Not only one of the largest online shopping websites but also one of the largest intact rainforests in the world. The name 'Amazon' was given by Spanish explorer Francisco Orellana, after he was attacked by female warriors named the Icamiabas, or 'women without husbands'.
The Amazon is home to more than 24 million people in Brazil alone, including hundreds of thousands of indigenous people belonging to 180 different groups. It covers 2.6 million square miles across nine countries — Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. With its ability to supply 20% of the earth's oxygen through the planets continuously reprocessing carbon dioxide into oxygen, the Amazon was nicknamed the "Lungs of our Planet.
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To complete his splashing jungle journey, Martin powered through the water for up to ten hours a day for 66 days!
Due to the thickness of the canopy the Amazon floor is in permanent darkness. In fact, it’s so thick that when it rains, it takes around ten minutes for the water to reach the ground!
There are many interesting facts about the Amazon but my favorite would be the mystery of Michael Rockefeller who disappeared mysteriously in 1961 while searching for tribal artworks in the jungles of New Guinea. The 23-year-old Harvard graduate was a keen explorer and was fascinated by travel. During the expedition, Michael’s boat overturned, leaving him and his partner, Rene Wassing, stranded 16 kilometers offshore. Rockefeller decided that he could swim to the mainland and get help. His last words to Wassing were, “I think I can make it.”
No one knows whether Michael made it to shore or not, but there are many theories. Some have suggested that he had simply drowned on his way to the mainland, while another theory states that he made it to shore, only to be ruthlessly murdered and eaten by the Asmat tribe. The Rockefellers launched an investigation into Michael’s disappearance and claimed that they had found
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Unfortunately deforestation is reducing the size of the Amazon drastically. The cattle sector of the Brazilian Amazon has been responsible for about 80% of all deforestation in the region making it the world's largest single driver of deforestation. Much of the remaining deforestation within the Amazon has resulted from farmers clearing land for small-scale farming. We wait with baited breathe to see the full impact of climate change on this precious bio-diversity. Only time will