latin chattin'

Thoughts of the almighty Amazon have the power to excite and delight travellers like few other places on Earth can. In our minds eye we picture thick natural rainforest with giant trees and an abundance of wildlife, isolated indigenous communities with painted faces and fresh, clean waterways filling the World’s largest river system. So imagine our initial disappointment on arrival in Manaus, the Amazon’s largest city (approx. 1.7 million population) to find a sprawling, dirty hot and humid metropolis seemingly devoid of any natural flora and fauna. The frenetic streets were choked by traffic and its streets filled with rubbish and unsavory characters. On face value Manaus had limited touristic appeal but it frequently finds its way onto traveller’s itineraries using it as a base to arrange jungle trips or considering it a destination in its own right. We realised that perhaps we’d set ourselves up for a fall, with expectations so high, that Manaus was always fighting a losing battle. We knew there must be more to the city than its face value so we set out to discover what Manaus was all about.

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Tags: Acai, Adventure, Amazon River, Animal spotting, Backpacking, Beach, Canoeing, Canopy, Gap Year, Indigenous communities, Jungle, Latin America, Manaus, Market, Mercado Municipal Adolpho Lisboa, Opera House, Piranha fishing, Praia de Ponta Negra, Rainforest, River fish, South America, Super-food, Travel, Tree-climbing, Tribes, Urban, Victoria Amazonica water Lily