Novotel - Manaus

... silty water of the Amazon met the darker, clearer water of the Negro.

After randomly picking up a few extra passengers (who flagged the boat from the side of the river), who were teachers in the next village, the boat carried on to dock on the opposite side of the river, at a small village, where we then got in a car and drove for another 40 mins before reaching the Mamori River (a tributary of the Amazon) which we travelled on by speedboat ...

... up the dark stairway behind him which led to an even darker hallway. At the top of the stairs a motion light finally lit the hallway to our room.

The room was light by a single flourescent tube which thankfully shadowed the dirt and soot that accumulated on the floors and walls. Though the light was bright enough to expose what appeared to be human feces spread across the wall, but may have been the smearing of a large
mosquito carcass ...

... br>L'Hôtels de Forêt, city tours, rencontre des eaux, tranfers, Expeditions sur mesure en bateau, interprètes & guide ...

... tree tops some more. We spent a good couple of hours exploring, and we saw some more animals. We spotted a bunch more Macaws, which were pretty common by this point, but no less interesting. They sit in groups, squawking, and eating nuts. You can hear the constant *plop*ing of empty pods splashing below them, as they eat. We also saw 2 toucans, which was excellent. Their beaks really look rediculoulsly large when you see them flying, they're probably a third of their ...

... and general helper) -- Sebastian. There was a pair from England; a fellow from Italy; a couple from Columbia and Costa Rica; and lastly a leaf-loving (including those smoked) Canadian. We left my taxi, boat, taxi and -- you guessed it -- boat again to reach our first night´s 5-star accommodation in the Pousado do Lontra. Our room was furnished with two lovely mattresses (even with frames) with mosquito nets and our not-so-consistent rotating fan.

Manaus, State of Amazonas, Brazil barry0fisher

Landing in Manaus was incredible. I had no idea before just how many rivers are flowing together there, nor many of the amazing statistics we were constantly told about the Amazon over the next week or so.

We spent a few days in the city here which was also surprising with 2 millon people living in a huge place in the middle of the jungle making tvs and stereos to be shipped everywhere. Seeing oil tankers 5 days from the sea that can go up to the Peruvian border was also a ...

... with its famous green and yellow tiled domed roof, we had a tour. the inside was amazing it was built in the 1890s during the rubber boom, in the French Belle Epoque style, it was a bit OTT, but you would never have expected to find something like this in the middle of the Amazon. The day combined with more errands, swapping books for our trip down the Amazon, we managed to swap one in the 1st, but in the 2nd hostel ,a rude and smelly receptionist told us that their book ...

... the guy was still not there. He had supposedly left his place at 6am, and it supposedly takes 2 hours for him to drive there.. and we finally got through at 12:30! Our poor driver, Marc, then had a 15 hour drive ahead of him.. this is not including lunch/dinner/toilet stops either. We ended up stopping at the Equator for dinner at 10pm, which was lovely - we were all starving by then! And we arrived at our destination at 7am in the morning. I then slept half the day ...

... was really interesting cause they were very deferent. It was a great 3 day;s of education on all kind;s of subject;s. but truly the instructor and, he;s enthusiasm personalty maid the trip. you can check he;s website. keep in mind all he;s picture;s on this website or real and he took them ...

... way from Trinidad to Manaus, the travel time had nearly doubled. But patience conquers everything. And in Manecoré everybody slept like babies, because we had plenty of space. But people started to board the boat in the morning. There came people, and more people. More people. More people. And even more people.The space filled up and now every possible hooks for hammocks were already in use. But the crowd didn't stop coming. They started laying their hammocks criss-cross over ...