Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
The Amazon
The Amazon is a vast forest - the largest on the planet - and a giant river
system. It covers over half of Brazil and a large portion of South America. The
forest extends into Brazil's neighbouring countries (Venezuela, Colombia,
Peru and Bolivia), where the river itself begins life among thousands of
different headwaters. In Brazil only the stretch between Manaus and Belém
is actually known as the Rio Amazonas: above Manaus the river is called the
Rio Solimões up to the border with Peru, where it once again becomes the
Amazonas. It is by far the biggest river system in the world; eight of the
world's twenty longest rivers are in the Amazon basin, along with a fifth
of the planet's fresh water.
In its upper reaches, the Rio Solimões from Peru to Manaus, it is a muddy light brown,
but at Manaus it meets the darker flow of the Rio Negro and the two mingle together at
the famous “meeting of the waters” to form the Rio Amazonas. There are something like
80,000 square kilometres of
navigable river
in the Amazon system, and the Amazon
itself can take ocean-going vessels virtually clean across South America, from the
Atlantic coast to Iquitos in Peru.
The Amazon is far more than just a river system. The
rainforest
it sustains is a vitally
important cog in the planet's biosphere and covers an area of over six million square
kilometres. As rainforests in Asia and West Africa shrink in the face of development,
the enormous biodiversity of the Amazon becomes more and more important, as does
its future. The rainforest is an enormous carbon sink, and if it burns the implications
for global warming - as well as biodiversity - hardly bear thinking about.
Politically divided between the states of Pará and Amapá, the eastern Amazon is
essentially a vast area of forest and savannah plains centred on the final 1100km or so
of the giant river's course.
Belém
, an Atlantic port near the mouth of the estuary, which
has undergone something of an urban renaissance in recent years, is the elegant capital
of Pará and a worthwhile place to spend some time. The city overlooks the river and
the vast
Ilha do Marajó
, the world's largest maritime-fluvial island, given over mainly
to cattle farming, but with some lovely freshwater beaches.
Amazon time zones
p.330
River journeys
p.331
The Transamazônica
p.332
Orientation in BELÉM
p.334
The sundowner river cruise
p.336
The Cabanagem Rebellion
p.337
CÍrio de Nazaré
p.339
Safety in Belém
p.341
Amazon cuisine
p.343
Crossing into French Guiana
p.352
The rise and fall of amazonian
rubber
p.354
Boi Bumbá in Parintins
p.356
Piranhas and stingrays
p.357
Prehistoric finds
p.359
Birdwatching around Monte Alegre
p.363
The western Amazon climate
p.364
Victoria Amazonica
p.368
Buying a hammock
p.373
Jungle tour operators and lodges in
Manaus
p.374
Jungle terms
p.376
The Rios Negro and Solimões
p.377
Yanomami tours: a warning
p.380
Consulates near the three-way
frontier
p.382
Lodges around Porto Velho
p.392
Acre and the rubber conflict
p.394
A Flight Over Acre's Geoglyphs
p.395
Religious cults in Acre
p.397
From Acre to Bolivia and Peru
p.399
