Manaus- Brazil
10/05/2012
We arrived at Manaus airport, and transferred to Amazon Eco Park, Jungle Lodge, and accommodation in the middle of actual jungle. Amazon Macaws welcomed us at the reception. Next day woke up to the sounds of another world, unchanged for centuries. Soon we left for the jungle hike. Walked deep into the Amazon Jungle exploring igarapes (narrow creeks) and igapos (flooded forests) with their abundance of flora and fauna, including the distinctive sounds of the Howler Monkey, and calls of toucans, parrots and other native birds and wildlife. Its truly and experience to be remembered for the rest of my life. There is a separate Monkey reserve in the jungle for the protected species.
The Amazon basin is the largest tropical rainforest in the world, about 6-8 million square kilometers of forest, approximately 10% of the world’s biodiversity and 15% of its freshwater. These “lungs of the world” provide ecological services for the planet, but also a source of livelihood for hundreds of indigenous groups and forest dependent peoples. Brazil is home to approximately 65% of the Amazon basin.
The Amazon River is the second longest river (Only to the Nile), in the world and the longest and largest river of South America. The river is 6,437 kilometres long, and carries more water than any other river, even more than the Mississippi, Nile, and Yangtze rivers together. The “Meeting of the Waters” is the point at which the Rio Negro meets the Rio Solimoes to form the Amazon River proper in the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Due to differences in temperature, speed and density, the two rivers’ differently colored waters don’t mix immediately, but flow side by side for several miles, before meeting at the confluence of 3 mighty rivers. The forests of the Amazon basin have been used for food and resources for thousands of years by native peoples; products such as rubber, palm fruits, and Brazil nuts, as well as countless medicines have been derived from the forest. In the last centuries, rubber harvest and timber extraction of valuable woods such as mahogany and Spanish cedar penetrated remote areas of the Amazon forest, often via waterways such as the Amazon and Xingu. Beginning in the 1970’s and 80’s, deforestation exploded as highways opened up new land to permanent settlements.
