This is the rarest of opportunities to gain a more intimate insight into the world’s largest and most varied rainforest. It’s about slowing things down, looking closer, and going much, much further.

Your Vessel

Today, you’ll arrive at Manaus Harbor to board your fully crewed, full board riverboat.

Why this boat? It feels classic and elegant; fitting naturally into the rhythms of the river. You can see from these photos: it isn’t shiny and jarring but organic – reflecting the types of vessels that locals have been sailing for centuries. It’s also very comfortable, very spacious, and perfectly suited for families.

Day 4
The sound and the Silence

Now the river takes over. Eat a relaxed lunch, find your river legs, and let the Rio Negro’s dark waters carry you along. After a while, you’ll set out by canoe – drifting into one of the river’s side channels to gain a closer and more embodied understanding of the waterways. Meeting the forest is like meeting a wild animal. You must go slowly.

At sunset, you’ll spend time watching how the colors and contours of the river shift – where the treeline changes from a puzzle of grenery into a subtler, darker silhouette. It’s now that the Amazon’s nocturnal soundscape comes into focus, with the river lapping against the hull.

Day 5
Learn to listen to the river’s rhythms

Today is dedicated to the Amazon at its most intimate. You’ll travel by canoe into Igapó – the flooded forest – where your guides will teach you how to navigate by sound alone. It’s about learning to listen, sensitively and slowly, to the music of the forest.

When things go quiet, you pause. When it stirs again you follow its clues, led by your ears more than your eyes. It recalibrates your senses. Later, you’ll return for a slow, reflective lunch. There’ll be all the time you need to rest in hammocks, to read, and to watch the forest glide gently past.

Day 6
Climb above the canopy

The Amazon isn’t flat. It’s a layered, living structure which unfolds at different scales. After breakfast, we’ll take you to a tract of primary, old-growth rainforest where we have professionally rigged a tree –allowing you to climb into and above its canopy.

As you ascend, you’ll notice how the environment shifts and changes. This moment isn’t designed as an adrenaline kick. It’s a gentle reorientation.

Day 6 continued

Reaching the crown is a defining moment. It feels like entering another world. Between the trees and the sky, you’ll tune in to the forest at its most complex and captivating. Birds flit and dart through the air. The forest murmurs and moves and sighs. You’ll likely stay awhile.

You’ll descend when you’re ready, but it’ll take a while to readjust to life on the forest floor. Late lunch and a restful afternoon on your boat. In the evening, when the sun has set, you’ll tap into the organic orchestra of the river. It’ll sing. You’ll be listening.

Day 7
Meet the River People

There are many communities who make their livelihood along the banks of the Amazon, and we’ve designed today’s encounter as a chance to genuinely connect with them – learning who they are, how they live, and to more intimately understand their approach to the river and rainforest that they depend on.

There’ll be time to sit, to listen, to ask questions. You won’t feel like outsiders with big “tourist” signs hovering above your heads, but like part of the community – gaining a deeper and more intimate understanding into how they see the world.

Day 7 continued

It’s also very hands on. There’ll be the opportunity to practice farinha-making, get a handle on new fishing techniques, and hone your river crafts.

Returning to your boat, you’ll take a relaxed dinner, reflect on the day’s encounter, and gather on the deck for a laidback evening of guided astronomy. Free of light pollution, the stars will feel startlingly close. It’ll put everything you’ve seen into perspective. It’s a chance to look upwards and a chance to look inside.

Day 8
Overnight in the Amazon

Lieutenant J. Araújo is no stranger to the Amazon. A former Brazilian army officer with a calmly confident teaching style, he’ll be your guide as you camp out in the world’s largest and most labyrinthine rainforest.

He’ll show you how to choose a site and correctly set up hammocks, teaching you how to patiently, respectfully live with the forest – through fire craft, orientation, navigation, and water-sourcing.

For families, this is a grounding and memorable way to share a real bonding moment. When you wake up with the forest, you’ll all be able to “read” it.

Day 9
Dawn chorus

The river is cool at first light. It wakes in slow, subtle stages. Distant calls, muted cries. Light comes. Now breakfast. In stillness and wonder, you’ll savor the final stretches of the wild Rio Negro.

You’ll travel back to Manaus by floatplane – looking down on the river that you’ve slowly, sensitively chartered over the past seven days.

From this height, you’ll see how the dark Rio Negro flows against the pale, silty waters of Solimões. Meeting, not blending. It’s a fitting reminder of the complexity of an ecosystem that now feels less strange, more familiar.

Day 9 continued
The end

From Manaus, you’ll fly first to São Paulo – and then home.

This journey marks a shift – a purposeful change of perspective. For nine days, you’ll share a real and tangible understanding of this special part of the world.

And, when it’s over, you’ll have experienced the rarest opportunity to simply, slowly, and sensationally live.

So, ready to start?

Start Planning