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. The
daily flow of
the river is
said to be
enough to supply
a city the size
of New York with
water for nearly
ten years, and
its power is
such that the
muddy Amazon
waters stain the
Atlantic a silty
brown for over
200km out to
sea. This was
how its
existence was
first identified
by the Spaniard,
Vicente Yanez
Pinon, sailing
the Atlantic in
search of El
Dorado. He was
drawn to the
mouth of the
Amazon by the
sweet freshness
of the ocean or,
as he called it,
the Mar Dulce.
To many
Indian tribes,
the Amazon is a
gigantic
mythical
anaconda, source
of life and
death. 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. Even at
the Óbidos
narrows, the
only
topographical
obstruction
between the
Andes and the
Atlantic, the
river is almost
2km wide and for
most of its
length it is far
broader - by the
time it reaches
the ocean the
river's gaping
mouth stretches
further apart
than London and
Paris.
