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Introducing The North
Certain places reside as romanticized, near-mythical destinations in travelers’ imaginations, and the Amazon is at the top of the list. Images fill our heads of wild panthers and anacondas, impossibly dense rainforest and indigenous tribes unexposed to western ways. Some travelers leave the Amazon unimpressed, but only in the halogen glare of unreasonable expectations (or too short a visit) can this region disappoint. Wildlife is hard to see, but that much more special when you do. Deforestation is widespread, but the rainforest remains vast and unrelenting. Many indigenous people have traded tradition for modern life, but caboclos (indigenous-Portuguese mix) communities are vital and compelling.
The numbers alone are mind-boggling: the Amazon basin contains 6 million sq km of river and jungle, and just over half is in Brazil. It contains 17% of the world’s fresh water and main river-flow at its mouth is 12 billion liters per minute. There are 80, 000km of navigable rivers. Annual rainfall averages around 2.5m. River levels rise on average 10m in the rainy season.
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