Brazil - The Rough Guide to South America on a Budget - page 309

Museu do Índio
he Museu do Índio , at Rua Duque de
Caxias 356 (Mon-Fri 8.30-11.30am &
2-4.30pm, Sat 8.30-11.30am; R$5),
lies a little way east of the centre of
Avenida Sete de Setembro. Run by the
Salesian Sisters, whose missions along
the Rio Negro have long gone about the
dubious work of saving indigenous souls,
this dark and slightly oppressive museum
unsurprisingly approaches native culture
from a paternalistic angle. The exhibits
are nevertheless worth the trek from
town, ranging from sacred ritual masks
and inter-village communication drums
to fine ceramics, superb palm-frond
weavings, fascinating photos and even
replicas of Indian dwellings, as well as
more unsettling arrays of surgical
instruments and old medical books,
echoes of the devastating epidemics that
inevitably followed each new contact.

(Tues-Fri 9am-noon & 2-5pm, Sat &
Sun 9am-4pm; R$5; T 92 3643 3192,
W

www.inpa.gov.br) on Avenida André
Araújo 1756, Aleixo, is a plot of
forest home to plenty of animals that
roam freely within the area, such as
monkeys and sloths. A fun way to see
the park is with one of the pequenos
guias (free), children who participate
in environmental programmes and act
as guides.

The meeting of the waters
The most popular and most widely
touted day-trip from Manaus is to
the meeting of the waters , some 10km
downstream, where the Rio Negro
and the Rio Solimões meet to form
the Rio Amazonas. For several
kilometres beyond the point where
they join, the waters of the two rivers
continue to flow separately, the muddy
yellow of the Solimões contrasting
sharply with the black of the Rio Negro,
which is much warmer, and more
acidic. Most one-day river trips stop
here (see p.314).

3

Palacete Provincial
Housed in the former military police
headquarters, the Palacete Provincial on
Praça Heliodoro Balbi (Tues & Wed
9am-5pm, Thurs, Fri & Sat 9am-7pm,
Sun 4-8pm; free; T 92 3622 8387,
W culturamazonas.am.gov.br/programas)
is a cultural and educational centre
housing a number of curious museums
and exhibition halls; among these
are the Museum of Image and Sound,
the Numismatic Museum and the
Archeological Exhibition. The pleasant
leafy square and the building itself are
also worth checking out.

Parque Ecológico do Janauary
Most tours to the meeting of the waters
stop in at the Parque Ecológico do
Janauary , an ecological park some 7km
from Manaus on one of the main local
tributaries of the Rio Negro. Usually
you'll be transferred to smaller motorized
canoes to explore its creeks ( igarapés ),
flooded forest lands ( igapós ) and
abundant vegetation. One of the
highlights of the area is the great quantity
of Victoria Amazonica , the extraordinary
giant floating lily for which Manaus is
famous, and which reaches a diameter
of two metres.

Museu de Ciências Naturais da
Amazônia
he Museu de Ciências Naturais da
Amazônia (Mon-Sat 9am-noon &
2-5pm; R$12; T 92 3644 2799) on
Estrada dos Japoneses s/n, Colcachoeira
Grande, is an interesting little museum
that's home to various well-preserved
insects as well as some rare species of fish,
including pirarucu , the largest scaled
freshwater fish in the world.

Praia Ponta Negra
At weekends, the river beach at Praia
Ponta Negra , about 13km northwest of
Manaus, is packed with locals. It's an
enjoyable place to go for a swim, with
plenty of bars and restaurants serving
freshly cooked river fish nearby. The bus
to Ponta Negra (#120) leaves every thirty
minutes; catch it by the cathedral on
Praça da Matriz.

Bosque da Ciência
Occupying an area of approximately
32 acres, the Bosque da Ciência