Tours

Itinerary

The Ariaú River and Forest Experience

First day

We pick you up at the airport and transfer to the Hotel either Monaco or Brasil. After check-in we take you for a guided city tour. We will visit the main attractions, which are there is no doubt, the opera house with its delicate fountain; a splendid neoclassical building of the size of the Scala (the opera house in Milan, Italy). After 15 years of construction it was inaugurated in 1896 as the symbol of the rubber boom, one of the most prosperous economic cycles in Brazil's history.

Another beautiful example of the rich past of Manaus is the Palácio Rio Negro, constructed at the end of 19th century by a the excentric German Rubber Baron Waldemar Scholz. The Palácio Rio Negro today host a cultural centre.

From here we walk down to the port area and visit the Mercado Municipal, the city's marketplace, where regional food, exotic fruits, unbelievable quantities and varieties of fish, and handicrafts are displayed. The iron structures of the market, inaugurated 1883, were designed by a famous Frenchman called Gustave Eiffel, the builder of the Tour d'Eiffel in Paris.

We then visit the fascinating floating port of Manaus, called Porto Flutuante. A colourful mix of people running busily around to embark or disembark, load or unload the boats that reach practically every corner of the Amazonian universe, except where waterfalls or rapids block the way. The 3 story boats are significantly called gaiolas, which literally means cages! Here, at the banks of the Rio Negro, we stop for an exotic drink before we have dinner in a typical Amazonian fish restaurant. For the evening and, depending on what is on stage, we could watch a performance in the historic Teatro Amazonas.

Second day

After breakfast we leave the hotel at 08:00h in directions to the “Meeting of the Waters”, to watch the phenomena of two rivers, the black Rio Negro and the white Rio Solimões running next to each other for 6 miles before they join and form the Rio Amazonas which is a spectacular and unrivaled sight.

From here we visit the January Eco Park, to marvel at giant Vitoria régia water lilies. Lunch. We proceed now to the port where we take a boat to cross over to the right banks of the Rio Negro. From there we drive by car to the village of Iranduba and proceed by canoe to the indigenous people of the Sateré Mawê tribe, on the Ariaú river.

The Sateré Mawê have given the famous guaraná plant, Paullinia cupana, to the world. Guaraná as it is known, of the family of the Sapindaces, is a plant with 4-8% caffeine in its dry mass and produces a very stimulating long term effect. The plant is of great importance to the tribe's social and economical structure. The tribe also celebrates the famous passage of the young warriors. The for westerners macabre rites involves the dança da tucandeira, the largest and most venomous ants of the world, also called "bullet ant", or Paraponera clavata. These rites are celebrated during the "Meeting of the Warriors", every year in November.

A traditional welcome dance and chant will be performed by children and you will be introduced to their natural pharmacy where you can experience some of their medical herbs and plants. We will eat dinner with the tribe and join the men for a night out on the river for spear fishing and alligator spotting. Overnight is in the village in hammocks.

Third day

After breakfast, a local cabóclo will pick us up with his canoe to visit one of the biggest trees of the Amazonian vegetation. It is the giant Ceiba pentandra of the Bombacáceae family, which can reach 50 ms in hight and 20 meters in diameter. It is better known as Kapok tree or Samaúma, in Portuguese. Depending on the water level we will now hike or canoe through the Iannixin, Ubim and Pato Limão igarapés, as the temporarily flooded forest is called. Here we watch and photograph the brown-throated three-toed sloth, giant cayman, several species of monkeys, tapir, giant and lesser ant eater, eventually anaconda, tarantula, macaws, tucans, several kinds of parakeets, among many others.

We will now check-in the Pousada Amazônia for dinner. At night, again we will undertake a canoe ride and hike into the forest to observe night active animals. Return to the pousada for overnight. The facility offers all amenities for a comfortable night.

Fourth day

We have another half day to discover the secrets of the nearby forest, igarapés and rivers. While doing so, we stop by the local cabóclo family of our friend Edmilson and visit their plantations of tropical fruits, manioc and rubber tree, which together with fish is the basis of their diet. The techniques of extracting caoutchouc from the Hevea brasiliensis has unchanged since nearly two centuries and will be demonstrated to us by Edilson. Now, we return to the Pousada for a shower, packing travel gear, lunch and check-out.

We transfer you back by car and boat to Manaus airport for your departure flight.

End of our services.