Word: amazon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
ENVIRONMENT How to enjoy the Amazon without despoiling...
...countless waterfalls that bathe the southeastern foothills of the Peruvian Andes, I enjoy the cool breath of the cascade, which takes the edge off the equatorial sun. From nearby promontories, an observer can look upward to the cloud forests that cling to the mountainous rim of the Amazon basin, or down into the steamy lowland rain forests that extend thousands of miles to the east. As far as the eye can see and beyond, there are no villages, roads or towns. Lying below is the Manu, a 7,000-sq.-mi. area as choked with plant and animal life...
...hike to the waterfall is part of a trip that began by rugged and fat- tired mountain bicycle in a forest of tiny trees and giant plants at 11,300 ft. on the very rim of the Amazon basin and will continue by white-water raft, motorized canoe and dugout canoe into the swampy lowlands. The guided excursion is designed as an experiment in ecotourism, where the focus is on nature rather than on stimulating thrills. The aim is to attract paying customers into previously inaccessible areas with minimal disruption of the surroundings...
...State Department travel advisory warning about the insurgency of the Shining Path guerrillas cut the number of American visitors to the Manu in 1990 to 80, fewer than those who chose to visit Beirut. The area, however, is one of the few places in South America where the primordial Amazon is on display...
...continued into the Amazon basin by mountain bike and white-water raft, the temperature and humidity rose. Cloud-forest plants and animals began to give way to parrots, fasciated tiger herons -- a hunter of large fish and snakes that looks like it is wearing a herringbone overcoat -- and other lowland creatures. We settled for the night at Amazonia Lodge, a former tea plantation across from the tiny river port of Atalaya. The owner, Santiago Yabar, tells us that he first visited the plantation as a tax collector in the 1970s, then later bought it and transformed its run-down buildings...