The Rio Negro, I am told, is a river like any other.

For a crash course on Bolivia, start in the one-million-person capital of La Paz, ride the cliffs along the Death Road then land in the jungle town of Corioco.

I was aboard one of the first passenger planes to land on the new airstrip in Greytown, in the extreme southeast corner of the country, a.k.a. San Juan de Nicaragua.

The only tropical forest in the United States National Forest System, El Yunque offers ample hiking trails, many that lead to waterfalls worth an afternoon swim.

The island of Borneo is known for many things: virgin rainforests, exotic wildlife, world-class scuba diving. Jazz doesn't make the list

Of all the moments that blurred together from that beautiful whirlwind of a trip, I remember the sounds of jaguars howling in the Amazonian jungle, biting into a hunk of rotisserie guinea pig and racing to the peak of a mountain.

Wearing nothing but rubber boots and a traditional comé (a string supporting the genitals), Juninto lips curled in a curious smile, long obsidian hair billowing down a muscular brown back. "Huaponi" he uttered. "Hello."

One of the problems with living in the Costa Rican rainforest is that is rains. The skies weep incessantly, rendering the rutted streets puddle-laden bogs, my house a receptacle for all things musty and moldy.

In Costa Rica I got a real sense of what the planet may have been like before humans destructive behavior.