In advance of his return to the forests of Brazil, Tony recalls how the tribes of the rain forest fare in our more familiar 21^st century:-

The small airport of Cruzeiro du Sul was its usual self, that is- buzzing with excitement, queuing that seemed to last forever, desperation of passengers trying to book in their baggage on a plane that was either late, or taken off without them – in fact, it reminded me of Heathrow back home. Amid all the noise, bustle and confusion in this chaotic place, I suddenly heard my name and saw a parting of the crowd in front of me and there suddenly face to face with me was Biraci of the Yawanawa – the tribe I had visited twelve years ago and I had talked about in the GT Club & written articles about for the eNewsletter and the Globe.

So while Benki of the Ashaninka was trying to get us on a plane out of this place, I had time to speak to Biraci about the Yawanawa tribe. Biraci was with a lovely lady from the Ivory Coast, called Anouk who had fallen in love with Bahia then Brazil and finally the Indians, while driving her old Beetle all over this exotic land. She later told me, “I’m white skinned, with a black heart and French passport”, and, I thought, a perfect figure. Tearing my eyes off this delightful sight, I turned and hugged my old friend as he then thanked me for what his tribe had read on the eNewsletter!

Since my friend Adam Baines and I had spent time with them all those years ago, they had become one of the most successful tribes in Brazil and what the tribe needed now, said Benki, “Was a good cost clerk to save wastage of their monies”. One boy born in the Yawanawa village had a remarkable talent for maths and IT – this was spotted and he completed his education at an American university. Whilst he was there he was taken to the White House on a visit to show him where the power of the world resided and for them to meet this remarkable young man. The young person showing him around stopped by his office to check his mail and said, “One day you may become someone of note and if you do, you just ‘Google’ your name and information will come up all about you” The Indian youth leant forward and typed in ‘Yawanawa’, up came the web site, & he then opened the GT eNewsletter article about the ‘Yawanawa’. He said, “At first we read articles just about ourselves and then began to read articles about travellers and places outside our rainforest home. The computer has opened an eye to the rest of this world and by using SKYPE the tribe can talk to their sons and daughters who are beginning to scatter across the globe”. This young man has just made his first TV documentary and hopes to enter the Sundance Film Festival in the next few years.

Biraci told me that all enjoyed my previous articles & they looked forward to reading more but he was then called away to sort something out in the town centre. Nothing surprising there, always a reason you can’t get out of Cruzeiro. A new international airport is nearly built and maybe we will be able to fly out of Brazil but will it still be a problem to fly into Brazil? Anouk glided between the crowds at the check- in and moved with the feline grace of a jungle cat through the forest of people. The young man with eyes as big as saucers took half an hour to check her in, even though she had no luggage and just a small back pack. She really was a member of what people call, the white tribe, in Africa. She flicked her mane of long blonde hair and disappeared into departures. Benki just said, “Don’t you think if we want to catch this plane, we should move ourselves, we could well be on the same plane”! We were and there hangs another story!