Manaus, Amazon

Where do I even begin to wrap my head around the vastness of what the Amazon is and what it even means to the common person? When I think of "the Amazon", it conjures images of tropical rainforests, winding rivers, native tribes, slithering serpents, ravenous piranhas, swinging monkeys and wildly colourful birds. Of course, this is not even the tip of the iceberg. The Amazon is a massive and lush rainforest. Covering an area of 2.6 million mi² (6.7 million km²), it is the largest tropical rainforest in the world. It spans nine countries in South America, with the majority of it located within Brazil. The Amazon Rainforest plays an incredibly important role in regulating the Earth's climate by absorbing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen.

The Amazon is home to 47 million people, 400 indigenous and ethnic groups, and contains 10% of the world's known species. Many of these species are endemic to the Amazon, and new flora and fauna are discovered every year. It has a staggering 400 billion trees that aid with the production of rainfall, releasing some 20 billion tonnes of water into the air every day.

Everything about the Amazon is on a grand scale. Consider this for a moment: it has the world's largest anteater, armadillo, snake, and toucan, to name a few, along with the heaviest rodent and the largest parrot. The Amazon is filled with the weird and wonderful – ever heard of a monkey that purrs like a cat or the pink dolphin?

This incredible ecosystem is intertwined with the magnificent Amazon River, the largest river in the world by volume of water and the second longest after the Nile River. Although in recent decades, there's been significant debate over whether the Amazon River is longer.

To begin this incredible journey, I arrived in Manaus, located in the heart of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. Manaus is the state of Amazona's capital, a major commercial centre known for producing electronics and chemicals, building ships, and exporting nuts, rubber, jute, and rosewood oil.

Before European settlement, Manaus was occupied by indigenous people. Then in the 16th century, Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors began to explore the Amazon region, searching for valuable resources, including gold and claiming the land for their investors. While the Spanish colonised the region north of Brazil, the Portuguese colonised Brazil. As part of colonisation, the Portuguese established a fort in the area in the late 17th century, which would later become Manaus.

The city's economic growth exploded during the rubber boom of the late 1800s when grand buildings such as the Teatro Amazonas were constructed. It was at the theatre that I started my walk, admiring its neoclassical architecture. Two curving staircases led to the entrance featuring a large portico with six columns and a large wrought-iron gate made in Scotland. Made of white and pink stones with a large central dome, the theatre is a blend of Renaissance and Baroque elements. The dome was covered in 36,000 ceramic tiles imported from France painted in Brazil's national flag colours.

The interior is even more spectacular, with a grand foyer featuring a mosaic floor made of coloured marble and decorated in intricately detailed frescoes, statues, gold leaf and nearly 200 chandeliers, with 32 of them made of Italy's luxurious Murano glass.

I wandered past Palácio Rio Negro, once the home of the governor of Amazonas, and Palacete Provincial, a former police headquarters. Grand and beautiful, the landmarks serve as museums showcasing the region's history, culture, art, numismatics and archaeology.

I continued to the Port of Manaus to board my cruise down the river, where I hope to unravel the beauty and mysteries of the Amazon, beginning with the Meeting of Waters.

Let the adventure begin!

(the date shows December, but our two teams start today)