Row the Amazon Cambridge Judge Business School logo Leonard Cheshire Disability logo

2077 miles. Two men. One boat.
Mark de Rond and Anton Wright will row the entire length of the Amazon River in September and October 2013.

World music

  • 29 SEP 2013
  • By Murilo Reis



I think and believe that culture and taste is a very individual thing "it is like a nose everyone has their own" - I don't ask anyone to like it. But living in shared places has this kind of inconveniency. What can I do? I thought this event would be for showing the Amazon and its beauty... I didn't know the backgrounds of Anton and Mark. I thought and I then thought some more... I have experienced setbacks in my life, who hasn't? But besides the commitment of giving my daughter Maria Reis as much as I can I don’t have anything to prove to anyone. And that is it.

More than showing the Amazon, and its beauties and issues, for me this trip has been both treacherous and rewarding. I'm used to physical challenges but this has become more than that, a mix of competing egos, unfinished personal issues, experiments with emotional balance, and the 24x7 lack of privacy.

I have told them both that I have long time lost my hope for humans and have got myself attached to nature. I will do my share to get to the ocean and I can’t change the way they feel (I can't change anyone's feelings) and I can't fulfill anyone's expectations. We have done so far so good regardless the Big Brother bullshit stress, emotions and drama like being on a reality show. What counts is we got to Tefé as we had planned and what matters for me at the end is this will be just another page of history.

Life is too short to be struggling and spending energy wondering if this, if that.

Image: Sunset on Taphiche © Deborah Chen

2 Comments
  • Ulli on 01 OCT 2013

    Murilo, your son is proud of what you are doing and is watching you. Good luck & may this project open the eyes of as much people as possible to nature's beauty and fragility.

  • Sophie on 29 SEP 2013

    I hope you can all learn something from each other or from this experience, whether it confirms what you always believed or brings new perspectives x