📍Manaus | Amazon Rainforest

This time, I booked two tours for the Amazon: a one-day tour and a three-day, two-night tour. The one-day tour is a standardized itinerary—all travel agencies offer the same activities, so you can just book the cheapest one. This day trip covers the confluence of the two rivers, swimming with pink dolphins, feeding arapaimas, seeing wild Victoria amazonica, and visiting an indigenous tribe. ✅ Confluence of the Two Rivers Here, you’ll witness the meeting of the Negro River and the Solimões River. Due to differences in temperature, density, and sediment content, there’s a clear dividing line between the two. If you reach into the water, you can feel the temperature shift from 22°C to 28°C—it’s fascinating! ✅ Swimming with Pink Dolphins This river is home to many wild dolphins. Around the small lodge we visited, there were about 6 or 7 of them. The tour I booked let me swim with them for free, but we weren’t allowed to feed them ourselves—their teeth are really sharp! I saw dolphins in other spots during our three-day tour, but none as close as these. ✅ Feeding Arapaimas This activity was at another lodge, where the fish are kept in an enclosure. It costs 10 reais for 3 small fish to feed them, and let me tell you—arapaimas are strong! The way they tug at the food is seriously powerful. ✅ Wild Victoria Amazonica Before lunch, we visited a spot with wild Victoria amazonica. We walked along a wooden path through the forest, and along the way, we spotted small monkeys and even a big gecko leaping over the water—it was such a fun little surprise. ✅ Indigenous Tribe Visit At the tribe, we saw red and blue macaws 🦜. The villagers also brought over sloths, caimans, and parrots for tourists to take photos with. But our guide didn’t encourage this—he said it’s not good for the animals. But it was my first time seeing a sloth, and I got so excited I couldn’t resist... I feel a little guilty about it now. We also got to try a juice made from Brazilian raspberries here—it tasted a lot like baobab fruit, just less sour. A fellow American traveler told me these berries are related to baobabs; Europeans once "stole" the seeds and planted them in the US and South America. ▶️ This itinerary is pretty commercialized, but for someone like me visiting the Amazon for the first time and seeing these animals up close for the first time, I was really satisfied. The guide spoke English, and the transitions between activities were smooth—highly recommend! Bonus: How to Book 1️⃣ Travel Agency 1: +55 92 99414-0901 . They don’t have a physical store, but if you only need a one-day tour, they’re the cheapest—90 reais per person, or 85 reais each for three people. However, their dock is a bit farther at Port St. Raimudo, and they don’t include pickup/drop-off. Swimming with dolphins costs an extra 20 reais. (We didn’t book this one.) 2️⃣ I found a travel agency booth outside Taberna do Chef Procópio market. Their three-day, two-night tour seemed good, so I booked that along with the one-day tour (the first agency only offers one-day and two-day tours, and the two-day tour’s first day is the same as the one-day tour). You can reach them on WhatsApp: +55 92 99246-7070, or go talk to them in person—you can clarify details like the itinerary, accommodation, and transfers more clearly that way. The booth closes at 6 PM. #Manaus #MyTravelDiary #Brazil #AmazonRainforest