Tours, for a minimum of five people, cost 195 reais ($87) a head. The guides are walking encyclopedias on the rainforest, its daunting trees, exotic fruits and medicinal plants. One such excursion leaves from the Hotel Tropical Manaus, a sprawling resort just outside the city. Mosquito repellent, water and close-toed shoes, preferably boots to protect against parasites and other creepy crawlers, are mandatory for setting foot in the Amazon. Visitors can see the Amazon River’s aquatic life in nearby aquariums.įor a closer encounter with the jungle, a five-hour trek still gets you back to civilization in time for dinner. The National Institute of Amazonian Research offers 32 acres (13 hectares) of forest within the city limits. While an excursion to a nature lodge or a river cruise up the Amazon to Peru is the best way to experience the rainforest, you can also visit the jungle without foregoing urban comforts. Arena Amazônia is the venue for England vs Italy, Cameroon vs Croatia, USA vs Portugal and Honduras vs Switzerland. Soccer fans should be prepared to sweat when Manaus hosts four World Cup games next month in a new $300 million stadium that looks destined to become a white elephant. Passing from refrigerated hotel to scorching sidewalk to refrigerated taxi can be a thermal shock. The city protects itself from the hostile environment with ice-cold air conditioning. To keep all this going you need life-support. Its residents, an ethnic soup of Brazilians of native Indian, African, European and Japanese descent, assemble everything from cellphones to Harley-Davidson motorcycles. It is a free-trade zone with an oil refinery and dozens of electronics and appliance factories. When you step off the plane, even the air can seem other-worldly, a hot, humid blast that feels like steam - so much so that physical effort can be utterly exhausting.īut this city of 2 million is more than just jungle.
Manaus is surrounded on three sides by mostly impassible jungle and on the other by rivers: the enormous Rio Negro and the almost unimaginably more powerful Amazon River. The next closest urban center, Belém, is 777 miles (1,250 km) away, and Manaus is a four-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo. Visitors may find the sci-fi feel of the place enhanced by the fact that the only reliable ways to get there are by plane or river boat. An aerial view of the harbour of Manaus, in northern Brazil, March 28, 2014.
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