EZTrip.com International Destination Guide and Hotel Listings

Turning west off the BR-163 some 150km before the Serra do Cachimbo, a dirt road leads to ALTA FLORESTA , a rapidly growing frontier town of around 43,000 people. Located almost 800km north of Cuiabá, it's a remote but thriving agricultural settlement with regular bus and plane connections to Cuiabá and elsewhere. There's little of immediate interest unless end-of-road towns are your thing, but the town has in recent years opened its doors to ecotourism in the form of a four-star hotel , the Floresta Amazônica, Av. Perimetral Oeste 2001 (tel 065/521-3601, fax 521-2221; $50-70), a tastefully developed place with expansive jungle grounds which serves as a base for the associated Cristalino Jungle Lodge ($70-90). Deeper in the forest on a tributary of the Rio Teles Pires, which ultimately flows into the Amazon, the lodge offers a wide choice of trips and activities (around $100-150 per person per day), including visits to an escola rural productiva where you can buy paintings and other artefacts from local Kayaby Indians. The forest around here is particularly rich in birdlife , and there are several set birding trails, where you can also see alligators and capuchin, spider and howler monkeys. A similar but even more remote development, accessible only by air taxi, lies 140km northwest of Alta Floresta on the Rio São Benedito on the Pará state border: Pousada Thaimaçu (tel 065/521-3587; $90-125) offers fishing and boat trips, and pleasant chalet accommodation.

Back in town, the Grande Hotel Coroados, Rua F - 1, 118 (tel 065/521-3111; $10-20), is exceptionally good value, and has an excellent pool, as well as a sauna, as though the climate weren't enough. Difficult to find as there are few street signs in Alta Floresta, it's one street back from Avenida Ludovico da Riva Nato in "Bloco F" at the end of a cul-de-sac. Lisboa Palace Hotel, at Av. do Aeroporto 251 (tel 065/521-2876 or 521-2969, fax 531-3500; $20-35), has larger rooms but no pool. A surprisingly good budget option is the Hotel e Restaurante Luz Divina, opposite the Rodoviária on Avenida Ludovico da Riva Nato (tel 065/521-2742 or 521-4080; under $10), with a wide choice of clean, modern rooms.

As buses no longer connect Cuiabá with Santarém, flying is the only way northwards from Alta Floresta . The airport , 2km northwest of Alta Floresta on the Avenida Ariosto da Riva (tel 065/521-3177; $8 by taxi), has daily flights (valid on Varig air passes) north to Itaituba, Santarém and Belém, and south to Cuiabá and São Paulo.