Amazon Jungle

The Amazonas is the world's largest tropical rainforest. It consists of an enormous system of rivers, streams and dense forests, which are home to a number of isolated Indian tribes. Even nowadays, not all of the Amazon tributaries have been explored and of the estimated 15,000 species of birds, fish and mammals that live in the Amazonas, only part has been described, let alone the thousands of insect species that must house in the jungle.

Some of the species that are known to live in the Amazonas include alligator, anaconda, armadillo, boa constrictor, caiman, jaguar, peccary, river dolphin, sloth, spider monkey and tapir, while birds such as hawks, hummingbirds, macaws, parrots and toucans can be seen there as well. There are more than 1800 species of butterflies alone, as well as 200 sorts of mosquitoes. Fish include numerous varieties of electric eel, piranha, piraracu, pintado and tucunaré. The abindance of fish is so great that about 30% of the fish species sold on the markets of Belém in Brazil, can not be identified by biologists, as the species are unknown.

In Venezuela, trips up the Orinoco, Sipapo or Autana Rivers, deep into the Venezuelan Amazon can be arranged from the town of Puerto Ayacucho.

Nearly half of Brazil is covered by the Amazonas. In Brazil the Rio Amazonas is navigable for ocean-going vessels between the cities of Manaus and Belém, a distance of more than 1300 km. In Brazil, the most common place to stay, if you want to visit the Amazonas, is the city of Manaus. About 30% of the fish sold on the markets of Belém, cannot be identified by biologists, as they belong to unknown species.