The Amazon Jungle Experience (Brazil)

The Jungle Palace is located about 50 minutes by motor launch from Ponte Negra, in Manaus, on the Rio Negro. This two-storey floating hotel is moored in the middle of a lagoon and is built on a floating steel platform. It was made mainly of PVC with a marble-floored reception, according to the description in the guidebook, but it's not as bad as it sounds, with lots of wood and bamboo. The hermetically sealed bedrooms are reassuring in this hostile environment, although I really wanted to stay in one of the more rustic sounding floatels. The Jungle Palace terrace was, however, a pleasant place to relax outside, in a large wicker chair and the air-conditioned rooms were a bonus. The black alkaline water in the Rio Negro keep the mosquitoes away, so the only real irritation to deal with is the humidity.

Our stay at the Jungle Palace included a busy itinerary, but even the boat-trip there was spectacular, as we headed into the jungle with four of the other guests and the guide, lightning crackled away repeatedly in the distance and heavy rain formed menacing dark diagonal streaks across the sky. On arrival, delicious fresh local fish was served, for dinner, upstairs in the restaurant, which was open at the sides, with ceiling-fans. Breakfast, the following day, however was a fairly mediocre buffet.

The first excursion from the hotel was to the Arara River using a large motorboat. We saw rare fresh-water dolphins, both the pink and grey varieties, briefly sticking their noses out of the water, but not much else. The dolphins are almost impossible to photographs, even more so than the playful salt water varieties, but the pink ones are quite an amazing sight, if you do manage to catch a glimpse of one. En-route, we visited the Indian community of Terra Preta, which I assumed to be just an opportunity to try to sell souvenirs to us, which it was really, but this was the most charming souvenir shop I had ever been too. It was a round thatched shop filled with original handicrafts, such as Brazil-wood bowls and carvings at very good prices. We returned via the Anavilhanas Islands, after having seen a remarkably small amount of wildlife for a part of the world that claims to have so much. We did however see the beautiful villages, in their wonderful jungle setting, with their simple huts and a small school, which we were allowed to enter and their football pitch (They are football crazy in Brazil, even in the jungle) Even the weather continued to be dramatic, treating us to a short tropical storm on the way back in the boat.

The second excursion was Piranha fishing. We took a small boat to Igarapé do Cumaru (Cumaru Creek) and fished for piranha for an hour or so, catching a few small black piranhas. Most attempts were, however, unsuccessful, because the metal fishing line and hooks were not a match for their incredible jaws and teeth. The guide sat with these ugly creatures chomping away near his bare feet, for ages after we had caught them; being out of water seeming to be little more than an inconvenience to their health. He demonstrated the power of their jaws with small pieces of wood, which they happily munched through. Later, we ate them for dinner, but I would not recommend piranha, as they are very bony and crunchy without much meat on them.

The next excursion was caiman spotting. We took the boat just a short distance away from the hotel, after dark, and used torches to pick out the reflections of the caiman's eyes. The guide launched himself without warning into the murky water and returned with a tiny caiman, no more than about a foot in length. The poor confused reptile was then passed around and photographed by the tourists, before being returned to the water. Unlike the piranhas, this chap didn't end up as dinner.

We finally did an excursion on the Rio Negro to the 'Meeting of the Waters,' where the tributaries of the Rio Negro and Solimões run into the main Amazon River. The brown water of the Amazon and the black water of Rio Negro don't mix and form a distinct line for miles. This is not tremendously exciting to look at, after the first half an hour or so, especially with the traffic jam of other tourist boats doing the same thing, but I suppose it is something that has to be done when in Manaus. The trip overall is quite interesting, though, seeing the busy port and fish markets, with large menacing birds (vultures perhaps) hanging around for scraps and traveling across the enormous Amazon river, which seems more like an ocean, with the other side out of sight, is something that must be experienced.

We ended our trip to Manaus, with a tour of the interesting architecture in the centre. The city of Manaus is a large, sprawling cosmopolitan city, with a busy port. The main attractions for tourists, apart from the jungle surrounding it, are all in the centre, where the huge wealth created by the rubber boom allowed the construction of magnificent French style buildings in the late nineteenth century. The most striking building is the Opera House, built in 1898 which really does demonstrate the amount of money in "the Paris of the Tropics", as it was known, for that short period, just before the area went into decline. There was however an Indian settlement at this location from the late seventeenth century, and the city has also enjoyed renewed development and tourism over the last few decades.

Manaus city is an interesting place to visit, but the only real reason to go there, as a tourist is to see the Amazon River and rainforest, either using the city as a base or taking the slightly more adventurous option of actually staying in Rio Negro nearby.