Hi,

My mother and I have an opportunity to visit Rio de Janeiro this May to visit friends and attend a conference.

Since both of us are unlikely to go back any time soon, we both would like to see some of the Amazon as well (I understand this is not near Rio)

• We would leave from Los Angeles (LAX)
• We would like to avoid longer flights ( > 7 hours)
• Neither of us speak any Portuguese or Spanish
• We have traveled internationally but not to South America and have current US passports.

While we are not really interested in doing "tourist" things (we are not visiting Rio for the beaches, nightlife, etc), given the language barrier, I would like to make it an "easy" trip and not make any plans that would be difficult for a tourist to do.

So no adventures deep into the Amazon, just enough so that this Americano can appreciate some of the forest and/or river.

Mostly I could use help planning flights and the Amazon part. One option it seems is to go through Panama City, but I have no idea how smart that is. Any assistance or advice is appreciated.

Thanks so much for your help!