Orchids of the Rio Negro
This is one of the most popular of the Orchids in the Wild Tours. More than 100 people have enjoyed a trip on the River Vessel (RV) Otter with boat owner Gilberto Castro and his crew. Peter Tobias is the OCA leader for the trip. He is a veteran of more than ten trips on the RV Otter/Rio Negro to date. The RV Otter’s trip begins and ends in Manaus, at the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Solimoes to form the Amazon river. Participants must arrive no later than noon of the tour start date, May 21 or June 4, and leave no earlier than 3PM of the tour end date, June 1 or June 15. Travelers arriving sufficiently early will enjoy an OCA hosted dinner at one of Manaus‘s fine restaurants the evening before the trip starts and a tour of Manaus’ world famous opera house the morning of the start date. This OCA trip features a relaxing voyage on the flooded waters of the Rio Negro. The waters of this river are quite acidic and colored with tannins, and as a result, believe it or not, there are no biting insects such as mosquitoes on the river. Passengers will enjoy the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets from the RV Otter and partake of daily excursions on motor driven canoes into the flooded forests of the Rio Negro, upriver from Manaus. There we will find orchids, bromeliads, many other gorgeous flowering plants, several species of monkeys, sloths, iguanas, macaws, toucans, and many other birds. Bird watchers will not be disappointed. For the orchid lover or the bird lover, this is an amazing journey. The RV Otter features a small reference library, a common room, a bar, fantastic food accommodating vegetarians and gluten sensitive persons, ample purified drinking water, and one of the quietest and most relaxing journeys you will ever have the opportunity to partake of.
Dates & Prices
Dates: RN27#1: May 21 to June 1, or RN27#2: June 4 to June 15, 2027 (12 days, 11 nights)
- Prices: $3955 per person double occupancy, $5715 per person single occupancy.
Deposit: $1000 per person. Due by Mar 1, 2027. (Refundable up to this date).
Final Payment due: April 1, 2026. Please note: Your deposit is required to hold your reservation.
Trip Information
- Price of trip includes: All meals, guides, Starlink WiFi, accommodation on the RV Otter, admission to Amazonas Theater opera house tour, and any other parks or reserves we visit. A basic tip for each member of the RV Otter crew is also included. Travelers are encouraged to add their own tips to crew members as they wish, especially if a crew member has provided some service such as laundry. Airport transfers at the beginning and end of the trip will be provided.
- Not included: Round trip airfare to Manaus, Brazil, travel insurance, alcoholis drinks on the RV Otter, soft drinks, personal items, souvenirs, and hotel accommodations in Manaus.
- Conservation Donation: An amount based on the profit (~$1000 per person) is considered a donation to the Orchid Conservation Alliance. The Orchid Conservation Alliance is a 501(c)3 organization, and for USA residents, the donation may be tax deductible. A formal acknowledgment letter with the exact amount donated is sent to each participant at year’s end.
- Leaders: Peter Tobias (OCA) and Gilberto Castro (Owner of the RV Otter)
- Group Size: A minimum of 10 persons, is required for the trip. There are only eight cabins available on the RV Otter, each of which can accommodate up to two persons. Thus the maximum number of travelers is 16. These numbers do not include Peter Tobias, the OCA trip leader.
Participants should plan on arranging their own round-trip flights to and from the city of Manaus, Brazil. As noted previously, participants should schedule their arrival in Manaus for before noon of May 21 or before noon of June 4. As of this writing – June 2026 – the only non-stop flights from the US to Manaus are by Azul from Fort Lauderdale, FL. However, in 2024 several travelers experienced significant delays with Azul, and we do not recommend flying with them. From the west coast of the US, flights through Panama on United/Copa may be convenient, and from the east coast of the US, American Airlines may be convenient. However, we do not officially endorse any airline.
All visitors from the USA to Brazil now need an electronic travel authorization, available by clicking here, costing about $90. Consult the website or other web information sites to clarify the procedure.
Please take every precaution to arrive at the RV Otter without a communicable disease. Our trip will not be physically taxing. We will take at least one walk through the forest to an interesting ecological site on an island; this walk takes about 45 minutes one way and has only a gentle incline but is on wet ground with the necessity of clambering over a few fallen trees. Otherwise, physical activity is limited to climbing/descending two flights of stairs on the RV Otter and moving from the RV Otter into a large canoe; assistance for this is always available.
Cabins on the RV Otter all have air conditioning and openable windows on the outside of the boat. The cabins are 10’x10’ plus an en suite bath with hot/cold showers and a luggage/clothing storage area. Soap and towels are provided, but a wash cloth is not. The beds can be set up as two single beds or as a single queen size bed. The RV Otter has 110v AC with USA style electrical plugs. In 2026 some cabins had three prong sockets, some had two prong sockets. In contrast, hotels in Manaus have Brazilian sockets and you probably should bring an appropriate adapter if you will be staying in a hotel in Manaus even briefly.
Currency in Brazil is the Real (plural is Reais). In Manaus there are ATMs available, and most tourist and commercial facilities in and out of Manaus accept credit cards. They do not typically accept US currency. ATMs are not readily available outside Manaus. Gilberto Castro will change US currency into Brazilian Reais, and vice-versa, for a much lower fee, if any, than an ATM or your bank. Please advise me, and thus Gilberto, if you wish to exchange currency so that he can be sure to have the Reais available. Drinks other than purified water, which is free and plentiful, cost from US$3 – US$7 and bottles of wine are US$25. Your bar bill on the MV Otter can be paid in either US or Brazilian currency.
