Tiscali Quicklinks. Please visit our Accessibility Page for a list of the Access Keys you can use to find your way around the site, skip directly to the main navigation, to the page content, or to more links within travel.
The Meeting of the Waters
Where the dark waters of the Rio Negro join the
lighter muddy waters of the Rio Solimoes a natural phenomenon is
caused: the separate shades of water run side by side for a length
of more than four miles (6km) without mixing. The separation is
apparently caused by the difference in temperature, density and
flow rate of the waters from each river: Rio Negro travels at about
a mile (2km) per hour with a temperature of 72ºF (22ºC) while Rio
Solimoes flows at between two and four miles (4-6km) per hour with
a temperature of 82ºF (28ºC). This phenomenon has become a major
tourist attraction in Brazil, best accessed by taking an hour's
journey by boat from the floating docks in Manaus.
Telephone:
Website:
Transport:
Opening times:
Lake Janauari Ecological Park
This park, an hour by boat from Manaus on the Rio
Negro, provides a taste of the Amazon experience with its 9,000
acres of dry land forests, lowlands and flooded forest (known as
igapos). Day package trips are available from Manaus including
lunch in a typical regional restaurant and a visit to the area's
other main attraction, The Meeting of the Waters. Daytrippers are
also taken on a canoe trip on the lakes and streams. Lake Janauari
Park has abundant examples of the famous Amazon
Victoria-Nympheaceae water lily that spreads its round leaves,
measuring up to seven feet (two metres) in diameter, on still
shallow waters. The flowers, which start out white and turn mauve
then dark red, only last three days.
Telephone:
Website:
Transport:
Opening times: