Ariaú Amazon Towers

I loved the rustic rooms and the location, with monkeys everywhere and those funny monkey-proof latches on the doors. Sometimes even guests struggled with them. One night we went piranha fishing under a full moon, then the restaurant cooked what we caught for breakfast the next morning. I visited several times with tour groups during the place's heyday. On one trip, Jimmy Carter and his family arrived by a big white boat and stayed for several days. They ate with the other guests, and I still remember how Mr Carter seemed in no hurry to do anything except look at me and listen while we talked. That's a rare quality these days. It's sad seeing photos of a place that's gone.

These days, some tours take visitors to see what's left of Ariaú Amazon Towers. The images are striking, especially when you realize that only a few years ago this was the hotel recognized by the Guiness Book as the world's largest jungle hotel. The complex closed in 2015 after mounting debts, expensive upkeep and flood repairs, fewer visitors, and legal disputes among heirs. It was then completely abandoned, weathered, and stripped. At its peak, it had hosted many well-known guests, including former US president Jimmy Carter, oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, Bill Gates, actors John Voight, Jennifer Lopez, Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon, director Roman Polanski, King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, Queen Beatriz of the Netherlands, German premier Helmut Kohl, and the band Scorpions, among others. Opened in 1986 on the banks of the Rio Ariaú, a tributary of the Rio Negro, the hotel stood northwest of Manaus, about 60 km from the city. It was considered a symbol of ecotourism around the world, and was described as the first, largest, best, and most sophisticated hotel in the Amazon rainforest. Its 66-hectare site held 288 rooms in cylindrical towers connected by long wooden walkways on stilts, some as high as 40 meters. Guests also had pools, a panoramic auditorium, themed bars, and restaurants.

Seeing Ariau Tower Hotel marked as a "ruin" on Google Maps hurts. It was a one-of-a-kind place, and it stayed with me. I was lucky enough to visit in both 2009 and 2011, but that first trip was especially vivid. I was 14, flying from Paris to Rio on June 1, 2009, with Air France. Shortly afterward, the return flight from Rio to Paris tragically crashed into the sea with 228 people aboard. That gives the trip an even stronger place in my memory. For a teenager already online every day, being deep in the Amazon felt like stepping away from ordinary life. The rainforest showed me how different, intense, and almost unreal life could feel somewhere else.

It’s hard to believe how much this place changed in only eight years. The hotel once covered 66 hectares, was famous and welcomed plenty of celebrities, and even served as a film set. There were two pools, observation towers, restaurants, bars, and a large auditorium. It opened in 1986 and reached its heyday in the late 1990s. Americans made up 90 percent of the guests. After the September 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, visitor numbers dropped sharply as Americans became less inclined to fly. Brazilian demand wasn't strong enough to make up the difference. High maintenance costs and flood damage repairs added to the problems, and the hotel was already on its way down by 2004. It eventually closed in 2015/2016 with millions in debt and inheritance disputes. Such a shame for a remarkable place.