Qualla: Ariau Towers https://qualla.com/ariau-towers en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:08 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/x/m/n/ariau-towers-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Ariau Towers https://qualla.com/ariau-towers Ariau Towers: Introduction https://qualla.com/ariau-towers/ Photo credit Elementwrx, Public domain. Somewhere between luxury and folly, Dr. Francisco Ritta Bernardino built a hotel in the treetops. The Ariau Towers rose along the Rio Negro about 60 kilometers northwest of Manaus, six towers holding 291 rooms 10 to 20 meters off the rainforest floor, linked by roughly five miles of wooden catwalks threading through the canopy. Jimmy Carter stayed here. Bill Gates stayed here. Travel writer Patricia Schultz listed it in her 1,000 Places to See Before You Die. The editors of Frommer's South America called it all that is wrong with Amazon ecotourism. Both verdicts had some truth. The hotel closed in 2016, and today its metal railings and stripped fixtures stand slowly being reclaimed by the forest that was always its main attraction.

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/x/m/n/ariau-towers-wp/6xmn-ariau-towers-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Ariau Towers: The Ultimate Treehouse https://qualla.com/ariau-towers/ Photo credit Elementwrx, Public domain. The concept was audacious. Walkways ran through the canopy at tree-level, connecting suites and tree houses perched in the upper branches of rainforest trees. Two swimming pools hung in the air, along with two 134-foot observation towers and a panoramic auditorium that seated 450...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/x/m/n/ariau-towers-wp/6xmn-ariau-towers-the-ultimate-treehouse.mp3 0:06 2 full Ariau Towers: Just Downstream from the Meeting of the Waters https://qualla.com/ariau-towers/ Photo credit Elementwrx, Public domain. The location was part of the appeal. From the towers, guides took visitors on dugout canoe rides through flooded igapo forest to see the Meeting of the Waters, where the black-tea currents of the Rio Negro slide alongside the pale Solimoes for over four miles before the two river...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/x/m/n/ariau-towers-wp/6xmn-ariau-towers-just-downstream-from-the-meeting-of-the-waters.mp3 0:06 3 full Ariau Towers: Ecotourism or Theme Park? https://qualla.com/ariau-towers/ Photo credit Elementwrx, Public domain. The criticism was not unfair. Frommer's editors targeted the hotel's mass-market packaging of the Amazon, its non-native monkeys fed by staff for guest photographs, its swimming pools fed from the Rio Negro, its logistical footprint on a fragile ecosystem. Ariau had become the ki...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/x/m/n/ariau-towers-wp/6xmn-ariau-towers-ecotourism-or-theme-park.mp3 0:06 4 full Ariau Towers: Seized, Listed, Stripped https://qualla.com/ariau-towers/ Photo credit Elementwrx, Public domain. In 2015 the government seized the property to satisfy debts, planning to auction it for an asking price of 8.3 million US dollars. The hotel closed in 2016. A May 2017 news item noted that an online auction was scheduled for September with a suggested price of 2.3 million dollars...

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]]> Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/x/m/n/ariau-towers-wp/6xmn-ariau-towers-seized-listed-stripped.mp3 0:06 5 full