Gary Meenaghan
MANAUS // It has appeared in these pages before, but it is a fact worth repeating: the city of Manaus is surrounded by 5.4 million square kilometres of rainforest. Five-point-four million. Stop reading for a second and think about that. I struggle to fathom it.
From the sky, the rainforest appears almost moss-like in its density. If you peer out an airplane window, the entire surface area of what is visible with the naked eye is green and bumpy; the scorched terracotta earth hidden beneath the jungle’s upper canopy, becoming visible only on the banks of the rivers that run through the forest like veins in an arm.
With a vivid imagination, it is possible to visualise the masses of exotic animals that reside in the trees: parakeets and sloths, snakes and spider monkeys – and hundreds, if not thousands, of species yet to be discovered. More than 50 per cent of the world’s plants and animals are in the Amazon.
As the plane descends, the high-rise buildings of Manaus begin to appear, like a mirage in the tropical humidity. Much in the way Dubai grows out of desert sands, an entire city has been built here on inhospitable jungle terrain.
It is home to more than two million people, a statistic almost as impressive as the city is isolated.
The hope is the World Cup will attract more tourists to this part of the world, bringing with them a boost to the local economy.
Thousands of English, Italian, American and Portuguese fans would undoubtedly agree the long trip north to get here is a journey worth making. A boat trip can take you to the meeting of the waters, where the black Rio Negro runs alongside the murky, brown Amazon River without mixing.
It is a phenomenal sight and made all the better by the prospect of swimming with pink dolphins.
Nowhere else on Earth can capture the imagination like the sight of a 5.4 million-square-kilometre rainforest. Nowhere.
gmeenaghan@thenational.ae
