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 The
Amazon is the world's largest tropical rainforest, spanning more
than two fifths of Brazil's territory. Within 2.5 million square
miles of the Amazon Basin resides a wealth of life richer than any
place else on Earth. This includes a variety of birds, mammals,
fish, lizards, reptiles and tree climbers of every kind. Millions
of species though, still remain undiscovered by man. Don't be surprised
if during your submersion into the tropical rainforest you are lucky
enough to spot a never seen before animal.
This region is a unique geomorphologic, biologic and social reality,
the only one of its kind in the world. In no other place on Earth
exist so much water, so much soil and so much forest, together with
a myriad of ethnic groups, amidst the exuberance of light and warmth
peculiar to equatorial regions.
To understand the origins of this fascinating rainforest, one needs
to travel back in time some 15 million years to the formation of
the Andes Mountains. Until that time, the Amazon River flowed west,
emptying into the Pacific Ocean. When South America collided with
another tectonic plate, the Andes formed, blocking the Amazon at
its Pacific end. Inland seas, now cut off from the ocean, transformed
into freshwater lakes and the environment of the Amazon Basin changed
radically. The Amazon's flow gradually reversed now flowing from
west to east, until roughly 10 million years ago, the river reached
the Atlantic.
The river is the lifeline of the rainforest, carrying an astounding
sixteen percent of all the river water in the world over its 3.720
miles. A fifth of all river water discharged into the world's oceans
is conveyed through the Amazon, 10 times that of the Mississippi
River.
We invite you to explore the richest, most fascinating and lively
place on earth.
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