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Imagine that you've just won the vacation of a lifetime—a cruise down the Amazon River! You will be traveling 4,000 miles down the world's second-longest river. Your trip will start at the head of the Amazon, high in the Andes Mountains of northern Peru. You'll travel across northern Brazil to the city of Belém, where the Amazon River enters the Atlantic Ocean.
And while you're on the river, consider this: The Amazon carries more water than any other river in the world. The flow of the river is so powerful that when it discharges into the Atlantic it dilutes the ocean water for 100 miles. As a matter of fact, the volume of water coming out of the Amazon is enough to fill a million bathtubs in less than a minute!
But before you head off to South America, you should know that the Amazon and its 1,100 tributaries are part of the Amazon basin, which covers almost half of South America. The basin is made up of different environments that are home to thousands of species. Every year the Amazon River rises more than 30 feet and floods surrounding forests. These floods are important because they replenish the floodplains and enable thousands of species to migrate in and out of the basin each season. And get this: Twenty percent of the entire world's freshwater is contained in the basin.
Unfortunately, because your time on the Amazon is limited, you won't be able to cruise all 48,000 miles of the river's waterways. But don't worry; you'll see plenty of wildlife. Just be sure to bring a camera, because some of the things you'll see may not be there in the future. Why? Because the Amazon has become endangered—mostly because more and more people have been moving to its banks. People have been polluting the river with things such as untreated sewage and mercury. Developers have been building new roads that are ruining the land and natural resources along the river. And because of over-fishing, some fish species are in danger of becoming extinct.
Despite these growing problems, the Amazon River is still amazing, and many conservationists are working hard to make sure that it stays this way. So pack your bags. You're in for an unforgettable experience! And when you return, you can use your new knowledge and appreciation of the Amazon to help preserve this great river.
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