Amazon River

Listen closely. Can you hear the chatter of monkeys and the songs of colorful birds? I begin as a tiny trickle high in the mountains and grow bigger and stronger as I twist and turn through a giant, green world. Trees with sleepy sloths hang over my edges, and deep in my brown waters, playful pink dolphins leap and swim. I am a long, winding path of water, a home for countless creatures big and small. Hello, I am the Amazon River.

For thousands and thousands of years, my best friends have been the people who live along my banks. The Indigenous peoples know all my secrets. They know when I am calm and when I am feeling powerful. They taught their children how to find food in the forest and how to travel safely on my waters. We have lived together in harmony for a very long time. Then one day, a new kind of visitor arrived. In the year 1541, a Spanish explorer named Francisco de Orellana and his crew sailed into my waters for the very first time. They had never seen a river as wide as me. “It looks like a moving sea!” they shouted. Francisco was so amazed that he wrote stories about his journey, and because of a legend he heard about strong warrior women, he gave me my name: Amazon.

Today, I am still a bustling, busy home for millions of creatures, from tiny, bright green frogs that hide on leaves to giant anaconda snakes that slide silently through my waters. The giant rainforest that surrounds me is so important that people call us the 'lungs of the planet'. That is because my trees help make the clean air that everyone in the world needs to breathe. I love watching the scientists and explorers who still come to visit me. They work with my friends, the Indigenous peoples, to learn my secrets and find ways to protect me and all my animal friends. I am a river of life and a place of wonder, and I will keep flowing, sharing my stories and my gifts with the world forever.