Dear Luciana,
Hi. I’m sorry it has taken a while to get back to you, but we didn’t return home until June 28th. We spent a total of three weeks in Brazil. We visited São Paulo, Manaus, Aldeia dos Lagos, Cuiabá and the Pantanal, Foz de Iguaçu, and then back to São Paulo. Our trip was absolutely wonderful. We think that Brazilians are warm, friendly, helpful people. The food was so good that we ate far too much. We flew Tam Airlines between cities. Tam was fast and efficient. We are very happy that we did not choose Varig airpass given the cancellations others experienced.
We enjoyed Manaus a lot. We visited the Opera House in the afternoon. While there our guide told us to return in the evening for a free concert by the symphony orchestra, which we did. It was a nice surprise. The next day we took a boat ride to see the meeting of the waters. A friend of mine lives in Manaus and she gave us a tour of some of the sites as well. We would like to return to see some of the things we missed.
We absolutely loved Aldeia dos Lagos. We could tell that everyone worked very hard to show us their community and to make sure that we had a good time. I was able to practice a lot of Portuguese, too! The lodging was very comfortable. The food was delicious. The desserts were particularly good. I think the dessert made from the mari-mari fruit was my favorite. We enjoyed all of the excursions and are sorry that we didn’t have more time to see other things. The visit to the cocoa plantation was very informative. We even bought some of the cocoa liqueur. We also found the visits to the various communities very interesting. We thought that Cid was a terrific guide. I am very impressed by the goals of the Aldeia community and I wish them the best of luck.
I don’t know if it is possible since distances are so great, but I think it would be wonderful to be able to do some of the Aldeia excursions in kayaks. Sometimes the noise from the boat’s motor would scare away the birds and monkeys. It is so beautiful in the area that the silence from a kayak would only enhance the experience. We are actually talking about returning to see what the area looks like during the dry season.
I tell everyone I meet that they have to go to Brazil. I know that I will return. Thanks for help making it possible.
Jackie