Exploring ancient forests on three continents

An Amazon river lodge

A “vast, pristine” river archipelago in the heart of the Amazon rainforest, Brazil’s Anavilhanas National Park is a place of “otherworldly” beauty, said Idra Novey in Travel + Leisure.

It lies on the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon which, owing to its acidic water, is mercifully free of mosquitoes, so visitors needn’t take malaria pills. On a recent trip, my family and I stayed at the luxurious Anavilhanas Jungle Lodge, where I swam in the river at sunset every day...