"Perceptions of the Amazon are mostly mythical." "But in Amazonia,reality is more amazing than mythology" "Amazon" "South America has the biggest river" "Largest forest, the longest mountain range" "And the greatest variety of lifeforms of all the continents on Earth" "Rivers from five nations" "Pour into the vast floodland of equatorial Brazil" "To form the greatest moving mass of fresh water in the world" "The Amazon river flows toward the rising sun" "And with it 1/5 of the continental water on the planet" "Among the distant sources of the Amazon is the timeless land of the incas" "Men of the Kallawaya tribe were medicine-men to the royal family" "In by gone days of an empire larger than that of Rome" "Even now Kallawaya men journey throughout the Andes healing people with magic and medicinal plants." "Julio Mamani will follow the tradition of its people" "It saddens me there was no plant,or magic that could save my mother when she got sick" "Whisper in pukina,the secret language of the incas" "Mysteries of the healing arts are past generation to generation" "I've made a vow to go to the tropical forest below our mountain home" "And return with plants that will increase our power" "To cure illness and prolong life" "Akomani the god mountain of our people" "Watches over the kayawaya" "And has done so since our earliest begginings" "It is said that water trickling from the glaciers of Akomani will be a great river" "Sipping the melt of ancient ice brings rejuvenation" "When I reach the tropical forest perhaps I can trade the glacier water for an unknown elixir" "That will prolong life." "Incas once moved the highlands where source rivers of the Amazon gouged-out some of the deepest canyons on Earth" "Machu Pichu,the lost city of the incas lyes on the 200 miles as the condor flyes from Mamani's home land" "Below the citadel the Urubamba river cuts its canyon ever deeper on its rush to join the Amazon" "In a few short miles from mountain peaks to tropical forests" "The traveller passes through as many ecological zones as on a trip from the north pole to ecuator." "Below the mountains the trees become an endless sea of green" "Dr. Mark Plotkin is also a medicine-man" "Like Mamani he's in search of plants" "That will heal humanity ills" "He is an ethno-botanist" "His hope : to find cures to diseases which western medicine has not conquered" "There's a remarcable connection between the plants and the people of the forests" "Virtually every useful medicinal or agricultural plant has come to us from the rainforets" "Where's first learn from indigenal people" "Dr. Plotkin is driven by a dread that some species may disappear before their life saving atributes are discovered" "In our search for new treatments for the diseases that plague us" "The Amazon represents one of the most promising places to look." "At the lacueva de las Sechusas" "I can reach the edge of the legendary forest" "It seems to me a mystical gateway to the forest beyond" "Mamani has reached the flatland of Amazonia" "A region almost large enough to cover the face of the moon" "The Amazon basin is home to the planet greatest celebration of diversity." "For millions of years" "Environmental conditions have been favorable to a profusion of life" "The canopy is largely unexplored" "Its upper tip where most of the life goes on has barely been visited" "It averages 50 feet" "And amounts to 20.000 cubic miles of wood,water,air and green leafs" "Antonio is a shaman of the kokana people" "He,s my friend and my teacher" "He's knowledge of the healing properties of the Amazon forest is extraordinary" "No one knows how many species of living things exist in 2 million square miles of forest canope" "The Amazon houses a gigantic ecological machine of global importance." "Is a world's resource at risk" "The biodiversity of the Amazon is unique." "The only place of its kind in the world" "In the light and worm and water" "Are millions of different species" "And many more perhaps unknown" "The Sloth called perezoso or lazy-one in spanish" "Swimms as well as most quadrupeds" "A jaguar often jumps in to cross a water way" "At 500 pounds the tapir is the largest land animal native to South America." "In mid-year, Amazon rises to maximum flood" "As much as 45 feet above its november minimum" "With the deluge,aquatic life invades the once dry forest floor" "The Pirarucu is one of the main food fish of the Amazon" "It can exceed 6 feet in lenght and 200 pounds in weight" "The Pipato is almost invisible until it eats" "Electric eels guile death with 500 volts shock" "The Piranha has the sharpest teth of all the predatory fish" "Of all the creatures of the Amazon,the pink dolphin is the most celebrated" "The thounsands of miles of waterways remain the primary means of travel in the Amazon" "The people of the river are known as Kabokos" "Part Indian, part Portuguese" "Sometimes the blood of africans" "Many are as skillful as the Kallawaya with herbal remedies" "We have much to learn from oneanother" "In our village, we used Kebowei to stop bleeding" "Here i have been shown how to dress a wound with leafs that will coagulate blood" "Most remedies and medicinal cures used by the kobokos come from the indians" "We