As Cachoeiras - Presidente Figuereido

Presidente Figueiredo, located about 2 hours north of Manaus on the road to Boa Vista, Roraima, is not much to look at. Surrounded by rivers hidden beyond the town Figuereido has a last-frontier feel and can be suffocatingly hot.

It has the basics: a market, some stores and a few gas stations. Trucks stop here as well on their way up or down highway BR-174 so you'll see plenty of borracherias (tire repair places).

What saves the town and makes Manauaras flock there on weekends and holidays are the many cachoeiras or waterfalls and rivers that are so refreshing in the Amazon heat.

I visited two: Cachoeira da Onça, just outside town and Iracema, a little further north.

The first - da Onça - was swimmable, with plenty of calm coca-cola colored water to lounge in as well as a rushing waterfall for the more adventurous.