Amazon Rainforest at Manaus

The Amazon Rainforest Around Manaus, Gateway To Anavilhanas National Park And The Central Amazon Conservation Complex (A UNESCO World Heritage Site Upriver); The Meeting Of The Waters Is A Federally Protected Heritage Landscape · Manaus, Amazonas

The Amazon is the largest rainforest on earth, and Manaus, a city of two million people in the middle of it, is where almost every visitor to the Brazilian Amazon begins. There are no roads in from most of Brazil; people fly in. Just outside the city the black water of the Rio Negro meets the sandy Solimões at the Meeting of the Waters, and the two run side by side without mixing for several kilometres. The real experience is upriver or on the lakes south of the city: a few nights in a jungle lodge, paddling canoes through flooded forest in the high-water season, walking trails with a guide, spotting caimans at night, and watching pink river dolphins. Honest expectations matter. You will not see a jaguar; you will see birds, monkeys, sloths, dolphins and a forest of staggering scale. The forest close to Manaus has been logged and settled, and the better lodges are two hours or more away by road and boat. The city itself has one unmissable sight, the rubber-boom opera house, the Teatro Amazonas. The Rio Negro's acidic water means fewer mosquitoes than most visitors fear.

Manaus and the Rio Negro, Amazonas, Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Year-round, but the river decides what you can do. Water levels rise and fall by ten metres or more over the year: high water peaks around June, when canoes glide between the trunks of the flooded forest and many trails are underwater; low water around October and November exposes white sand beaches on the Rio Negro, makes forest trails walkable and concentrates fish, but some lodge channels become too shallow for boats. Lodges run fixed multi-day packages with set arrival and departure days and transfers from Manaus at set times, so flights need to match them; a late flight can cost a night. Day tours from Manaus leave early in the morning. In the city, the Teatro Amazonas runs guided tours on most days but closes one day a week and for rehearsals and performances, and the Adolpho Lisboa market is busiest in the morning. Severe droughts in recent years have left some lodges unreachable by their normal routes for weeks, so ask about current river levels before booking.

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