The Amazon River of South America is a vast ecosystem, stretching from the eastern slopes of the Andean mountains in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia, all the way via the Brazilian rain forest to the Atlantic Ocean. It is the largest river in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next eight largest rivers combined. The Amazon, which has the largest drainage basin in the world, accounts for approximately one-fifth of the world's total river flow and the basin is about the same size as the continental United States.
During the wet season parts of the Amazon exceed 120 miles in width. Because of its vast dimensions, it is sometimes called The River Sea.
At no point is the Amazon crossed by bridges. This is not because of its huge dimensions. In fact, for most of its length, the Amazon's width is well within the capability of modern engineers to bridge.
The bulk of the river flows through tropical rain forest, where there are few roads and even fewer cities, so there is no need for crossings.
While the Amazon is the largest river in the world by most measures, the current consensus within the geographic community holds that the Amazon is the second longest river, just slightly shorter than the Nile. However, some scientists, particularly from Brazil and Peru, dispute this.
The ship first encountered the brown murky water of the Amazon River while it was still out in the Atlantic Ocean, an amazing 125 miles from the actual mouth of the river. (See satellite picture of the Amazon Delta below) The incredible Amazon is 200 miles wide at its mouth, which we passed through this morning.
Situated here at the Amazon’s mouth is the island of Marajó with a land area of 15,500 square miles, which compares to the size of Switzerland. It is the largest island to be completely surrounded by freshwater in the world.
Although we were in the Amazon River system yesterday during our visit to Belem, we had to return to the Atlantic last night in order to enter the actual Amazon via its vast delta.
During this time in the Atlantic Ocean during the early hours of the night, the ship, according to Maria, headed into some turbulent waters and as a result she had her night's sleep disturbed!
The Prinsendam will have two pilots on boards for the duration of our time on the river.
We pick one of them up a little later this afternoon at the major port of Macapa where the Amazon River really begins after leaving the delta region.
They will offer our Captain guidance as they have intimate knowledge of the river and its wandering banks. The charts for the area are not always exact as the Amazon continually overflows and floods the land.
The Captain had warned us that our progress is totally dependant on the significant current of the river and any surprises the Amazon might throw at us. From now on the river is dictating our progress.
I'm becoming used to seeing the lovely sun rises and sun sets as we continue our voyage down here by the equator. There is something very special in their natural beauty.
This is what we saw at about 6.30 this morning.
During the Amazon Experience part of our voyage we will pass over the equator several times. The first being last night.
During the early part of the morning we saw many fishing boats working the river.
These murky waters presumably do attract a certain type of fish that I hope we will see and hear more about as we visit more Amazonian ports.
At one stage we passed a biggish fishing boat that seemed to be pulling four smaller ones behind it or were they just following? It was perhaps only their GPS!
We also had a certain species of bird following us.
Unlike the last time I spotted such an activity, this breed does not seem to dive into the water to catch its prey.
One of the readers of this blog kindly came up with a name for the last species I showed and maybe he will do the same again.
A couple of nights ago we were given maps of the whole Amazon Basin. This of course is an essential item for our time here in the Amazon rain forest.
I reproduce the relevant part of the map showing where we are currently sailing today.
It is possible to clearly see here where we retraced our steps from Belem, and headed back out to the Atlantic and then re-entered the Amazon's water system at the delta.
After lunch the river seemed to narrow and we were told it was just two miles wide. There are many islands here, which of course mean that the river is less wide anyway.
We had also passed into the northern hemisphere during the period of our lunch but we will be returning to the southern part of the world shortly. This zigzagging across the meridian will continue as long as we were cruising the Amazon.
This afternoon both of us visited the ship’s Spa where we had hair cuts from the lovely Hannah. While I was there friend Rosalyn was having and extended session of nail painting or polishing, or whatever it is they do to lady’s nails!! I must say Hannah is an excellent cutter of hair and for $25 a cut a real bargain.
We continued cruising slowly up the Amazon with the rain forest very visible on the shore.
Occasion-ally other freight carrying ships passed us going in the in the opposite direction.
Every now and again the ship places comment forms in the cabins for suggestions, complaints or complements. This afternoon I decided to fill one in complementing all those hard working staff we constantly come in contact with.
It was nice to know that the Crow’s Nest barman heard from his boss that he and his team had been mentioned in dispatches.
My one faux pas was not mentioning the name of Maureen our wine stewardess who is one of the nicest people you could imagine. Embarrassingly, she did mention my omission and I promised to rectify the situation in due course!!
Tomorrow we are back on the trail when we visit the Amazonian town of Santarem.
Paul,
ReplyDeleteHave you been asked to limit your water and not to use too many towels per day? When we were on the Veendam back in 2006 with Captain Albert, we were specifically asked to cut down on our use of water due to the ship not being able to make potable water from the river.
Jennie