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Amazon River

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The picture above is of the beautiful Amazon River. It crosses through the rainforest several times.

The Amazon River is the greatest river basin of the tropical world. In fact, it is even the second largest river in the world, only the Nile River is longer, but not by much. The Amazon River is 4000 miles long! Its depth ranges from 1 to over 300 feet! Its width ranges from 1.5 to 6 miles wide, but at the mouth it stretches 90 miles across! In some parts not even a 20/20 vision eye could see across it! It carries 1/5 of the river water in the entire world! It carries more water than the Mississippi, Nile, and Yangtze put together!

Alongside the river is the Amazon River Basin. It covers about 2,700,000 square miles! The air there is extremely humid, and the basin covers most of the Amazon.

Over 200 tributaries flow into this Giant River. Ships enter the Amazon River through the Para River. The Para River is on the south side of Marajo Island. The Para is one of the most important rivers in Amazonia. Ships bring the people food, clothes, and tools. They take out animal skins, Brazil nuts, lumber, rubber, live birds, fish, animals bought by pet stores and a list really, really, long. These materials are exported all over the world.

This is a canoe taking dryed leaves to sell in town.

Some of the main villages the river passes by is Belem, Iquitos, Manaus, and Ucayali. Belem is at the mouth of the Para River, and Manaus port. It is located about 1,000 miles from the Amazon River's mouth. There are 4 main ports along the Amazon. They are called Maunas, Para River, Iquitos, and Belem. They are also the names of some of the important villages.

This is a river tour. It costs $0.25 each way.In the white sacks is coal to sell.

The Amazon River flows 1.5 miles- per- hour during the dry season and 3 miles- per- hour after rain. It may not be rapids but that is good for the river tours they have for tourists. The tours cost $0.25 per way and they usually go about 5 miles up river. That is only $0.50 to go a total of 10 miles!

The Amazon River starts as a stream called the Apurimic River. The Apurimic is about 17,200 feet above sea level. After a ways it turns into the Amazon, and its 200 tributaries flow in and out of it making it larger and smaller in different areas. After the 4,000 miles of the Amazon it dumps into the Atlantic Ocean. photo of waterfall on the Amazon River

The river goes into Ucayali at the lower branch of the rainforest in Peru. The temperature averages about 85-degrees but it varies in the different seasons. There are two different seasons in the rainforest they are, the dry season and the wet season. They come unexpectedly and when they come, the animals quickly adapt to the sudden change.

This is a small waterfall in the Amazon. It is located on a tributary somewhere near the main river.

The rain comes suddenly and with a great force. Most people call these monsoons. After about an hour or so of rain and no wild life, the pouring stops as quickly as it came, and the wildlife emerges from their hiding spots. During this raining time, the river rises and falls rapidly. When Mrs. Gillick, (the person we interviewed) entered the Amazon she had entered right after a big rain, and a few days later the naturalist said the river had lowered by three feet! The creatures and people depend on this; lets keep it this way.