Airlines Tavaj, at the airport (T68/211-1008), covers most of the western Amazon including Cruzeiro do Sul, São Gabriel do Cachoeira and Tabatinga; Varig, Rua Marechal Deodoro 115 (T68/229-2539), and at the airport (T68/224-2719), has daily flights to Brasília, Campo Grande, Cuiabá, Manaus, Porto Velho, Rio and São Paulo; VASP, Rua Quintino Bocaiúva 105 (T68/211-1133); […]

For eating out it is hard to beat the Restaurante Casarão, at Av. Brazil 110 (closed Sun lunchtime; T68/224-6479), by the bottom end of the Praça Plácido de Castro, near the Teleacre office. The comida por kilo food is good and, at weekends, there’s live music and an excellent atmosphere. On just about any […]

The relaxed air of Rio Branco masks many tensions, above all to do with population movement – people are still arriving here from the east – and the conflicting claims of small rubber tappers and multinational companies on the jungle. The tappers, who have lived here for a long time and who know how […]

If you set out to explore Rio Branco, you’ll soon find that there’s not a great deal to see. Of the two main tourist attractions, the more interesting is the Museu da Borrachá, Av. Ceará 1177 (Mon–Fri 7am–5pm; free), essentially an ethno-historical collection focusing on archeological finds, ethnographic items such as feather crafts and […]

Rio Branco is divided in two by the Rio Acre, whose old Indian name was Macarinarra, or “River of Arrows”, because of the arrows that were cut from the flowering bamboo canes that were found here. The commercial zone, most of the hotels and much of the nightlife are situated north of the river. […]

Crossing from Rondônia into the state of Acre, territory annexed from Bolivia during the rubber-boom days in the first years of the twentieth century, there’s nowhere to stop before you reach the capital at RIO BRANCO. The state is a vast frontier forest zone, where it comes as a real surprise to find that […]