Floresta Nacional do Tapajós

One of the Amazon [1]’s few national parks within easy reach of an urban center, the Floresta Nacional do Tapajós offers 30,000 hectares of unspoiled rainforest full of hiking trails. Although lacking the National Geographic-worthy wilderness of the jungles further upriver, the landscapes is nonetheless impressive, particularly when you find yourself dwarfed by the gigantic sumaúna tree, which make a baobab look like a bonsai.

Aside from hiking through the forest, you can explore its streams and flooded wetlands by canoe. Within the park’s boundaries are several very small river communities whose inhabitants still make a living from rubber tapping.