Wi-fi is available via Starlink on the MV Otter and is included in the trip fee. It does not have the bandwidth for streaming but WhatsApp works well. We strongly recommend looking at the orchids, the other flowers, the seed pods, the bushes, the trees, the birds, the river, the clouds, the rain, the wind on the water, the dolphins, the monkeys, the local river people, the other boats, or in other words, almost anything other than your computer, tablet, or cell phone.
We will visit a floating dolphin observation platform where you will meet a free swimming pink river dolphin or two up close and personal. For this, and just simply swimming in the Rio Negro for pleasure or to cool off, bring a bathing suit.
Optical equipment: For taking pictures of orchids and birds, many recent models of cell phone have fairly good zoom and resolution. However, a good camera with zoom capability up to 400 mm and beyond as well as macro can be very useful. Also, a good pair of binoculars is strongly recommended. Peter Tobias swears by his Lumix DMC-FZ2500 camera and by a pair of 8×25 Cannon binoculars with image stabilization. “The stabilization is worth every penny” he says, “since you will often be in a moving boat trying to see a bird or an orchid at some distance”.
Day 0, May 20 or June 3: Guests are suggested arrive in Manaus. Transfer to your hotel is provided by the OCA. The cost of the hotel is not included in the tour costs, and we have two suggestions for your hotel differing in price; see Hotel Information page below for details. Dinner at Tambaqui de Banda courtesy of the OCA; Tambaqui is a large amazonian fish. This restaurant specializes in amazonian fish dishes.
Day 1: Before boarding we will have an English language tour of the Amazonas Theater. Guests will then be transported to the dock and board the MV Otter for lunch. We then head upriver to the flooded forests of the Rio Negro.
Days 2-12: Most days we will make two excursions (2-4 hr each) into the flooded forests, visiting different areas as we cruise the river. Participants can enjoy sightseeing from the RV Otter with lots of bird spotting. The boat is sometimes followed by pink dolphins. Those who would like to go for a swim in the river can do so nearly every day if desired. We will spend a morning feeding the pink dolphins and the huge, prehistoric fish known as pirarucu. We will visit one or more villages, have a picnic at Gilberto Castro’s camp (where Margaret Mee, famous botanical artist, stayed), and visit a rubber plantation museum. We plan to visit Jau National Park, hoping to see Aganisea cyanea in bloom. On the last day, we return to Manaus with a final lunch on the RV Otter. Passengers will be transferred to their hotel (hotel not included) or to the airport, depending on their post OCA trip plans. Expect lots of orchids, many of which will be in bloom, as well as bromeliads, flowering trees and other unusual sights such as bats, various lizards, many bird species, praying mantids etc. All meals and snacks on the MV Otter are included. Not included are alcoholic beverages and canned soft drinks. Typically, these will include various Brazilian beers, common soft drinks, wines and (many) caipirinhas prepared at the bar. Caipirinhas are the national drink of Brazil, after cold beer. They are a very refreshing mix of lime juice, sugar, and the Brazilian rum known as cachaça. If you would like something in addition to this, please let us know in advance so arrangements can be made. Laundry service, for a tip, is available on the boat. It is also easy to wash clothes in the room and hang them to dry on the top deck. Expect temperatures in the 80s to low 90s. Evenings are a little cooler. There are few to no problems with insects on the river, and thus malaria medications are typically not required, although if you stay in Manaus more than a day, you might want to add malaria medication. Rain certainly is expected but is rarely more than a shower.
While the tour price includes accommodations and meals on the RV Otter, any hotel stay in Manaus is not included. Assuming you arrive on May 20 or June 3, you will need to make your own reservation for those nights. Our tour boat operator Gilberto Castro has recommended the following two hotels. Rooms may be booked directly through the links provided below or through booking sites such as Expedia, Hotels.com, etc, sometimes for a few dollars less. Note, however, that if you book indirectly any problems encountered must be handled through the booking agent rather than directly with the hotel.
- Hotel Juma Opera-Manaus (Click here for link). This new hotel is just across the street from the Amazonas Theater. It has its own good restaurant, pool and other amenities. The nightly price for two persons per room was approximately US$250 as of August, 2025.
- Ibis Styles Manaus (Click here for link). This newly refurbished hotel is about two blocks from the Amazonas Theater and it too has its own restaurant, but few other amenities. The price for one person per room was approximately $50 as of August, 2025. For what it’s worth, Peter Tobias stays here. Please be sure NOT to make a reservation at Hotel Ibis Aeroporto Manaus.
Peter Tobias
Peter Tobias
Peter Tobias initiated OCA’s Rio Negro trips in 2015 and has led seven trips with Gilberto Castro on his boat, the MV Otter. With that experience, and a few caipirinhas, he is able to identify many of the orchids you will see.
Gilberto Castro
Gilberto Castro
Gilberto Castro has been running the Amazon for decades as a biologist, nature guide, and boat captain. His custom designed boat, the MV Otter, regularly carries people for orchid trips, botanical illustration trips, and fishing trips, depending on the demand, season, and state of the river. His encyclopedic knowledge of the Amazon and his intimate knowledge of its nooks and crannies make him the go-to guy for our trips.
