The mighty Amazon River and rainforest. I will not carry on with superlatives, except to say that this river is the world´s second longest after the Nile, but, in terms of water discharge, it is greater than the next seven rivers combined, and it is huge - the distance between Sydney to Singapore. Large ocean liners can ply its waters, and, when we were on it, it felt like we were on the ocean. Its accompanying rainforest harbours staggering biodiversity.
We have spent the past week in the Brazilian Amazon, fliying in and out of the sprawling jungle city of Manaus, four hours flying time North of Rio and not far from the equator. Hence, it has been hot and humid. Today, Manaus is a ramshackle and rather decrepit city, but was not always so. Rubber was discovered here around the time that automobiles appeared, feeding a huge demand for rubber (car tyres). The city grew very wealthy in the 1800s, and boasts some fine buildings built on the proceeds of the rubber trade, such as the handsome Teatro Amazonas, (the opera house), located in a lovely town square that would not be out of place in ,say, Vienna. But when the Brits smuggled rubber seeds out, and set up plantations worldwide, the boom times for Manaus ended and it started to crumble.
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