During our trip to wonderful Alter do Chão (more info at destination: Alter do Chão and the river Tapajós) we saw first-hand how rubber is extracted in the Amazon and learned about its importance both for the local communities and the environment. Seeing with your own eyes how rubber is harvested (or “tapped”) leads you to a better understanding of the importance of natural rubber for the preservation of the forest. Rubber prevents the advance of deforestation and intensive agriculture. Local communities preserve their rubber trees as they provide part of their income.

Don’t miss the chance to visit a local community along the Amazon and its tributaries. There are Sustainable Use Conservation Units, Family based agriculture Settlement Projects and Private Reserves in the states of Acre, Amazonas, Pará and Rondônia.

——————————
RELATED POSTS:
the Amazon: an index of blog posts

subscribe to the Brazil Travel Blog by Email
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Twitter
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Facebook

While we had lunch at a humble and very popular fish restaurant in Manaus (the off-the-beaten track peixaria do Jokka Loureiro), we enjoyed the view of the majestic river Negro on its very last kilometres of life – shortly after Manaus it becomes the mighty Amazon. Boats going up and down the river were our lunch companions while we stared at a mass of water our brain had problems processing as just a river.

We have published quite a few blog posts here at the Brazil Travel Blog on the Amazon, including an index of blog posts on the Amazon and an entry for Manaus.

The Brazilian tourism authorities recently launched the website Brasil 360° Experience, with versions in Portuguese, English and Spanish.

While most travelers are familiar with panoramic and 360° photos, 360° videos will be a novelty for many. As the image moves, the viewer can change the angle of vision and point the camera in whichever direction he chooses. It is a technology that produces surprising and fascinating results. Brasil 360° Experience aims at surprising the views with moving images of a handful of Brazilian tourist destinations.

The website contains videos of Rio de Janeiro, Cuiabá and the Pantanal, Curitiba and Foz de Iguazú, Manaos and the Amazon and Salvador de Bahía.

The page contains a link “Know more about…” that takes the reader to the Brazilian Tourism Portal, a true liability for the promotion of Brazil as a tourist destination. At the portal, when the tourist tries to find out more information about, say, tourist attractions in Rio de Janeiro, he or she will find the following screen:

Worry not. If you want more info on the destinations covered by the new website, you can check our very own entries for those destinations:

• destination: Rio de Janeiro
• the Pantanal handbook
• destination: Curitiba
• destination: Iguazu Falls
• destination: Manaus
• destination: Salvador
• the Amazon: an index of blog posts

subscribe to the Brazil Travel Blog by Email
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Twitter
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Facebook.

It’s so interesting to see how the inhabitants of the Amazon region manage to add an even greener (and for that matter, yellow, too) touch to their cities and villages while the soccer world cup takes place miles away. The photos were taken in the formidable Amazon destination of Alter do Chão during the celebration of the 2010 World Cup.

If you want to see more photos of Alter do Chão check out our Flickr album.

If you want more information on the destination, have a look at our blog post Alter do Chão and the river Tapajós.

subscribe to the Brazil Travel Blog by Email
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Twitter
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Facebook

The Brazil Travel Blog has been five years on the road and during that time we’ve devoted plenty of attention to the Amazon region. It is a part of Brazil as coveted by foreign tourists as devoid of reliable and independent travel information. This is a summary of what we have published on the region so far:

1. General information

• When to go? To choose the right time to visit the region we published the post when to visit the Amazon region. And to understand how the rainy changes the landscape of the region we published “cheia” and “seca” on the Amazon region.
• Where to stay? To understand better accommodation in the forest we wrote on Jungle Lodges in the Amazon. And to ease your angst, we reflected on how tourism on the Amazon region is a foreign affair.
• How to travel? riverboats across the Amazon – schedules / timetables is a fundamental entry you should check if you are planning a boat trip on the region. Amazon riverboat trips contains some tips on the issue.
• To avoid disappointment, we wrote on unreasonable expectations: the Amazon is not a zoo.
• Having the chance to see first-hand how rubber is harvested will lead you to a better understanding of its importance for the sustainable development of the Amazon.
• If guidebooks are your thing, you should be aware of the existence of 7 full (and free!) tourist guides on Brazil available online. One is devoted to the Amazon.

2. Information on destinations

We have five information cards for Amazon destinations:

• Algodoal
• Alter do Chão and the river Tapajós
• Belém
• Ilha do Marajó
• Manaus

We have written with quite some detail on two of those destinations:

2.1 Manaus

As well as the information card destination: Manaus, we prepared a map of Manaus, blogged on the wonderful Teatro Amazonas, perhaps the only unmissable sight in the city; went off the beaten track to eat at the peixaria do Jokka Loureiro fish restaurant in Manaus; visited the awesome Meeting of the Waters and the Janauary Ecological Park, near Manaus and became worried by a new threat in the shape of a gigantic bridge.

