Introduction to Manaus & the Amazon

The Amazon has been exciting people from around the globe for centuries, sometimes just with the mention of the name. The idea of visiting the world’s biggest river and the rainforest that surrounds it attracts many adventurous travelers to Brazil. With over half of the world’s largest jungle found in Brazil, it is little wonder that the area’s main city, Manaus, serves as the point for most people to begin their adventures into the Amazon Jungle.

The rainforest is home to more known species than anywhere on earth and plenty of unknown ones too as new species of flora and fauna are still being discovered regularly. One of the most sparsely populated regions in terms of humans, the Amazon is full of creatures of every kind and size. From the tiniest ants to alligators, pink dolphins, giant otters, macaws, anacondas and jaguars, the jungle has a diversity of amphibians, reptiles, mammals, fish, birds and insects unmatched elsewhere on earth. The flora sheltering them is equally varied. Huge hardwood trees like mahogany raise the canopy to as much as 295 ft (90m) above your head. Giant lilies and delicate rare orchids also grow in the shadows of the foliage.

One of the area’s most accessible attractions is the Meeting of the Waters, 6 miles (10km) downstream from Manaus. The black water of the Rio Negro and the sand-colored water of the Solimões run side by side, refusing to join together for miles. Differences in consistency, temperature and density mean that they don’t immediately mix.

It is possible to watch opera in the Amazon Jungle, or at least on the edge of it. Manaus has a magnificent opera house, built in 1896, while the Amazon island of Parintins hosts its Boi-Bumbá festival. This is possibly the craziest celebration in Brazil.