I spent two days at floating dock on a Holland American Cruise Ship, Maasdam. There is no doubt that this is dark side of Manaus. Apparently there are some very nice areas far from the docks. I did not see them. The dock area is congested, dirty, and smelly. But it was a real slice of life and interesting. I... More

Dont believe any of the guide books Manaus is as safe as houses and the people are lovely but the city is terrible unless I suppose you can helecopter in to the Opera House Square and stay at the Hilton, I believe they are everywhere. Down town Manaus is quite simply terrible, the river floods so sandbags and plank and... More

Only passengers with tickets can enter the dock/pier. Has some bars and restaurants, and few shops. Not so much to see and experience.

In the Amazon, most people travel by the river, therefore in order to get gasoline, they have all these floating docks that are gas stations for the army of river boats. When you book a space on one of the larger boats, it is really just space to hang your hammock and it takes 3 days to get from Santarem... More

Our cruise ship was tied up across from the myriad local riverboats that ply the Amazon River. It was interesting to see people and baggage hustling around loading and unloading as well as provisions being loaded aboard. The river was at a low level so we had a steep disembarkation from our 25000 ton cruise ship. and then we had... More