2.2 Alter do Chão

As well as the information card destination: Alter do Chão and the river Tapajós, on our favourite Amazon destination, we gave plenty of details on the trips around Alter do Chão.

3. Photos

All the photos you will see on this blog post as well as many more can be found at our Flickr albums:

• photo album: Alter do Chão
• photo album: Manaus
• photo album: the Amazon

subscribe to the Brazil Travel Blog by Email
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Twitter
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Facebook

This is the eighth on a series of videos produced by the Brazilian tourism authorities. They all have a common theme: those states that will host 2014 World Cup games. During the coming weeks we will present all those videos here in the blog. They are shortish videos, with conventional but beautiful images of the states and its main destinations.

state of Amazonas:

We have plenty of information on the Amazon region here at the Brazil Travel Blog. Check the list of entries out here.

——————————
RELATED POSTS:
institutional videos: Paraná
institutional videos: Ceará
institutional videos: São Paulo
institutional videos: Rio Grande do Norte
institutional videos: Bahia
institutional videos: Pernambuco
institutional videos: Rio Grande do Sul
institutional videos: Rio de Janeiro
institutional videos: Minas Gerais

For anyone planning an Amazon riverboat trip finding reliable information on schedules / timetables has become something of a quest for the Holy Grail. If a few days ago we pointed at some tips on Amazon riverboat trips, today we’re going to look at the scheduled services across the Amazon region.

There isn’t a single unified site consolidating information from the different companies sailing the Amazon. As a matter of fact, you’d be pressed hard to find a single website belonging to a sailing company listing its schedules and fares.

Navegando e Lendo (“Sailing and Reading”) is an NGO trying to promote reading across the Amazon. Their website contains a wonderful page listing most of the big boats sailing the Amazon. The list is here: Barcos.

The information is grouped according to the three different boarding points in the city of Manaus (there are three). For the three piers (if you could call them that) the following information is offered:

• On the column Barco, the name of the boat.
• On the column Destino, the destination, including the different ports of call along the way.
• On the column Saída, the days of the week with scheduled departures.
• On the column Hora, the departure time.
• On the column Fone, the contact telephone number.
• On the column Tempo de viagem previsto, the length of the trip.

As it is not an official list, we encourage you (and so do the authors of the listing) to contact the company to confirm the departures and schedules. Do not plan your trip based on the information that appears on the list or, if you do, make sure you have a plan B in hand. Schedules are changed, navigations can be cancelled.

——————————
RELATED POSTS:
Amazon riverboat trips
an Amazon adventure: trips around Alter do Chão
“cheia” and “seca” on the Amazon region
tourism on the Amazon region is a foreign affair
destination: Algodoal
destination: Belém
destination: Ilha do Marajó
destination: Manaus
the Meeting of the Waters and the Janauary Ecological Park, near Manaus

subscribe to the Brazil Travel Blog by Email
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Twitter
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Facebook

Many tourists choose to embark on long boat trips along the Amazon as part of their Amazon experience. They can range from a couple of days to more than a week. For them, Lonely Planet’s tips for Amazon riverboat trips will be quite useful.

Long boat trips along the Amazon are not really our cup of tea. While interesting from a sociological point of view, they don’t allow for a close contact with the jungle. That’s why we recommend navigating shorter distances allowing for exciting encounters both aboard and on land. We have a particular soft spot for Alter do Chão and the river Tapajós, where you can feel what navigating a giant river is like while at the same time you can leave the roustic comfort of your boat and get your boots dirty in the jungle.

At riverboats across the Amazon – schedules / timetables we gave details on how to find out the specifics about boats going up and down the Amazon region.

——————————
RELATED POSTS:
an Amazon adventure: trips around Alter do Chão
“cheia” and “seca” on the Amazon region
tourism on the Amazon region is a foreign affair
riverboats across the Amazon – schedules / timetables
destination: Algodoal
destination: Belém
destination: Ilha do Marajó
destination: Manaus
the Meeting of the Waters and the Janauary Ecological Park, near Manaus

subscribe to the Brazil Travel Blog by Email
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Twitter
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Facebook

Quite often one senses a feeling of frustration in the tales of those travellers who are returning from the Amazon – the ellusive wildlife of the region being the reason for that feeling. After all, they probably thought, if the Amazon is one of the regions of the planet with the richest biodiversity it shouldn’t be that difficult to see animals -the more exotic, the better- everywhere. Lonely Planet summarized well that feeling:

Many travellers leave the Amazon underwhelmed, having come expecting a Discovery Channel-like encounter with jaguars, anacondas, and spear-toting tribes. That simply doesn’t happen – surprise, surprise – much less on the schedule or budget of most travellers.

