A Trip Too Far

A Trip Too Far

Our cruise on the Amazon in Peru from which we recently returned (see Los Ribiernos 12 Mar 2012) falls generally in the category of adventure/eco-travel.  There are many sub-categories as well, but suffice it to say that we tend to opt for the segment which is long on luxury and somewhat shorter on adventure with a nod to the ecological wonders of the world.  We’ve done Antarctica, and our only real adventure was when I had level five seasickness while we were navigating the Drake Passage, and our time on the Yangtze river was punctuated only by our choice of whether to have one or two cocktails before dinner.  We’ve done the safari thing in South...
Los Ribiernos

Los Ribiernos

The Amazon, as we know it,  begins at the confluence of the Ucayali and Maranon Rivers in Loretto, Peru and proceeds east north east into Brazil and gathers strength as it is fed by numerous tributaries of the Amazon basin until it exits into an estuary on the Brazilian coast one hundred sixty miles wide.  At that point it is flowing three hundred thousand cubic meters per second into the Atlantic.  My grasp of flow rates is at low ebb, so to speak, but suffice it to say that the Amazon discharges more fresh water into the world’s oceans than the next seven rivers combined. Just a few other stats are in order if only to titillate your imagination.  As you...