Getting to and around the Amazon in Brazil

The Brazilian Amazon is a vast region of vastly different landscapes, larger than Western Europe and it shares borders with eight other countries. While most visitors spend only a few days here either in and around Manaus or Belém it is possible to spend months in here without ever tiring of its wonders or scratching the surface of what there is to see.

Getting to the Amazon

The Amazon belongs to six Brazilian states: Amazonas, Pará, Roraima, Amapá, Rondônia and Acre, with further areas extending into northern Mato Grosso and Tocantins. Its terrain varies greatly and, while much of what is most interesting lies well off the tourist trail, requiring properly funded expeditions, visiting the rainforest is easy.

There are two major entrance points to the Amazon:

Manaus

, a city of 1½ million people in the middle of the Amazon Basin, is the best place to organize safari cruises and lodges. It also offers the best access (by boat or air) to smaller towns further into the forest, such as Tefé. This is where one of the two best Amazon rainforest lodges lies:

Mamirauá Ecological Reserve

. The other truly excellent Amazon rainforest lodge is

Cristalino Jungle Lodge

in Mato Grosso . Manaus is also the the point of departure for Parintins and the

Boi Bumba

festival.

Belém

, at the mouth of the Amazon, began as a colonial slaving port and grew into a city with one of the best alternative cultural scenes in the north of Brazil. There are no forest lodges near Belém but it is possible to visit the rainforest on a cruise, with a small operator or whilst staying on one of the river islands like Marajó. It is also possible to visit the forest from Santarém, a small city at the meeting of the Tapajós river and the Amazon.

International flights into the Amazon

Flights from the USA or Europe tend to come via Fortaleza, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo or Salvador, with airlines such as

TAP

, www.flytap.com.

However, the region also has direct international connections. There are flights to

Manaus

from Miami with

TAM

, www.tam.com.br; from Panama, Santa Cruz (Bolivia), Havana and cities in Central America and the USA (including Miami) with

Copa

, www.copaair.com; from Guayquil and Quito in Ecuador with

TAME

, www.tame.com.ec. To

Belém

from Miami with

TAM

; from Haiti, Martinique and Cayenne (Guyane) with

Air Caribes

, www.aircaraibes.com, with connections from Paris; from Georgetown (Guyana) and Paramaribo (Suriname) with

Getting around the Amazon

By road

Aside from routes to Belém from the Atlantic Coast and from Tocantins, bus routes are limited to the following:

Amazonas

Roraima

: Manaus-Boa Vista (via Presidente Figuieredo), paved.

Roraima

: Boa Vista-Venezuela, paved. Boa Vista- Guyana, paved.

Amazonas

: São Gabriel da Cachoeira-Cucuí, paved and dirt.

Amapá

: Macapá-Oiapoque (from where there is boat and road access to French Guiana), dirt.

Pará

: Santarém-Cuiabá (in the Pantanal) is being improved and buses now run intermittently along the route through Pará into Mato Grosso with changes at Itauba for Alta Floresta and the Rio Cristalino; enquire at the

rodoviára

in Cuiabá or Santarém for the latest details.

Amazonas

Rondônia

: Humaitá-Porto Velho.

Rondônia

Acre

: Porto Velho-Rio Branco with onward buses to Cruzeiro do Sul and Peru, weather permitting. There are services to Guajará-Mirim along a small branch road, paved and dirt.

Rodônia

Mato Grosso

: Porto Velho-Cuiabá and onwards to the rest of Brazil, paved. There are dirt roads Manaus-Porto Velho, and Santarém-Porto Velho, but these are currently overgrown and impassable.

By plane

Flight networks within the Amazon are extensive. Rico, www.voerico.com.br, flies Manaus-Belém with stops at Santarém and Parintins and to a number of smaller towns. Trip, www.voetrip.com.br, flies Manaus-São Gabriel da Cachoeira via Barcelos, and Manaus- Tabatinga via Tefé; it also links Manaus with Brasília, Cuiabá and Campo Grande and Alta Floresta with Brasília, Cuiabá and the rest of Brazil. META, www.voemeta.com, flies Belém- Boa Vista, Belém-Georgetown (Guyana) via Paramaribo (Suriname), Belém-Santarém, Boa Vista-Georgetown and Boa Vista-Paramaribo. TAM, www.tam.com.br, links Alta Floresta, Altamira, Santarém and all the Amazon state capitals with the rest of Brazil and with Cuzco (Peru). GOL, www.voegol.com.br, connects all of the state capitals with the rest of Brazil. Oceanair, www.oceanair.com.br, flies to Manaus, Porto Velho and Alta Floresta.

