Some years ago, during a visit to close friends in Caracas, Venezuela, we took the opportunity to spend a few days in the Amazon region of the Venezuelan interior. The Orinoco river, some 2,000km (1,300 miles) long, starts in Columbia to discharge into the Atlantic. The river basin is huge, estimated between 880,000 and 1,200,000 square km (340,000-460,000 square miles). …
