Tiwa Amazonas Ecoresort Manaus

... to get a VW van which has seen better days, but the scenery on the first and last boat journeys is definitely worth seeing and includes the famous “Meeting of the Waters” where the brown River Solimoes runs alongside the black Rio Negro and eventually becomes the Amazon.

On a good day the transfer from airport or pousada in Manaus to the lodge should take you about four and a ...

... port wall by the floating harbor that shows the different river levels in different years. The highest to date is in 2009.

We also disembarked our boat into what was described as canoes to visit a marshy swamp off the main river. These motorized little craft just about managed to navigate their way through the shallow waters left at the end of the dry season to get to a local 'camp’ where the buildings were constructed on large trunks of trees chopped ...

... que..................... o senso comum se sobressalta e rasga-me o pensamento como electricidade... rápido no gatilho, solto imediatamente um sentido... "Foda-se!!!" Nervoso, ainda sem bem perceber tudo o que passa a meu redor, começo em busca de respostas a vitais perguntas que me assombram no imediato... onde nos vamos sentar? de que lado estamos nós? qual é a porta? de que lado? Nãããããooooooooo...... as lágrimas correm-me pelo rosto, o fardo pesa mais que nunca e não há agora como ...

... arrived in Manaus from my night bus at around 6am, so the heat was bearable for the rammed bus ride into town and the inevitable walk around town to locate a nice/cheap place to stay. In my dorm room I found my first English people of this trip… I can't believe it’s taken this long. After asking around about who I should book my Amazon trip with, I went to the office of Gero Tours and bought myself a 3 day/2 night jungle adventure ...

... Lodge is located within the Mamirua Resevre, which the Brazilian government created in 1996. The lodge is staffed by guides and cooks from surrounding village located within the reserve. Each year, all of the profits from the reserve are divided equally between the villages. Both the jobs and the profits make the people truly vested in the health of the reserve habitat and the related success of the ecotourism. As a result, the villagers act as ...

... of our bus, in to a tiny village, that was stiflingly hot, and consisted of sand roads, and corrugated-metal roofs. We met a man we would come to know as 'The Boatman'(yes, I made a
2-pennies joke), and he ferried us out in to a main branch of the rio negro. It was a very striking experience, because the vastness of the area just explodes in to view all at once. I won't even bother describing it, just look at the pictures. Our boat ride was 1 hour, and we arrived at ...

... the tour (the number increased from 10 to about 20 so more names to remember!) and the next day headed for our jungle adventure.

We first went down and saw the meeting of the waters where the dark water from the Rio Negro and the muddy water from the Amazon meet and don´t mix at all. I had heard so much about this that it was great to witness, it is quite a sight to see such a stark contrast of the 2 and apparently they don´t mix due to the different ...

... go to Ponta Negra Beach, but was so lazy, that I didn't make it until near sunset. It was pretty neat though! I wished I had been there earlier because the beach was in fact quite nice! And you get to see a lovely sunset, too! To get there, there are public buses from central Manaus, maybe 25 minutes on the bus if I remember right.

And of course I had to do something sort of jungle related, when being in the middle of the Amazon! Although the whole area around Manaus is ...