Wild Amazon: A protected paradise in the place you'd least expect it

In deep Amazonia, a tapir mother and her calf are looking for a new territory. Stalking through the thick heat of the midday jungle, they come to the riverside to cool off with a satisfying plunge at the water's edge, as David Attenborough's dulcet tones tread the line between comforting aborability and mild impending doom like only he can.

The mother is leading her young to a clay pool. If she can find it. A sense of urgency, giving way to peril and quickly to hope and salvation. The BBC know the narrative arc that hits the mark. The pair emerge into a clearing under the cover of darkness, taking their place alongside capybara, deer and other tapirs. Mission accomplished.

This is the setting for the newest BBC wildlife documentary, a special corner of the Brazilian Amazon that we have been sharing with our nature-loving guests for years.

But such conservation triumphs are rarely straightforward and often rely on the visionary genius and superhuman energy of one remarkable individual...

For a few years in the late 2000s, Alta Floresta was blacklisted for severe deforestation. It was in the so-called Arc of Destruction, which sounds horrifyingly scary.

Between 1984 and 2004, forest cover in the region dropped from 91% to 42% of its original extent. Cattle ranching, road building, illegal logging, new settlements and agricultural expansion were nature's familiar foes.

So when Vitória da Costa swapped her land around town for a 700-hectare tract of remaining forest in the early 1990s, locals thought her mad. But she saw what they couldn't...

In 1991, ornithologists Ted Parker and Kevin Zimmer led the first bird survey along the Cristalino River, identifying the area as a centre of avian diversity.

Their discoveries, combined with the dedication of Vitória and her family, laid the foundations for the pioneering Cristalino conservation tourism project, creating a vast buffer zone of pristine primary forest between the cleared pasture lands and the southern reaches of the Amazon.

Out of the original 700 hectares, only two were set aside to build a lodge — everything else was left to the forest. Because they didn't want to lay yet more roads, materials could only be floated in when the river swelled.

Their efforts paid off when Cristalino Lodge helped create the first Private Natural Heritage Reserve (RPPN) in northern Mato Grosso in 1997. 

Today, that reserve has expanded to 11,399 hectares — nearly twice the size of Manhattan — and, together with Cristalino State Park, forms a vital wildlife corridor supporting the region’s remarkable biodiversity. Around 1,800 different bird species have been recorded in and around the lodge, a third of all those found in Brazil.

An underrated pillar of the Amazon experience is your arrival.

Coming here should feel intrepid. It should feel like you're going off-map, to a faraway land of trees and creatures born of a vivid imagination. Picture a sea of trees out of the plane window, tiny warehouse-style airports, a haphazard frontier town on the banks of a languid river, dark forest all around, the first exotic bird calls reverberating around the impenetrable interior.

Yet visiting the Brazilian Amazon nearly always means flying into Manaus, the eighth biggest city in the country, a metropolis of 2.3 million people which encroaches ever more on the jungles which surround it.

This has become the de facto Amazon choice for largely logistical, and often dull, reasons. Manaus is well-connected, with direct flights from São Paulo, Rio and even some international hubs like Bogotá. With its huge population, the city has hotels, restaurants and transport links, making the logistics smoother than smaller Amazon towns. This accessibility and infrastructure inevitably led to there being a wide range of lodges, cruises and day trips which depart from Manaus, something to suit every style, budget or timeframe.

That's not to write off the entire area, far from it. There are some wonderful lodges way out of the radius of the city lights. There's the obvious appeal of being on the Amazon River itself, not to mention seeing the famous 'Meeting of the Waters' just outside the city. The Opera House in an architectural wonder.

But it's hard to escape the feeling of civilisation. Even Lonely Planet feels the need to warn visitors: "The Amazonian rainforest has a population density half that of Mongolia, but the journey there invariably begins in this bustling city. Don’t be surprised if you feel a little out of whack."

By contrast, Alta Floresta's population was 58,613 at the last census in 2022. It can be tricky to get to, more so than ever now after Azul dropped the direct connection with Cuiabá that linked it so neatly with the Pantanal. It requires careful planning and a bit of an adventurous spirit. 

But boy is it worth it...

From the airport, you bump down a bit of a dirt track through open farmland for an hour to reach the Teles Pires River. From here, you board a motorboat for the final half-hour ride - the riverbanks close in, the water dark and reflective, alive with birdsong and the rustle of wildlife, giving you a first real sense of the forest’s immensity.

More than anything, it feels like a voyage into the unknown. "Where have they taken us now?!"... We don't talk enough about how travel makes us feel.

The transformation is instantaneous as you enter the protected area. You should be treated to a display of wildlife as you travel upriver, monkeys in the trees, giant river otters on the banks and birds everywhere.

The lodge itself is just about the most comfortable you can imagine experiencing. Rooms are great, the superior ones even have air con - a real treat in the Amazon! The common area is stunning and the floating swim deck on the river is a real treat. In the driest time of year - from August through September - you might be lucky enough to find a jaguar or tapir coming down to drink at the water’s edge.

The lodge has two viewing towers, both 50m high, within a forest which has a 40m canopy. So the views are wonderful and worth the steep climb!

Trails lead off in different directions through the forest. But even just standing on the pathways leading from the river to the lodge, you are likely to be treated to a spectacular display of wildlife, from monkeys rattling through the trees to butterflies fluttering in the flowers.

The flora is extraordinary too, with everything from orchids to Brazil nut trees surrounding you. The oldest Brazil nut tree is estimated to be 800 years old - it is so large that it takes six adults linking hands to encircle its trunk!  Then there are curiosities like the walking tree, or the tree of thorns - everything is larger than life.

When you think about what this reserve could have become without Vitoria's vision and passion, you can imagine how wonderful and uplifting it was to see the team at Cristalino pop up on our screens in David Attenborough's aforementioned BBC wildlife documentary, Parenthood. If you're reading this in the UK, just watch the 'diaries' section from minute 50.

It feels like a crowning moment of glory. Ultimate recognition for over three decades of conservation through ecotourism.

The wider Alta Floresta region is not out of the woods (or rainforest) just yet. Enforcement remains uneven. Restoring illegally deforested land is legally required in many instances, but in practice, restoration is slow, expensive and faces resistance.

But the Cristalino Reserve is a beacon of hope and a protected paradise, out of the clutches of the short-sighted ravages of economic necessity.

The Amazon is precious. Special. Vivid. Its biodiversity statistics inspire and boggle in equal measure. 

We wanted somewhere special to convert those statistics into personal experiences that stay with you forever and make a meaningfully positive impact on nature and people.

We found it in the place you'd least expect it.