Six miles from Manaus, Brazil is one of the most incredible
displays of nature's majesty. No matter what you've heard,
nothing can fully prepare you for a trip to Meeting of
the waters, the incredible place where two distinct bodies
of water meet, but don't mix. Here is where they join,
without losing their distinct qualities.
Here in the Amazon, mystery surrounds you: it lies in
the hidden powers of a rare plant, it lives within the
heart of every Indian that call the almighty Amazon Rain
Forest home, it resonates in the call of a beautiful exotic
bird you can't see but whose foreign call thrills you
to the core.
The Amazon river basin, most of which lies in the enormous
South American country of Brazil, has it beginnings high
in the Andes, as a series of tiny tributaries. The meeting
of the waters is the dramatic convergence of two of these
types of waters.
As its name suggests the Rio Negro is a darker, slower,
and much heavier body of water than the Rio Solimoes.
Tempurate, density, velocity differences keep these two
bodies of water separate for more than 6 miles before
at last they join to form the great Amazon. Sloths, piranhas,
anacondas and colorful parrots are just a few of the animals
you might expect to encounter on a tour of the Amazon
on a riverboat tour.
Indigena Waimiri Atroari is a tribe of Indians of the
Amazon, just one of the many tribes that make their home
here. The Amazon Rain forest itself is a precious gift
of the earth, providing a great deal of the earths annual
rainfall, cooling the atmosphere of the earth and providing
much needed habitat for some of the largest varieties
of flora and fauna in the entire world.
The meeting of the waters is part of this ecological
treasure; it is evidence of the great force at work in
this lush jungle habitat. From top to bottom, from beginning
to end, the Amazon, from its humble beginnings high in
the Andes, to where it widens to its greatest extent in
the basin of the rain forest, dense with foliage.
The meeting of the waters is like experiencing two horizons
at once, with the sandy beige waters of the Solimoes on
one side, and a completely different vista as you look
in the other direction at the darker, murky waters of
the Rio Negro. The plays of light on the water amazes
you as two different vistas greet you, side by side.
Enjoy the quiet and scenic end to a breathtaking riverboat
tour through the waters at sunset. The brilliant red hues
of the Amazonian sunset reflecting off the multicolored
waters of the river create one of the most compelling
views you've ever enjoyed. No matter what coast you've
stood on, no matter what ocean you've gazed upon, standing
here, at the meeting of the waters, before the river goes
on to unimaginable depths, you realize this view is like
the Pacific, because beyond you lies a place as expansive
and diverse as a great ocean, this is a great ocean of
life.