Flight schedules are constantly changing and routes frequently close and re-open. Check the airline websites for the latest details and for prices.

By boat

River boats are the buses of the Amazon and serve an extensive network, connecting both major and minor settlements. You won't see a great deal from the deck, especially if travelling downstream, as the boats stay in the middle of the river to catch the current. Going upstream, you will see an endless line of trees broken by the occasional village. However, the atmosphere on board is lively. Food is served, usually consisting of meat, beans and rice (which is brown as it is cooked in river water) and there is often a bar serving drinks and snacks. The size and quality of the boats varies greatly. The best boats ply the busiest routes: Manaus-Santarém-Belém and Manaus-Tabatinga. Overcrowding can be a problem.

The cheapest way to travel is

hammock class

, out in the open on the deck. Be sure to take water, a cable and padlock for your bags, a jumper (nights on the water can be cool) a good book and, most importantly, a

rede

(hammock) with two pieces of rope (each about 1 m long) to string it up across the beams. The boats that travel on the Amazon itself are largely mosquito free - except when they moor; it's a good idea to bring a

mosquiteiro para rede

(mosquito net) for your hammock. Hammocks and nets can be bought easily in any of the larger Amazon towns, usually in the downtown area near the river. Arrive early to get a good spot. Some boats also have air-conditioned berths and

cabins

and, for a higher price,

suites

with attached bathroom.

Many boats ply the following routes: Manaus-Belém via Parintins, Óbidos and Santarém (four days); Manaus-São Gabriel da Cachoeira via Barcelos and Santa Isabel (six days); Manaus- Porto Velho via Manicoré and Humaitá (four days); Manaus-Tefé (36 hours); Manaus- Parintins (20 hours); Manaus-Tabatinga (six days); Belém-Santarém (two to three days); Belém-Macapá (36 hours); Macapá-Manaus (seven to 10 days).

Health

There is a danger of

malaria

in Amazônia, especially on the brown-water rivers. Mosquito larvae do not breed well in the black-water rivers as they are too acidic. Mosquito nets are not required when in motion as boats travel away from the banks and are too fast for mosquitos to settle. However, nets and repellent can be useful for night stops. Wear long, loose trousers (tight ones are easy to bite through) and a baggy shirt at night and put repellent around shirt collars, cuffs and the tops of socks.

Johnsons Off

is an effective brand and is available in pharmacies throughout Brazil.

yellow fever

inoculation is strongly advised. It is compulsory to have a certificate when crossing borders and those without one will have to get inoculated and wait 10 days before travelling. Other common infections in the Amazon are

cutaneous larva migrans

(a spot that appears to move), which is easily treated with

Thiabendazole

, and

tropical ulcers

, caught by scratching mosquito bites, which then get dirty and become infected.

Amazon food

The Amazon has a distinctive range of dishes that make use of the thousands of fruits and vegetables and the abundant unique fish. Must-tries include

tacacá

, a soup made with jambo leaves, which numbs the tongue and stimulates energy. The best fish are pacu and tambaqui, both types of vegetarian piranha; the carnivorous ones can be eaten too. Pirarucu, one of the world's largest freshwater fish, is delicious, however, due to overfishing it is in danger of becoming extinct. Specialities of Pará state include duck, often served as

pato no tucupi

, in a yellow soup made from the juice of the root of the

tucupi

(manioc) and served with

jambo

Maniçoba

is made with the poisonous leaves of the

cassava

(bitter manioc), simmered for eight days to get rid of the cyanide.

Caldeirada

is a fish and vegetable soup, served with

pirão

(manioc puree), and is a speciality of Amazonas. There is also an enormous variety of tropical and jungle fruits, many unique to the region. Try them fresh, or in ice creams or juices. The best include

tapereba

cupuaçu

cajú

(the fruit of the cashew nut),

cacão

(the fruit of the cocoa bean) and

camu camu

, which has the highest vitamin C content of any fruit in the world. Avoid food from street vendors, except those selling

tacacá

at the Boi bumba.

Banks

There are plenty of ATM facilities in all the Amazon's main towns and whenever there is a

Bradesco

Banco 24 horas

. Small amounts of US dollars cash can usually be exchanged away from banks at a poor rate, but are not accepted as local currency. The rate of exchange for exchange traveller's cheques is appalling.

This is edited copy from Footprint Handbooks. For comprehensive details (incl address, tel no, directions, opening times and prices) please refer to book or individual chapter PDF

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