Explore Brazilian Food, Travel and Culture with…
Ellioti’s
The Amazon
Part 1: Exploring the Rivers
A network of water highways
Long winding rivers, piranhas, jaguars, colourful birds, large trees and jungle vines. Even today we still romanticise of long-lost indigenous tribes and the potential of hidden riches waited to be uncovered. Adventure novels, Hollywood and the gentle narrations of David Attenborough have weaved a romantic vision into our mind of the earths largest rain forest and river system.
This series is about the Amazon region of Brazil. We will cover the rivers, the forest, the cities and the people. This first part is about the rivers and their use as superhighways to transport people and products across the region.
The River
The Amazon drainage basin covers approximately 7,050,000 km2 of which 5,500,000 km2 is covered in forest (more than twice the area of Western Australia). The Amazon River is the world’s largest river, starting in Peru, briefly crossing into Colombia, and then extending across Brazil to the Atlantic coast. It is 6,575 km in length and discharges 206,000 m3 of water into the Atlantic Ocean every second (the equivalent of Sydney harbour every two and a half seconds). Yet, this is only one of the rivers in the basin, there are in fact more than 1,100 tributaries and 17 of them are over 1,500 km in length. This article is not going to be a geography lesson, you can Wiki the rest, but I give you these numbers to impress you with the size of the area we are discussing because this is the first thing that shocks people when they visit this part of the world – everything is bigger than you imagined it to be.
Manaus
Manaus is the capital city of Amazonas, the largest state in Brazil, and third-largest state in the Southern Hemisphere after Queensland, Australia. Manaus is the 7th largest city in Brazil but the largest in the Northern region. Manaus is a unique city because it is positioned in the heart of the Amazon, right on the junction where the Rio Negro (Black River) meets the Rio Amazonas (Amazon River). The Rio Negro is the second largest river in the basin and is equally as impressive in size and scale.
Being that the city is literally surrounded by thick forest and a vast network of rivers, there was little incentive to construct a complex network of highways across the region. As a result, Manaus has no direct road connection to the rest of Brazil (i.e. there is no direct road route from Manaus to São Paulo). The only way to do this would be to drive the BR-174 highway to Venezuela, cross through Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, then re-enter Brazil through the state of Acre. The journey is totally impractical; hence, air travel is the primary method in which Manaus is connected with the rest of the nation. As a result, Eduardo Gomes International Airport is the third busiest freight hub in Brazil.
But modern air travel is a relatively recent development and the Amazon region has been occupied by humans for approximately 11,000 years. How did they get around before? Well they simply settled along the banks of the more than 1000 rivers and tributaries, and relied on the rivers to travel and trade. Although there are some small domestic airports across the Amazon basin, today there a still many towns and villages that are only accessible by boat. Furthermore, the cost of flying is usually a lot more than taking a ferry or cruiser up the river (though the time is significantly less). Take for example, the town of Tabatinga, it is the furthest Brazilian town on the Amazon River, siting on the boarder of Colombia and Peru. It is a 3h flight to Manaus and will cost between R$413 and R$1264. However, the ferry is a 4 to 6-day voyage but only costs between R$224 and R$309. Take into account that the average monthly wage in Brazil is R$2535, and you realise that for many people, river transportation is the only affordable means to travel.
A River Journey from Peru to the Atlantic Coast
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