Amazon Local Travel

On the river around Manaus

Local Travel: A cheap day out

Map of the tarumã, Manaus, the Amazon

Let´s say you have a day to spare in Manaus and you´d like to relax. You´ve already seen the city and there doesn´t seem much else to do without paying a fortune or spending hours travelling. Here´s an idea for a reasonably cheap, safe, fun day out on the river, without needing a guide and with nothing other than your phrase book and R$25 - R$50 each in your pocket (based on two people).

First of all, get a bus or taxi to the Ponta Negra (the no.120 goes directly there from the city centre, from the bus teminus next to the Port - R$3, 40mins). You will see that the Ponta Negra road actually extends beyond the Hotel Tropical (where the buses turn round before stopping at the bus stop). You can either walk down this road or get a taxi (it´s about a kilometre - maybe 1.5km, 15mins walk), taking the dog-leg right at the end, down to the informal port known as the Marina Daví (pronounced dah-vee).

Amazon beach on the Rio Negro, near Manaus

Amazon beach on the Rio Negro, near Manaus

At the Marina Daví, you ask for Praia da Lua (Prai-a da Loo-a), and pick up a river taxi which will take you out of the Tarumã River and across to a pleasant, but popular beach ("popular" means busy on Thurs, Fri, Sat and Sun, always with somewhere selling food and drink, and with loud music played all the time - but you can ask them to turn it down if there aren´t many people around). Expect to pay R$3 - R$5 per person for the taxi (and don´t accidentally hire a whole boat for yourselves - this is only necessary perhaps if you want to go outside normal hours - say 09:00 on a Monday, for example - then you´ll either have to be paitent, or bargain a price with someone to fretar (fretah) the whole boat for yourself. It's around 3km and takes about 5-10mins to get to the beach.

At the beach, the swimming is still excellent, and prices for the food and drink are locals prices, not tourist prices (or, if you like, you can buy a cheap cold-box and take your own stuff).
Rubber Museum, Manaus, the Amazon

You could combine Praia da Lua with a visit to the Rubber Museum (R$5 entrance fee), which is about 7km (10mins) from the beach, going up the next river, which is the River Tarumã Mirim). This will be sligtly more complicated, but if you don´t mind spending around R$50-60, you can fretar someone to take you first to the Museum (allow an hour to go round the museum - well worth the price), then pick you up again and drop you at the beach. Later, there will always be river taxis passing the beach going back to the marina.

So there you have it - as cheap a day out as you can get on the river, allowing you to see the museum and then relax, have a swim, lunch and have a few beers before heading back (before dark preferably).

Notes: 1. The existence of the beach depends on the river levels. As a very rough guide, you should expect it to be completely covered from the beginning of May until the end of July. 2. If you´re heading to the Museum, then you should at least be able to pronounce its name as locally known, which is the Museu da Borracha - Mooz-ay-oo da boh-hash-a (pronounce the ay like the ay in "day". 3. Toilet facilities at the beach are rudimentary, to say the least.