Upcoming journey

Amazon:

Kayapo

6 days · July 2026 & May-July 2027

Photo: Simone Giovini

This once-in-a-lifetime journey has two windows, July 2026 and May-July 2027. Six days in the field, with arrival the day before and departure the day after. Exact dates will be coordinated with the cohort that forms and Kayapo partners due to remote access logistics.

Overview

Kayapo territory spans more than 9 million hectares of Brazilian Amazon, an area larger than many countries, held and defended through Indigenous governance, territorial monitoring, and decades of organized resistance to illegal mining and logging.

This journey takes place within that territory, in partnership with the Xingu lodge and the Kayapo.

Participants travel by bush plane and river into intact rainforest, enter village communities, and spend time alongside land defenders responsible for governing and protecting one of the largest continuous blocks of protected forest remaining on Earth.

The scale is difficult to grasp until you are inside it. River systems extend for days. The canopy runs unbroken to the horizon. There are no roads.

Access is possible because of long-standing relationships and trust built over decades by allies of the Kayapo. Entry is coordinated carefully, in accordance with community protocols and territorial governance.

This is time spent inside a rainforest that remains intact because it is actively governed and defended. Decisions about land, culture, and survival are made here in real time, and carried across generations.

Who this journey is for

This journey is for leaders building, funding, or stewarding organizations, companies, or initiatives while navigating complexity and consequence.

Designed for leaders who carry real responsibility and are willing to step into something larger than themselves.

Not every leader is ready for it. The terrain is physical. The access is rare. It requires steadiness, humility, and the ability to move as a guest.

This is an encounter with a place that has no interest in you, and everything to teach.

What this journey is

This is immersion in a sovereign rainforest territory of global ecological significance.

What the journey includes:

  • time with Kayapo leaders responsible for governing and defending more than 9 million hectares of rainforest

  • time in Kayapo village communities, within the circular village structure that centres communal space

  • hiking through Indigenous territory along ancestral trails, coordinated with community leadership

  • insight into Indigenous-led territorial monitoring systems that deter illegal mining and logging across vast, roadless forest

  • direct exposure to the realities of land protection under sustained external pressure

This journey brings together:

  • days on the river and under canopy, within one of the largest continuous rainforest territories remaining on Earth

  • direct conversation with Kayapo leadership and conservation partners about governance, territorial defence, and decisions made under sustained pressure

  • days of heat, humidity, and physical terrain that ask something of you

  • a cohort of peers who carry real responsibility in their own domains

  • facilitation that holds the group and connects what is encountered to the work participants carry at home

You will feel the jungle in your body before you can comprehend it in your mind.

Why Kayapo Territory

The Kayapo Indigenous Territory is one of the largest protected rainforest blocks remaining on Earth. In an era of accelerating deforestation and climate destabilization, it stands as a living counterpoint — largely untouched, actively governed and defended.

Kayapo land defenders overlooking Amazon 
Photo: Simone Giovini

Sovereignty here is not theoretical. It is operational. Monitoring teams patrol the forest to deter illegal mining and logging. Authority extends across villages. Culture and conservation are not separate projects.

The Amazon is often discussed in abstract terms — carbon sink, biodiversity hotspot, planetary lung.

Here the Amazon is not an abstraction. It is river. It is forest. It is village. It is decision.

This journey immerses leaders inside that reality.

Why this journey

Many leaders, even those working at the systems level, experience their work within a narrowed field of attention.

Information is compressed into dashboards and reports. Impact is mediated by systems. Decisions are made under pressure, often far from the living consequences they shape.

All of this places a sustained burden on attention, judgment, and emotional capacity.

Kayapo territory restores scale.

You encounter governance measured in millions of hectares, long-term thinking embedded in daily life, and continuity sustained across generations — not as case study, but as lived reality.

The encounter sharpens judgment not by adding information, but by widening perception. It re-situates human activity inside living systems that are immediate, intact, and indifferent to abstraction.

This journey is unique not only because it is remote, but because access to this kind of perspective is rare.

Photo: Natalie Knowles

The experience

Environments you’ll encounter

  • primary Amazon rainforest, home to jaguars, harpy eagles, giant otters, and extraordinary biodiversity

  • major river systems that serve as the primary routes of travel

  • Kayapo village communities arranged in a circular clearing at the forest’s edge

  • active territorial monitoring infrastructure operating within the forest

  • a day in Manaus, staying across the street from its famous opera house

How time is spent

We travel into extremely remote territory by chartered flight from Manaus. Experiences include:

  • hiking ancestral trails through primary forest with Kayapo guides

  • river travel between villages and monitoring zones

  • in conversation with Kayapo leaders and community members

  • time alongside territorial monitoring teams in the field

  • learning about Kayapo culture, including body painting and crafts

  • facilitated reflection and group dialogue

  • unstructured time held deliberately — the journey makes room for what cannot be planned

Pace and physical effort

Days are physically demanding without being endurance exercises. Participants should arrive in good general health and be comfortable spending consecutive hours hiking and active outdoors, including in challenging physical settings and variable weather.

Access & relationships

This journey exists in partnership with the Xingu Lodge and the Kayapo Project, an Indigenous-led NGO alliance.

Access is not logistical. It is relational. It exists because of trust and presence built over decades by people who have worked alongside Kayapo communities through legal battles, territorial crises, and long-term conservation effort.

Entry into territory is coordinated in accordance with community protocols and Kayapo governance structures. Participants travel as guests — by invitation, with care, and in full awareness of what that access represents.

Lodging & meals

In Kayapo territory, we stay at the comfortable, solar-powered Xingu Lodge operated by Untamed Angling, legendary wilderness outfitters operating in some of the most remote wilderness areas.

The river lodge sits along the Xingu, with open-air communal space and screened sleeping quarters. This is a sustainably designed lodge that serves as the base for river travel deeper into the forest. There are no roads leading in.

Meals are locally prepared and coordinated in advance to support energy and health across the journey.

Care is taken throughout to ensure safety, rest, and wellbeing.

Photo: Martin Schoeller

What’s included

  • a 6-day immersive journey

  • local guides and partners

  • all activities and experiences

  • all lodging, food, and transport during the journey, including chartered flight from Manaus

What’s not included

  • international flights

  • personal travel and medical insurance

  • personal expenses

Facilitation & support

Each journey is intentionally held by experienced facilitators, with support extending before, during, and after time in the field.

Support spans:

  • pre-journey orientation and preparation

  • facilitation throughout the experience

  • space for individual reflection, group dialogue, and collective sense-making

  • post-journey integration support

  • ongoing self-directed and facilitated opportunities to stay connected with your cohort after the journey

The experience is designed to be responsive and human, allowing depth to emerge without pressure.

Investment

This journey is designed and facilitated as leadership and professional development. Depending on role and context, participation can be expensed.

$7,500 USD

Once cohort is formed, a $2,000 USD deposit secures your place and is fully refundable for two weeks.

A limited number of fee adjustments may be available to support participation across a range of sectors and contexts. Please indicate in your submission if you would like to be considered.

Exploration process

Participation begins with a conversation.

Each submission is reviewed thoughtfully, with care for you, the cohort that forms, and the places we enter. This process prioritizes alignment, readiness, and care over scale.

Journeys run within defined seasonal windows, with dates finalized around the cohort that forms.

Take the next step

If this journey speaks to you, begin a conversation to explore alignment and timing.

Begin the conversation

Questions?
You’re welcome to reach us at journeys@jaguarandhummingbird.com