Amazon was almost called Cadabra. The name was dropped because too many people on the phone heard “Cadaver”.
On 12 February 1809, two births. One, at The Mount in Shrewsbury on the River Severn, Charles Darwin. The other, on Sinking Spring Farm in Kentucky, Abraham Lincoln.
One writer has called them “the men behind the icons of emancipation and evolution”, the modern giants of the brands of freedom and change.
Ecuador provides some of the Amazon’s headwaters. When you go to Ecuador’s capital Quito start at Plaza Abraham Lincoln and walk north for two or so hours. Travel along Avenue Francisco de Orellana, named for the explorer who gave the river its name and who on 12 February 1542 founded those headwaters. Eventually you may reach Charles Darwin College. On 12 February 1832, three years before the Beagle arrived, Ecuador annexed the Galapagos Islands.
On 12 February, Ecuador celebrates Amazon and Galapagos Day.
