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Manaus is at the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. And it's easy to get an optional cruises around Manaus. You don’t
need to worry about planning local trips in advance. They will be offered to you at your hotel, or by any local tour operator.
There are many tour operators.
Just be aware of the big Amazonian options for cruises, tours and travel around Manaus:
- The meeting of the waters (the confluence of Rio Negro and Rio Solimoes, and the subsequent ‘formation’ of the Amazon river) some 5 miles (8 Km) upstream Manaus; the warmer and clearer water of the Negro river runs side by side, for several miles, with the silty waters of Solimoes, without mixing, and showing a spectacular phenomenon, nobody should lose.
- the excellent river beach of Praia da Ponta Negra (also the major social centre of Manaus)
-
the Salvador Lake and the Guedes Igarapé backwater forest. In those places, or around them, people can fish, swim, walk in the forest paths, canoe, look for caimans at night with a flashlight, etc.
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More specific trips in the Amazonian travel options near Manaus can include:
- tributaries of the Amazon/Negro river, as Pagodão River.
- a place with giant water lilies
- dolphins observation
- settlements of native people («caboclos»), to see how they live and survive.
- a jungle survival course: orientation tips, how to build the camp, how to find food and water, make traps, make fire, cook the meals, put the hammocks…
- trek on jungle for flora and mammals and birds observation
- nocturnal visit to alligators…
Highlights in Manaus
Teatro Amazonas (or Amazon Opera House) is the most fascinating Amazon building. You will be amazed by its grandeur. It is situated at Avenue Eduardo Ribeiro, and has been initiated in 1881, in the boom of an immense richness brought by rubber production. It was a crazy epoch, of astonishing fortunes: the richest men of Manaus used to light their cigars with 50 pounds notes.
Other architectonic points of interest
Custom’s House: Square Adalberto do Valle
Palácio Rio Negro: Avenue 7 de Setembro
Museu do Índio (Indian Museam): Avenue 7 de Setembro
Salesian Indian Museam: Street Duque de Caxias
Manaus port
The port (or the Adolfo Lisboa Market, at the downtown) is an interesting place to wander a little: the workers febrile activity at the docks, the amazing number of boats, the prodigious variety of fish and tropical fruit at the docksides markets, the high number of bazaars and stores at the downtown, and all the associated exoticism, deserve some of your relaxing hours.
If you are planning active Amazonian cruises or trips near Manaus (or
elsewhere in the river and the rainforest), consider to carry the following gear:
- rain gear, sun protector, insect repellent for jungle walks (the more the DEET the better), a flashlight, a camera and lens, plenty of film and extra batteries for your camera, binoculars, zip-lock bags, hat with wide brim or bill, large bandana. You should have all this gear in your shoulder bag, or equivalent:
- extra pairs of shoes, extra pair of socks (two per day), lightweight cotton clothing (including long sleeve shirts and long pants), rubber thongs or similar, swim suits.
You can visit Manaus and the Amazon river in a luxurious transatlantic cruiser. The Amazon river is highly navigable from Belem (at the mouth) to Iquitos, a Peruvian frontier city (2200 miles/3700 Kms) from Belém
and well above Manaus.
This kind of Amazon cruises may include a great range of cities and ports outside the Amazon.
Amazonian tours of two weeks are very common.
If you are interested in this kind of Amazonian cruises, see:
International / Amazon cruises
For more details about the Amazonian cruises issue, see also the article:
Cruises in the Amazon: article
The big cruisers and liners are just one possibility for travelling in the Amazon. There are also local river boats,
namely in Manaus, including tourist vessels for your Amazon cruise.
You can easily arrange long riverboat travels in Manaus (or Belem, at the mouth of the river), namely the Manaus-Belem trip – a truly rewarding Amazon cruise, if you have time and are a nature lover. This long riverboat trip offers moments of exceptional beauty and is the only way to experience the full mood and the immensity of the Amazon. You will never forget the experience.
But you should also ponder on the inconveniences:
- this Amazon cruise will take you four to six days, besides the extra-days needed for arrangements and the connections with flights (factors as the weather, the streams and other local factors, may extend the travel well beyond the expected.
- the smaller Amazon boats force the passengers to sleep in hammocks, and the food served is usually basic. Furthermore, the toilet facilities are rather improvised and unpleasant. If you want to avoid this kind of things, choose touristic boats.
- for less contemplative people, at some branches, the river can be monotonous, repetitive, in many branches.
- the voyage, though cheap in itself, may collide with international round-trip flights and the savings that those flights afford.
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