Hello Luciana,
Sorry to take so long in replying.
We had a very good time this trip — thanks for your help in arranging everything. In particular, I’d like to thank you again Luciana for responding so rapidly to my questions in many emails. It was good that you provided additional information not found on web sites (i.e. no electricity at Apurissawa Lodge, which was fine for us). We had a miscommunication at the end of our correspondence but that was after so many
emails and ended up being a small detail, not important.
We liked Apurissawa Lodge very much and enjoyed meeting Miguel Rocha da Silva — he was an excellent guide, from whom we learned much about the area. The pilot and cook on his boat were very capable and friendly. The food was absolutely wonderful. We had a few problems with his hired guide, in terms of conveying our (simple really) urge to canoe in the igapo areas, as I wrote to you at the start. He preferred to lead us on the usual tours so there was some tension there. It is hard to be a good guide I’m sure — but one point is getting a sense of how much formal ‘guiding’ or explanation the client
wants. I imagine, for example, that in many cases the client knows more (scientifically, say) than the guide but would benefit from explanations of local character. In our case, we wanted to hear the sound of the forest — the silence during the day, and the life at night, and the guided explanation was not so important to us, as it was for our first trip there. So we had a few problems conveying this to the younger guide — i’m sure Miguel understood though.
The Tropical Business was comfortable and we enjoyed the view there.
So thanks again for your services. If we visit Manaus again we’ll contact you!
All the best,
Sincerely, Jon