Welcome to the Amazon Rainforest, the world's largest remaining tropical rainforest. More life hums, buzzes, chatters and bubbles here than anywhere else on the planet. One Amazonian tree can host more ant species than all of the British Isles put together, one hectare of forest boasts about as many frog species as all of North America, and the great expanse of the jungle contains more than twenty percent of the earth's vascular plant species. Here you can find a monkey small enough to sit on your fingertip, an eight-pound toad, a spider that eats birds, and the world's largest snake: the 30-foot anaconda.
Moreover, forty percent of all of all the earth's fresh water flows through the Amazon basin; more water than in the basins of the next six biggest rivers combined! In the Amazon river there are islands as big as Switzerland, otters bigger than men, and at certain points along it you can be in the middle and see neither shore.
This rainforest is home to thousands of indigenous inhabitants, who make up nearly 200 distinct nations, including the Siona, Secoya, Cofan, Shuar, Zaparo, Huaorani, and Quichua. The indigenous tribes that live in Ecuador's rainforest are the ancient keepers and guardians of the world's biological heritage - having lived there for more than 10,000 years - they know its trees, its animals, and its rhythms better than anyone.
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