Day 9 – Amazon Rainforest (Day Three), Manaus

Last night we slept in the hammocks our guides had brought with them on the jungle tour. Woke up to an amazing sunrise in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, and in middle of nowhere! After winding up the camp site, we headed back to the lodge early morning before the sun came up (mainly to avoid the heat, but also to reach ledge before the breakfast).

[Hammocks as sleeping beds for the night]

[Hammocks as sleeping beds for the night]

[First view of the rainforest from the hammocks]

[View of sunrise on way back to the lodge]

 
About 45-minute boat ride brought us back to the lodge, right in time for breakfast.

We were scheduled to return back to Manaus at 9am, taking an almost 3 hour journey back in boats, and jeep. So after a good breakfast and freshening up, we just sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the pets wandering around the lodge.

Amazon Backpackers (Jungle Tours) Value Rooms Service Address: Hotel 10 de Julho, Centro, Manaus, Brazil Phone: +55 (92) 3084-7557 Email: amazonjunglebackpackers@gmail.com Website: www.amazonbackpackers.com.br Location With a high rating on TripAdvisor, the tours with Amazon Backpackers can be a hit or a miss (read the ‘terrible’ reviews to see what we mean). I did the Macaw 3D/2N tour with this company and Eduardo was my tour guide. As you’d read all the reviews on TA, he’s simply the best tour guide to go with. So make sure you ask for him. Some fellow travelers (and my personal experience of having him with us for a day) informed us that James was the worst guide to be with; he’s quite rude, and very racist! Overall, it was a wonderful experience to be in the forest, but two things were very very disappointing – 1) No dolphins were shown, although promised to see “hundreds of them at a location nearby”. And 2) No animals were shown in the forest walk. Not even one! A lot of time was wasted in relaxing at the lodge rather than activities that could have been used to make the experience complete. Lodge The lodge is pretty basic – a huge kitchen-cum-dining area which is in the center of the lodge, from where the path leads to the rooms on one side and the home of the residents on the other side (where you can lay on the 6 hammocks). There are 6 rooms in all, each having either a double bed or two twin beds with a creaky door and a netted-window. Every room has a power plug and a fan. Note that the electricity runs on a generator and will not be available 24/7, but usually it’s available for 2 hours in morning, 2 hours in afternoon and 3-4 hours in night with everything shutting down at 9:30-10:00pm. The beds are comfortable with a thin sheet to be used as blanket (which you will never need it because of the high temperatures!) There are two bathrooms (that includes toilets) with running hot water available in the mornings & evenings only.

 
Around 9:15am, our boat to return back to Manaus was ready. On the way to Paraná do Mamori river’s bank, we were promised that we will see pink dolphins, but were able to see only one and that too far far off! So after an hour’s ride to the Paraná do Mamori river bank, we hopped on to the jeep for another 45-minute drive to Careiro Village, where we stopped over for the famous water lilies.

 
After reaching Manaus at about 12:30pm, all I wanted is to go to a hotel and have a nice shower. So for a cost of BRL 75 the guide from Amazon Backpackers dropped me to the hotel and also agreed to pick me up the next morning to drop me to the airport.

My stay at Sombra Palace hotel for the first night in Manaus was terrible, so I decided to spend more than I ususally do on a hotel and book the last night in Manaus in Intercity Premium Manaus. Check-in was simple and rooms were awesome for a budget traveler like me!

Just stayed in the hotel for the rest of the day rather than going out in 43°C heat, while ordering-in food. Called it an early day for an early morning flight to Rio de Janeiro!

Note: All values in USD, unless otherwise mentioned, are approximate and based on the exchange rate of USD 1 = BRL 3.73 at the time of publishing. Each cost is for one adult.