know that fungus provided the world with Penicilline and other antibiotics" "But the potential of tropical phungae remanis largely unknown" "For millions of years the Amazon was unhabitated by humans" "The indians arrived during the last ice age" "Which ended thousands of years ago" "After the europeans arrived 500 years ago" "In quest of land,slaves and gold" "Indigines people fled deeper into the wilderness" "More than 400 tribes have been identified in the Amazon basin" "Others may remain undiscovered" "With no sense of time beyond tomorrow,they live in hidding,cradeled in a everlasting present" "As late as 1943 the upper ridges of the Xingu river were largely unexplored" "Orlando Villas Bôas and his brothers left Sao Polo with an expedition called" "Xingu River adventure" "Some things only happen once in the history of the world" "It was a moment in time that cannont be repeated." "After three years and 3000 km of a path cut with machetes" "We encountered for the first time the indian population of the upper Xingu" "Very little was known about them and they know only enogh of the outside world to stay hidden as in centuries past" "The Villas boys won aclaim for their succes in postponing the bulldozing march of civilisation into the Xingu" "In time the Villas boys were overcome by roadbuilders,malaria and old age" "But their dream for survival of the indians lives on" "Sydney Possuelo carries on the legendary work of the brothers Villas Boas" "Sydney's task is to seek out isolated tribes and promote legislation to keep indian lands offlimits to all outsiders" "North of the Amazon mainstream" "Lives a tribe of indians known as Zoë" "I believe the indians should only be contacted when is necessary to protect them" "It's a dilemma" "Do we artificialy isolate them ?" "Or share the technology of our modern world ?" "Sydney was among the first to make contact with the Zoë" "Only recently has their presence become known" "I am pleased to find no mosquitos,no malaria and no sickness" "Except a woman who had a toothacke that her grandaughter treated with medicinal plants" "There is rumour that the Zoë encountered a people living up to the north" "A tribal that is unknown to us" "Some of the men agree to show me where the strangers had been seen" "When first encountered by jaguar hunters, the Zoë were called Poturu" "For the ornamental jaw poturu wood that Zoe wear day and night" "We don't know who the others might be" "But if they really exist" "But if they are there" "The gold seakers making their way up the Cuminapanema river are on a collision course" "The Zoe do not venture into the forbidden north" "Where they say a tribe of giants lives" "And the hills of Cuminapanema touch with stars" "If there are uncontacted people in the northern highlands" "I would prefer to leave them alone" "But it's critical that those who care about them be the first to reach them" "Mamani research has brought him to the teritory of the Yagua indians" "The Yaguas have had contact with outsiders for several hundred years" "They are a large tribe,known for herbal remedies" "It is an exotic potion made from plants and called curare" "Curare is a secret mixture made of flowers and leafs in different ways by many tribes throughout the Amazon" "Dr.MarkPlotkin has been fascinated by the mysteries of curare poison for many years" "Each tribe has its own recipes for curare" "I believe that some of them will lead us to new and effective medicine" "In the hands of western physicians curare has allready become an life gaving medication" "One type is used as a muscle relaxant" "Another as heart medicine" "What Western scientists once dismissed as magic we are now finding to have a real terapeutic effect" "Plotkin and other ethnobotanists hope to press and document as many plants as posible" "Before the knowledge of the shamans is lost" "Learning the jealously garded secrets of indigenous shamans requires genuine friendship" "And mutual trust" "Trading my medicines,music and magic for things I have needed has allowed me to move freely" "With distances so great exchange of a cure for a very fast ride" "Is a very good trade indeed" "Herbal markets exist in cityies and towns all-along Amazon and its tributaries" "Plants with true curative power hung side by side with untested elixirs and curious potions" "Julio Mamani and Dr.Plotkin are medicine-men from vastly different worlds" "But they share a common quest" "Each has come in search of healing secrets of the Amazon" "Each seeks to improve the health of the human kind" "And for an instant time stand still" "And two distant worlds are one" "Is time to return" "I've traded the melted ice of the god mountain for the medicine of the great forest" "I have traded my flute for long ride home" "I will miss the beauty of the Amazon and its many creatures" "What wonderful things i have seen to tell my people" "I shall return one day" "And if not I" "Maybe my son will come" "There is so much to learn" "And yet so little time" "Neither the shaman or the scientist discovered a magic elixir to end all suffering" "But each has gained new knowledge" "And discovered cures that will improve the health of human kind" "The Amazon quest has only begun."