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 The Amazon is
the planet’s
greatest rainforest and is without doubt the world's most diverse
biological area. Covering an area larger than the entire continental
United States (some 2.5 million square miles or 6.5 million
square kilometers) - about 40% of the South American continent - it
contains a wealth of discovered and undiscovered flora and fauna. In
addition the Amazon is home to many diverse traditional and
indigenous human populations.
The Amazon spans for more than half of the Brazilian
territory. It is here where a tenth of the world’s 10 million living species
make their homes. Within the Amazon Basin resides a wealth of life
richer than any place else on earth, including 500 mammals, 175
different lizards, 300 other reptile species, tree climbers of every
kind, and a third of the world's identified bird species. Millions
of species remain undiscovered.
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The Amazon is also the world's largest river basin with the Amazon
river at it's center. Though it is not the longest river in
the world, there can be no doubt that the Amazon river is the
world’s greatest river. Fed by thousands of streams and rivers,
which take their origin high up in the Andes mountains of Colombia,
Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, the river begins it's 6,570 kilometer
(4,080 miles) journey east until finally discharging it's many
millions of gallons of water into the river’s massive mouth at the
Atlantic, permeating the saltwater over 100 km (60 miles) from the
shore. The Amazon discharges one fifth of all the world’s freshwater
into the Atlantic.
This vast open-air greenhouse of global evolution and unsolved
mysteries has a potential that remains largely unknown.
A wide variety of programs and accommodations, fit for any
type of traveler can be found in the area. Some cities promoted by Latin Tours Online are located in
this area and are being promoted individually as well. |
