Amazon Rainforest - Brazil - Tree Top Lodge

www.AriauAmazonTowers.com

Ariau Amazon Towers Hotel

Glen Petrie
National Post

Saturday, April 03, 2004

When Bill Gates escaped from his high-tech world for a hiatus in the raw
Amazon, he stayed at a jungle lodge called Ariaú Amazon Towers Hotel. He liked
it so much he soon returned with hundreds of Microsoft employees, one supposes
to offer them an antidote to the very unnatural environment in which they are
daily immersed.

The hotel's name suggest a concrete high-rise business block, but it's actually
a rustic, albeit large, wooden lodge perched on stilts above the river's dark
waters, with no other civilization for miles around. The "Towers" part of the
name comes from the round, three- and four-storey accommodation pods, roofed in
corrugated tin, that comprise the lodge's odd architecture.

It is perfectly comfortable, with all the right amenities in place -- private
bathrooms, a bar, good food, even a small suspended swimming pool. Without
imposing on or polluting its surroundings, the hotel allows guests to visit
this intimidating environment with no more hardship than staying at a wealthy
friend's summer cottage, complete with attentive staff.

You can add your name to a guest book that includes Helmut Kohl, Susan
Sarandon, Gilles Villeneuve and Jimmy Carter.

Even getting there provides no hardship. From São Paulo, I flew to Manaus, a
Brazilian city of one million people 1,600 kilometres upriver, a three-hour
trip. Flights also come directly from Miami (five hours). There is a modern
airport, at which I was met by a pleasant young fellow named Daniel, who
smoothly arranged my transfer to a waiting river boat, a double-decked wooden
crate that looked straight out of Heart of Darkness. We then chugged 55
kilometres up the Rio Negro, one of two main tributaries that meet at Manaus to
form the Amazon proper.

I couldn't help but think of Kurtz's camp as we approached the hotel. Two grey
monkeys and a spider monkey attended the boat's arrival. Eight kilometres of
wooden catwalks run throughout the surrounding jungle, some at canopy level,
making it possible to explore the flora and see a lot of wildlife without even
leaving the hotel grounds.

Accommodation ranges from small twin rooms to spacious suites occupying the
entire top floor of a tower. All feature private bathrooms with a shower and
are either air-conditioned or fan-cooled. (Tip: Lock your door. I was startled
one night by somesomething entering my room, which turned out to be a large
grey monkey coming to raid the mini-fridge.) The dining hall serves sumptuous
buffet meals featuring, among other meats, local fish such as the
six-metre-long (!) pirarucú, and the tucunaré or peacock bass.

Sewage is piped away to septic tanks, and all garbage is removed by boat to
Manaus.

Where Ariaú Amazon Towers shines is in its environmental immersion program.
Depending on the package booked, guests are taken out on excursions two or
three times a day to explore a different aspect of the river and forest.

Most tours involve transport through forest-cloaked channels and canals in
large motorized canoes holding up to a dozen people. My guide, Alan, grew up in
the jungle and served two years with the Brazilian army's jungle corps, making
him the ideal person to have along. He knew everything about the rain forest,
such as how to catch piranha with just a line, hook and a bit of meat.

There are 30 species of piranha, he said. "They eat fish, birds, alligators,
people and each other," Alan said. "They eat everything."

He also told us that if we were unfortunate enough to fall into a school of red
piranhas, we'd be eaten to the bone in two minutes. Incredibly, Alan took us to
a spot with a small crescent of white sand for a bit of swimming. "Are you
serious?" asked a lady from Edmonton. He was. None of us lost as much as a toe.

At night we took the longboat and went cruising for crocodiles. Alan shone a
bright light on the reeds of the shore, and the red eyes of crocodiles lit up
like bicycle reflectors. There are two kinds he The tinga grows to three
metres and is rather retiring, and the açu, which grows to twice that size and
is very aggressive. We paddled the boat through the reeds trying to get a
closer look. Suddenly, one of the guides leapt from our boat into the black
water. I was stunned. What had come over him? In a moment he clambered back
into the boat, proudly holding a young crocodile by the neck. So that we could
all touch one, you see. Such is the depth of environmental immersion at Ariaú
Amazon Towers Hotel.

Ariaú Amazon Towers Hotel can be booked in a series of packages. Two-night
packages cost from US$312 to US$340 a person, double, while three-night deals
cost US$375 to US$400 a person. The price includes transfers to and from Manaus
airport, three meals a day plus afternoon tea and guided tours. For information
or bookings, contact the hotel's North American representative: Jill Siegel
(973) 783-2277
(888) GO-ARIAU

www.AriauAmazonTowers.com.