4 days / 3 nights

Day 1 Thu Arrive Novo Airao
Arrive Novo Airão, located at River Negro. Arrival at the small villageof Novo Airão. Board M/V Desafio. Welcome drinks and cabins distribution. After lunch on board, visit to a cooperative that was founded to produce folklore art. It was founded and is maintained by a Swiss NGO. There is a possibility of buying the pieces produced there. If time permits, we can observe a very curious fact: pink dolphins being fed by the local kids. We can also find out if they will accept food from foreigners! Boarding the M/V Desafio. After dinner excursion in motorized canoes to explore the margins of the river and see the night fauna. (D)

Day 2 Fri On board M/V Desafio
Continuation of navigation for approximately 2 hours up the river. Arrival at Madadá, a small village at River Negro. Visit to the area to know their way of life. Watch the fabrication of manioc fl our, the local people food base. After lunch, walk through the forest to admire flora and fauna, visit to the caves with ancient hieroglyphs. Then go out on canoes and test our ability to fish. Navigation up river to another small village where we will disembark. This night we will be invited to have dinner with the Tribe of the Sateré Maués. Without plates, but with “cuias” where the food will be served. Purification rituals and dances will follow: the Tucandeira – boy’s initiation; Curumim – girls resenting the manioc dance. Our guest will be able to participate of the rituals as long as they are totally “purifi ed”, with their faces painted in the ritual colors with magical signs. The most adventurous can sleep in the camp, at the forest near the village. (BLD)

Day 3 Sat On board M/V Desafio
Navigation. Possibility of watching the pink and gray dolphins playing in the river. Visit to a ghost city of Velho Airão. Founded in 1668 by Portuguese religious men from the Masonry, being the oldest one in Manaus. Airão Velho was the business and commerce center of the Vale do Rio Jaú and of the River Negro region. Depending on the level of the water we will chose a place to anchor M/V Desafio. Lunch will be served on land. Outing on motorized canoes passing by the main Park, Seringalzinho, with only 90 habitants. From this point on we are on no ones land!! As much as we navigate, more narrow and wild becomes our landscape until we reach the end of our journey, the Jau running waters that transforms in falls! After dinner on board, we will go out oncanoes to spot alligators, capturing one, for a closer view of this typical animal of the rivers in the area before we return it to it’s habitat. (BLD)

Day 4 Sun Disembark
As M/V Desafio navigates down the river, we cross to the opposite side of the margin of river and we go down in motorized boats by the Anavilhanas Archipelago, the biggest fluvial one in the world, as Jacques Cousteau and his Calypso, as well as the neozelander Sir Pete Blake who stayed in the region studying the local flora and fauna. Arrival at Novo Airão by the afternoon. Disembark at Novo Airao. (B)