Images shot during a few days on a boat trip through the Rio Negro, at the extreme northwest of Brazilian Amazonas state, from Manaus city to Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira town.

Projeto Saude e Alegria, the PSA (Health and Happiness Project) is a non profit civil institution working in Para State, where doctors, dentists, educators and actors go to the communities along the Tapajos and Arapiuns Rivers, using boats, visiting places without social public services, bringing health and social sustainable development. In 2006, I was invited to visit the PSA for a few days, with a group of businessmen who were researching about social responsibility in the Amazonia area. This series was born during this time, and result in fragments of some Tapajos communities' life shared with the PSA Project. Population living along these rivers are mostly indigenous descendants living in small villages, strongly connected with the forest, the rivers and the nature forces. Distances in Amazonia are large and the path are mostly rivers, health services are rare along the rivers, and the boat from PSA is always welcome and received with happiness. I shared some amazing experiences there, like the changing of humor from the children when PSA clowns and doctors started working: "health for the body, happiness for the soul" as they use to say; living without electric energy for a while; being pushed to other fields of communication by people with Down syndrome; the Piracaia party, which is a night happening where a fish barbecue is made at the river's beach, on the sand, joining all the native community together, to share food, stories and a painted sky with stars beside the fire... (personally, these reinforced my own convictions of how simple and pleasant life can be with a small group of basic things beside a strong and powerful nature).