Amazon & Manaus

[PaulaJK]

We are booked for a cruise which begins in Buenos Aires and proceeds to the Amazon region. We will visit soe ports there and disembark in Manaus and spend a few days there. I am becoming concerned because of some disheartening comments about muddy waters, malls replacing tribal areas and the city of Manaus.

 

If you have travelled this area, I would appreciate hearing your impressions/experiences.

 

Thank you Paula

[piper28]

Well, the Amazon itself is definitely a brown river, with a lot of suspended mud/dirt (and logs and stuff). Manaus is on the Rio Negro, which is a black river, and you litteraly can't see more than a foot or two below the surface. But these are normal circumstances, and this is how the rivers *should* look.

 

Manaus itself is a fairly major city, and has a pretty large industrial base. It's two milllion people, so don't expect a small city there. Santarem and Paraintins are pretty common stops on the river, and those are definitely noticeably smaller, and really don't have much of a tourist infrastructure.

 

I'm not sure how much tribal area there's been in this area of the Amazon for a long time, most of the true tribal areas I think are far further up the river than this. I know there's a cultural preserve for one tribe near Manaus setup for them to practice their traditional beliefs, but these are tribal members that chose to move to a place closer to the city.

 

That said, if you can get out of the city (we did a truly outstanding independant tour there, you can find pictures from it in the photos link for that cruise in my signature), you can definitely reach areas that are far more isolated. There are definitely people that live in houses along the river that live fairly simple lives, although some of them are starting to get electricity nowadays. But if you can get out to see that, you're definitely going to experience a far different style of living than we're generally used to.

 

I know for me the trip we took that day will probably always stand out in my mind as one of those truly incredible experiences in my life. (And it sure beat the previous day of walking through a brutaly hot Manaus. You're two degrees off the equator there, and it's definitely noticeable, especially when a couple days before you came from a place where the highs were around freezing :) ).

[HarryTravels]

If you want to contact me I am using a guide, though quite expensive, whoi is taking us to 3 distinctly different tribes villages on a 9 hour tour in Dec. srkase@optonline.net

[Richard in Panama]

If you have travelled this area, I would appreciate hearing your impressions/experiences.

 

Hi Paula! Lucky you . . . the trip up the Amazon . . . "The Big Muddy" . . . is a fantastic adventure. You will love it! Manaus is a big bustling city, but an hour outside you are in the jungle. If you are stopping in Parintins by all means go to the Boi Bumba show. A little pricey maybe, but everyone thinks it is fantastic. I did the Amazon last season with ROYAL PRINCESS for about 3 months . . . IF you want some info and pictures of it check out my posts from then http://richarddetrich.wordpress.com/category/royal-princess/

 

Regards, Richard

[banditoo]

Well, the Amazon itself is definitely a brown river, with a lot of suspended mud/dirt (and logs and stuff). Manaus is on the Rio Negro, which is a black river, and you litteraly can't see more than a foot or two below the surface. But these are normal circumstances, and this is how the rivers *should* look.

 

Manaus itself is a fairly major city, and has a pretty large industrial base. It's two milllion people, so don't expect a small city there. Santarem and Paraintins are pretty common stops on the river, and those are definitely noticeably smaller, and really don't have much of a tourist infrastructure.

 

I'm not sure how much tribal area there's been in this area of the Amazon for a long time, most of the true tribal areas I think are far further up the river than this. I know there's a cultural preserve for one tribe near Manaus setup for them to practice their traditional beliefs, but these are tribal members that chose to move to a place closer to the city.

 

That said, if you can get out of the city (we did a truly outstanding independant tour there, you can find pictures from it in the photos link for that cruise in my signature), you can definitely reach areas that are far more isolated. There are definitely people that live in houses along the river that live fairly simple lives, although some of them are starting to get electricity nowadays. But if you can get out to see that, you're definitely going to experience a far different style of living than we're generally used to.

 

I know for me the trip we took that day will probably always stand out in my mind as one of those truly incredible experiences in my life. (And it sure beat the previous day of walking through a brutaly hot Manaus. You're two degrees off the equator there, and it's definitely noticeable, especially when a couple days before you came from a place where the highs were around freezing :) ).

Piper, I love your photos. Who did you use for the independent tour? I definitely want to have a similar pink dolphin experience. Was that out in the open water or some type of enclosure?

[piper28]

Piper, I love your photos. Who did you use for the independent tour? I definitely want to have a similar pink dolphin experience. Was that out in the open water or some type of enclosure?

 

Had to dig up the info, I didn't do the booking, another person on our cruise did, we just happened to luck into being able to join them. Our guide was Rodolpho, rodolpho@amazondestinations.com. I know he has several different prepackaged tours, but in this case he worked with the person who did the booking to come up with something that would work for us. Real nice guy, and good English skills.

 

The spot where we got in the water with the dolphins was open water, a floating platform. I think it's actually associated with the Ariao Towers hotel, but it basically just looks like this little platform out in the water. It's on the Rio Negro, so you really can't see into the water (anything more than about a foot below the surface disappears). The dolphins obviously seem to know about it though, there were 2 or 3 hanging out that day. (This is definitely not a dolphins in captivity thing).

[banditoo]

Thanks Piper. I will check out his website.