With twins at home, travelling had become hard. So in October 2018 I tried a little experiment: "remote travel vlogging" through the eyes of my friend Tom, who quit his job at the UN to travel the world and had just spent two months on the Amazon.
Tom's big adventure
Tom used to work with me at the UN base here. He resigned to set off on a two-year trip around the world. He started in Suriname and was heading north through South America, then the United States and Canada, before flying to China to become an English teacher. I really admire him, and part of me is a bit jealous. When I made this video he was in Brazil and had just finished a two-month trip on the Amazon. He was sending me messages and clips, so I thought: why not share them?
Convincing him to appear on camera was impossible. Even getting him to record some audio was a hassle, because he hates it. But in the end he did, and that's what you hear in the video.
Two months on the river
The boat trip started in Belém and went up to Manaus. From there he followed a side river, the Madeira, to Porto Velho near the Bolivian border: more than 2,500 kilometres. It took two months because he stopped often, usually two days on a boat and then a stop to explore a town before getting back on.
The kids in the canoes
What impressed me most, and why I decided to make this video, was how people live in the small villages along the river and how fast the kids grow up. Children in small motorised canoes chase the big boats, hook onto them and climb aboard to sell things like palmito, açaí and ice cream. It's dangerous: if they fall in, they can be pulled into the propellers. But they do it every day to earn some money. Tom noticed that what they really want is often paper and pens, because those are hard to come by. Then they jump back in their canoes and disappear into the jungle. He also noticed how religious people on the boats are, many starting each morning reading the Bible.
Tom is nearly 60, a bit shy and a crazy, wonderful guy. We all miss him a lot here at the base.