Where did you go in the Amazon and how did you get there? I was surprised to learn that not many Brazilians have ever been to the Amazon. But it makes sense once you realize that it's hard to get there and it takes a long time.
Visiting the Amazon is a 2000-3000 km trip from most large cities in the country, fuel prices and plane tickets are awfully expensive right now, and for most history, so it's a trip that would cost multiple times the minimum wage in Brazil. So it's not that surprising most people in the country din't ever visit there, unless they were already born close to it. Also, the most easily reachable parts are already very degraded. Roads spell doom to the forest. Pristine forest is far from the areas with affordable amenities that would please most tourists. In the brief time period air travel became more affordable, in the Lula-Dilma government terms, most people that could travel skipped domestic tourism and went straight into international travel, as from large cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro a plane ticket to Argentina, Chile, or even Europe used to be very often cheaper than a ticket to, say, Manaus.
> Also, the most easily reachable parts are already very degraded. Roads spell doom to the forest. Pristine forest is far from the areas with affordable amenities that would please most tourists.
That's not really correct in my experience. You can find "deep wilderness" in about 30-40 minutes from the city of Manaus (by boat), as in places with no human activity at all. And Manaus is very reachable (actually what people consider "the Amazon").
The city doesn't sprawl too far, and you have deforestation along the roads, but it's quite impressive how the "deep" jungle starts just after the last man-made structure. There are more areas of uninterrupted forest than in any other region probably in the world. And I visited in 2020, not really long ago.
I'm Brazilian and I didn't really expect that, knowing our bad track record of deforestation. I thought the "real" jungle would be much further away. Coming from the Southeast of Brazil I can see the difference, and I'd call forests in this region definitely degraded. But up there it's as close to pristine as it gets with human involvement. The tragedy is that it's not for long.
You can get to the Amazon from Quito with a 5 hour drive that is very pleasant. Then the road ends and you take a boat that can be anything from 30mins to several hours, depending how deep into the jungle you are going.
Once there, there's tons to do. Floating in an amazon tributary river -with no sound other than the occasional bird- and closing my eyes was one of the most incredible zen moments in my life. Could have stayed hours. That week went by too fast.
Regarding your brazil experience - doesn't seem uncommon. I've asked Peruvians, Ecuadoreans, Brazilians etc if they have gone to the Amazon. The answer is no.
Its not dissimilar to the experience you would get in the US if you asked someone if they have been to Mt Rushmore, Florida Keys, Grand Canyon, or even Yellowstone. Its far, and mostly out of reach for most americans (and we are far wealthier than our southern neighbors).
Also, I get a sense that touristic developments deep in South America wilderness tend to cater to foreign tourists. Such prices may be out of reach for most upper class locals. This is different from most US landmarks, which seem to cater primarily to middle class Americans (anecdata).
I came from Amazonas, a Brazilian state which contains most of the Brazilian Amazon. And yes not many Brazilians know the Amazon, most probably live as far from the Amazon as US is (Brazil is really big!).
It's wild how close this is to true, but by my measurement the shortest distance between the US mainland (so not counting Puerto Rico) and the nearest point I can see in the Amazon [white outline in 0, for lack of a better reference] is ~1,650 miles, and there is nowhere in Brazil that is more than 1600 miles.
The northernmost part of Brazil is closer to Canada than it is to the southernmost part of Brazil. So yes, there are places on the US that are closer to the Amazon than some places in Brazil
> There isn't much to do there if you aren't a fan of raw wilderness and extreme heat
Mostly this. If you want to see exotic animals, you'll be probably more comfortable on a Zoo. Favorite touristic points of Brazil seems to be northeast beach or coldest parts of the south. I was in vacation in Florianopolis, a capital city in the south, in 2019 and every time I said I was from the northeast they asked me: "and why are you wasting your vacation here?"