The foundations for that frustration is the assumption that the Amazon is an open-air zoo.

Unfortunately the reality is somehow different. Biodiversity exists, there is absolutely no doubt about it, but it is found spread along the giant extension of the Amazon region. To see wildlife in the Amazon (animals in particular) you need quite a lot of time, generous amounts of patience, the best possible guide and a reasonable budget. And always bear in mind luck plays a role (during our 2009 to the region we saw more wildlife in Manaus city than in the proper forest).

In the Amazon it is much easier to take delight in the awesome variety of plants and trees.

If you arrive in the Amazon with the right expectations you will appreciate much better whatever wildlife encounters you are lucky enough to have. If a zoo-like experience is what you are after then you should head to the equally fantastic Pantanal, where spotting animals is much easier.

——————————
RELATED POSTS:
“cheia” and “seca” on the Amazon region
the Meeting of the Waters and the Janauary Ecological Park, near Manaus
Jungle Lodges in the Amazon
tourism on the Amazon region is a foreign affair
the Amazon: a new threat in the shape of a gigantic bridge
destination: Alter do Chão and the river Tapajós
destination: Manaus
destination: Belém

subscribe to the Brazil Travel Blog by Email
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Twitter
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Facebook

If there is an issue likely to upset Brazilians that is the notion of a foreign intervention in the Amazon region. The argument seems to go along the lines “you Europeans and Americans destroyed your own forests, we can do likewise”. I’m not going to spend time debating the merits of such logic, in fact, I’m not interested here in politics at all. What I’d like to reflect is an unquestionable reality: tourism on the Amazon region is a foreign affair.

When we visited the local community of Maguary, in the National Forest of the Tapajós, near Alter do Chão (a superb Amazon destination for which we gave plenty of details at an Amazon adventure: trips around Alter do Chão), I had the chance to have a look at the visitor’s book where tourists leave their signatures. In the most recent pages the following nationalities could be seen:

France, Canada, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Finland, France, France, France, Brazil, Mexico, Brazil, Brazil, Brazili, United States, United States, Germany, Brazil, Brasil, Spain, Belgium, Chile, Austria, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Brazil, Spain, France, Brazil, Brazil, Brazil, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Denmark, Denmark, Germany, Australia, England, England, England, South Africa, Australia, Germany, Denmark, France, Brazil, Germany, Israel, Germany, Argentina, Argentina, Argentina, Argentina, France, Brazil, Switzerland, Uruguay, France, Peru, United Kingdom, Israel, United Kingdom, Italy, Canada.

This list reflects to perfection the point we are trying to make. Tourism in the Amazon is for foreigners. Several reasons might explain this phenomenon:

• Brazilians are not that keen on eco-tourism. Beaches or shopping are their top priority.
• for a Brazilian spending a week on the Amazon can be more expensive than a week in the Caribbean or in Florida. There are Brazilians who would like to visit the Amazon but don’t do so because of its high cost.
• accommodation in the area (we gave quite a lot of details at Jungle Lodges in the Amazon) caters for the foreign tourist. With multilingual websites quoting their rates in dollars or euros and selling their packages through eco-tourism agencies abroad.
• a handful of establishments have developed a highly specialized offering for which their is no market in Brazil, where bird-watching or butterfly-watching are beginning to take off.
• outside the Jungle Lodges, in those places where community-based eco-tourism has evolved (Alter do Chão and the river Tapajós would be a prime example), the agencies that have developed this approach to tourism in the Amazon are in the hands of foreigners.

So, if you go to the Amazon and you find surrounded by other foreign tourists, do not be surprised. It is the reality of tourism in the region. Don’t let that be a diminishing factor of your Amazon experience.

Below you will find our main entries on the Amazon region. Elsewhere in the blog you will find plenty of info on cheap flights.

——————————
RELATED POSTS:
destination: Alter do Chão and the river Tapajós
destination: Manaus
destination: Belém
Jungle Lodges in the Amazon
“cheia” and “seca” on the Amazon region
riverboats across the Amazon – schedules / timetables
Amazon riverboat trips

subscribe to the Brazil Travel Blog by Email
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Twitter
follow the Brazil Travel Blog on Facebook