this was one of my favourite experiences in the trip. juruti is a small town on the shore of the amazon river in the state of para. it was the first stop we made after santarem, on our way to manaus, and by fabulous luck that day was the first day of festival das tribos, the festival of the tribes. this is a hot weekend festival - a mixture of visual arts festival and carnaval - of two indegenous regional tribes: the muirapinima (muira - blue and red) and the munduruku (mundu - yellow and red). This is a fantastic cultural gathering of local communities, combining a number of artistic and cultural events, like a mini carnaval, dance, music and theatrical in a 3 day feast. though i was there only for the friday evening, i felt a fantastic buzz as young people arrived in groups, all decked out in the respective colours, jumping off from small canoes and larger boats, buses, motor bikes and all other forms of transportation. the colours were everwhere, and i was quite smitten by the beauty of the local women...

the festival takes place every year in the last weekend of july, and i do plan to return one day. you can see more information about it in this link - it is all in portuguese - I think it would be a great way for anyone to experience something trully unique and local to the amazonian indigenous culture and lifestyle.

http://www.portaljuruti.com.br/festival.htm