It is the first of its kind, a luxury cruise up the Rio Negro, a tributary of the Amazon, free vacation packages stopping in several villages, then going up the Rio Solimoes and returning to Manaus, the colorful sprawling city built into the hills of what was once a rubber barons' town.
Eco-tourism The Rainforest Alliance is a big proponent of eco-tourism – promoting it as a means to raise awareness about the delicate ecosystem and help the region's economy. They believe that when wealthy outsiders spend cash in these towns, it presents free vacation packages a sustainable option for local people to make money, without cutting free vacation packages down more rainforest.
Long before Iberostar started this cruise two years ago, they went into dozens of native villages along its banks, meeting with tribal chiefs and asking them if it would be OK to bring tourists through once a week or so.
But others welcomed it. Many tribes, the people free vacation packages here say, are very interested in improving their schools and quality of life. Many see tourism as the answer. Iberostar says the company contributes to these villages, with payments and by building schools.
(Some of the passengers were also worried about animals -- jaguars, anacondas, boas, piranhas. One of the guides was supposedly nearly killed by an anaconda that got into his boat when he was a teenager and we saw his scars as proof. All guides into the jungle, we were told, carry machetes.)
Just before setting free vacation packages sail, Rafael, one of the ship's crew, rushed me to a nearby store so I could quickly free vacation packages buy another camera for the journey. We raced through the nearly-empty streets at dusk, past the last few people walking home from the market.
"People even from other parts of Brazil free vacation packages come here, and say 'Where are your jaguars? What, you are not living in the woods in a house on stilts? Where is your boat?'" he sighed. "I say to them, you must not be from the same country as me. We have shopping."
"A beautiful country," he said as he masterfully sped his bosses' van past row upon row of colorful little homes. "But they don't have friendships free vacation packages like we have here. It took me five months to figure out who lived across the street! Here, we all know each other from the streets, and look out for one another."
As I sat down to write this, we were imperceptibly moving up the river at midnight. The silence outside was perhaps unlike any I've ever experienced. There were no stars visible through the clouds, but the moon was illuminating the river bank. Otherwise the sky was as dark as the black water of the Rio Negro, burbling like a brook below the ship. There was no rocking or feeling of motion at all.
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