AMAZONICA

In today’s world, an expedition on an Amazonas ship into the depths of the rain forest must surely be one of the most thrilling experiences possible. An adventure within a tropical world of wonder that has not yet been consumed by civilisation. Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian federal state of Amazonas, lies on the banks of the Rio Negro and is surrounded by impenetrable rain forest. From here explorers ventured further into the wilderness by boat and even today the Amazonians travel by boat as the rivers serve as roads through the jungle. The city’s huge cathedral was constructed during the rubber boom which made it prosper. A journey of several days is about to begin on the Amazon Clipper, upstream on the Rio Negro, one of the region’s main rivers, and into the vast jungle beyond. A self-contained system of more than a thousand inlets supply the Amazon, as well as water from the surrounding mountains. Numerous water courses, jungles and climatic zones form this region, from the Andes of Peru to as far as the Brazilian Delta where the river flows into the Atlantic Ocean. Only from the pilot’s bridge is the tangled labyrinth of the many water courses between the region’s small islands, recognizable. Often the islands are flooded up to the tops of the trees. Soon we come to the Anavilhanas Archipelago, the largest fresh water archipelago on Earth, a huge complex of three hundred and fifty islands For the journey of a lifetime, the Amazon and its rain forests are an …