AMAZONAS - Mission Possible - 2011
A sertanista is an uniquely Brazilian
term that gives up its meaning to what WORLDWISE
EXPEDITIONS first expedition to the Amazon is about.
The word is that given to a profession that folds all the
skills and passions of a frontiersman, ethnographer, adventurer
and human rights activist; these tasks are all rolled into
a single eclectic vocation called a ‘wilderness
explorer’ ( Wallace S. Nat Geographic 2003; 204:
(2), 2-27 ).
In 2001, Dr Marc Shaw was the Team Doctor
with Sir Peter Blake on his ill-fated voyage into the Amazonas
Region of South America. 26 members went on that Expedition
to the hinterland region of Brazil and Venezuela in 2001,
the first time any such expedition from Australasia had been
into this remote territory. WORLDWISE EXPEDITIONS is
planning a return journey to the Amazonas regions of Brazil
and Venezuela, as its inaugural expedition, to visit the
region explored with intrigue and fascination by Alexander
von Humboldt, AR Wallace, the 1968 Geographical Magazine
Hovercraft Expedition, and more latterly by Jacques Cousteau
and Sir Peter Blake.
This expedition will take place in
2011. The 10th anniversary of the death of Sir Peter Blake.
There are four aims with intended
missions of WORLDWISE EXPEDITIONS:
- To survey valued fauna and flora in regions
travelled to. To document this gives greater
understanding of the impact and influence of the region’s
complex effect on global warming.
- To initiate medical-humanitarian programmes and
work with medical personnel in a fieldwork situation.
- To develop educational programme for
use in schools, so that children will be able to communicate
with each-other and develop ongoing relationships with
children from other countries and cultures.
- To initiate and develop exchanges between cultures. To
this end, there is an emphasis on visual and performing
arts between the cultures of New Zealand and those visited
by WORLDWISE EXPEDITIONS.
It is intended that the work done on this
expedition will be recorded in academic journals – so
there is an ongoing acknowledgement of regions travelled
to and folk visited, and the ‘delicate balance between
old and new’ ways of survival.
The Amazon Basin includes a diversity of
traditional inhabitants as well as biodiversity in both flora
and fauna. The journey was exciting and mesmerizing: new
images, new experiences, new animals and plants, and new
cultures. Going into this beautiful and remote region
is an experience in human nature, in communication and in
self-enrichment.
‘Completing such a journey made
me so much richer than ever I could otherwise have dreamed.
I have never been so challenged in 30 years of practicing
medicine. I wanted to see if ‘on going
to the edge of ‘a cliff’ and jumping, I could
fly … I did, and I am so much richer than ever I
could have dreamed. That others need to gain this fulfilling
experience is reflected in the origin of WORLDWISE
EXPEDITIONS ’ Marc Shaw writes.
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