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Take a Trip Down the Amazon River with Google Street View

Posted: 04 Apr 2012 09:00 AM PDT

If, like my shut-in/hermitised self, you have never ventured anywhere near the Amazon or Rio Negro Rivers of north-west Brazil, but have always wished to do so, fret not: the internet has provided the next best thing. Thanks to those wonderful people over at Google Street View, you can now trek your way through the tropical trees of the Amazon rainforest, wander down the paths of the village of Tumbira, visit the other local communities of the Rio Negro Reserve, and, even more amazingly, take a boat trip down the Rio Negro River, all from the spacious comfort of your very own living room – no having to deal with the scorching heat or those pesky piranhas!

Launched to celebrate World Forest Day, the brand new section of Google's Street View service, itself launched as a feature on Google Maps in May of 2007, consists of over 50,000 images taken in the Amazon Basin in August of last year. Spliced together, the images provide a 360-degree, ground-level view of the photographed area, now captured partly and beautifully from the perspective of an Amazon river boat.

Below is Google's official video explaining and introducing the new feature.