My introduction to the Amazon came in 1990 when I was a research assistant, fresh out of college and living elbow-to-elbow with a team of scientists aboard a floating raft on the Amazon River. Every day brought the promise of new discoveries, and many mornings I found myself waiting impatiently for the first glimmer of dawn to peek through the canopy, fading from deep indigo to soft gold as it filtered through the leaves and revealed a slumbering world come to life.