Manaus Trips & Tours

Plonked improbably in the middle of the world's largest rainforest sits a city that defies both logic and expectation. Once the rubber capital of the world, Manaus flaunted its wealth by building the pink-domed Teatro Amazonas – an opulent opera house where European sopranos performed for barons dripping with jungle-derived fortunes. Today, the architectural oddity stands as testament to human ambition in the most unlikely of settings. Beyond colonial relics, the modern city has many floating markets, stilted houses, and ports where everything from cattle to refrigerators arrives by boat. But the true star appears at the city's doorstep – the Meeting of the Waters, where the coffee-colored Rio Negro and sandy Rio Solimões flow side by side for miles without mixing, creating a two-toned riverscape that is magnificent it looks digitally enhanced, but is in fact, entirely natural. An excellent base for those looking to enjoy Amazonian adventures, Manaus also offers its own brand of peculiar urban jungle – a place where smartphone-wielding locals shop in air-conditioned malls while river dolphins surface nearby and macaws screech overhead...