JOURNEY OF THE PINK DOLPHINS:
AN AMAZON QUEST
By Sy Montgomery
Available in paperback from Simon and Schuster, at bookstores, and at Amazon.com

"Every day there is an extravagant, transforming rain. Sometimes a storm cracks the sky with lightning, crashes branches, rips animals from the trees, and then is gone. This is a man rain, Moises says. But a rain that pours itself out for hours, sobbing and heaving—that, he explains, is a woman rain, 'because a woman can cry all day.'"
—from Journey of the Pink Dolphins.

Scientists call them Inia geoffrensis, an ancient species of toothed whale whose origin dates back about 15 million years. To the local people of the Amazon, pink river dolphins are "boto," shape-shifters that, in the guise of human desire, can claim your soul and take you to the Encante, an enchanted, underwater world.

Amazonia’s jungle lodge affords an excellent chance to observe these strange pink dolphins—and here roughly half of this internationally-acclaimed nonfiction book unfolds. Using the lodge on the Tahuayo as her base for two of her four expeditions, author Sy Montgomery explored the enchanted world of the pink dolphin through both science and story, thanks largely to the kind contracts afforded by Amazonia guides, staff and neighbors.

The author follows the pink dolphins to the spirit realm, where shamans commune with the powers of the plants and visit the Encante; with paleontologist Gary Galbreath, she follows them back in time, tracing the history of the species. At Mamiraua research station in Brazil, the pink dolphins illuminate the Amazon's present-day conservation dilemma. And in a fourth expedition to the Tapajos River in Brazil, Montgomery follows the dolphins back, down, deep to the watery womb of the world, to touch the very soul of the Amazon.

"There are so many stories of boto, you will die laughing," says one river guide. Ancient legends tell us that dolphins have guided humans for millennia, and in Journey of the Pink Dolphins Montgomery answers their call, taking us to that perfect place where the Amazon melts into the forest, dolphins swim among treetops, and the twenty-first century dissolves into the beginning of time.

ENCANTADO: Pink Dolphin of the Amazon
by Sy Montgomery
Nonfiction for children grades 4-8
Published by Houghton Mifflin’
Available at bookstores, at www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com and at Amazon.com

Welcome to a forest filled with water. In the wet season, the swollen river becomes a looking glass into another world, where pink dolphins swim like something from a dream. In Peru they are called bufeo colorado--the ruddy dolphin. Their color ranges from white to gray to vivid pink. These astonishing mammals, actually river dwelling whales, easily navigate their way through the complex, hazardous world of the Amazon rain forest.

This award-winning book for children in grades 4 8 takes place entirely at Amazonia’s jungle lodge. Encantado invites young readers on the adventure of a lifetime as we travel into one of the world's most lush and beautiful jungles in search of these magical creatures. Our guides include scientists and researchers as well as the local people, who have lived with the encantados--the enchanted ones--literally at their doorsteps for centuries.

Our main guides are the dolphins themselves. They lead us into myth. They take us back in time to a prehistoric era. They alone can show us the depth of the Amazon's beauty, diversity, and magic--and help us to keep our planet rich and whole.