8 Facts About Mirante do Gavião: An Award-Winning Amazon Lodge in Brazil

From award-winning architecture to pink river dolphins at the doorstep, here are 8 facts about Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge, one of Novo Airão’s most distinctive places to stay

On the right bank of the Rio Negro, about 180 kilometers northwest of Manaus, sits one of the Brazilian Amazon’s most unique places to sleep. Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge stands in Novo Airão, directly facing the Anavilhanas archipelago, and it holds just 13 suites inside a building shaped like an upturned boat.

So what makes a small riverside lodge worth the trip up the river? The short answer is a rare mix of award-winning design, certified native wood, community-run hospitality, and a stretch of the Rio Negro where pink river dolphins surface almost daily.

Want to know what really sets it apart from an ordinary jungle lodge? PlanetaEXO, an ecotourism platform specializing in Amazon Rainforest tours in Brazil, has put together these 8 facts about Mirante do Gavião. Check it out below!

1 – What “Mirante do Gavião” means (and the eagle behind the name)

In Portuguese, “mirante” means “lookout,” and “gavião” means “hawk,” so the name reads roughly as “the hawk’s viewpoint.”

It totally fits: the lodge’s raised decks and terraces give guests a bird’s-eye view over the forest canopy and the Rio Negro, the same commanding angle a hawk has from above.

The name is not only poetic. The harpy eagle, known in Brazil as the gavião-real, is one of the largest and most powerful birds of prey on Earth, and it inhabits this part of the Amazon. Spotting one is rare and never guaranteed, but the forests around Novo Airão are genuine harpy country.

2 – Its front yard is Anavilhanas, the world’s second-largest river archipelago

Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge looks straight out onto Anavilhanas National Park, one of the natural wonders of the Amazon. The Anavilhanas archipelago is the second-largest river archipelago on the planet, made up of more than 400 islands scattered across the Rio Negro.

During the high-water season, much of the archipelago floods into igapós, or flooded forests, that you can paddle a canoe straight through. It is one reason the water around Novo Airão is considered some of the most scenic in the whole Amazon basin.

👉 Read more: The Amazon River, Brazil: A Guide to the World’s Greatest River

3 – A boat-shaped lodge with award-winning architecture

The first thing you notice about Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge is its silhouette. The main buildings were designed to resemble the inverted hull of a wooden boat, a nod to the fact that families in Novo Airão have built river vessels by hand for generations.

The design borrows directly from Amazonian shipbuilding techniques, with curved timber frames and elevated lookouts that some compare to the outstretched wings of a hawk. Rather than clearing the forest to impose a building on it, the architecture was made to sit inside the landscape and echo the river culture around it.

Far from merely claiming to be unique, the lodge features a roughly 1,678 m² design crafted by the studio Atelier O’Reilly. This distinguished project has been featured by ArchDaily, a premier global architectural publication.

In its opening year, the design won first prize from the Brazilian Association of Corporate Architects in the commercial building category. That recognition is a big part of how a former riverboat stopover in a small Amazon town became a destination in its own right.

👉 Read more:

• Best Amazon Jungle Lodges in Brazil
• Best Amazon River Cruises in Brazil

4 – Built entirely from certified reforestation wood

Every timber structure at the lodge is made from certified reforestation hardwood, mainly itaúba, a dense Amazonian wood well suited to the humid climate.

The buildings stand on stilts, following the same logic riverside communities have used for centuries to live with a river that rises and falls several meters a year.

Opting for certified, reforestation-sourced wood holds immense significance in an area facing continuous threats from illegal logging. By taking this approach, Mirante do Gavião ensures its architectural design actively supports its environmental mission rather than undermining it.

5 – Just 13 suites, by design

Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge is deliberately small. It has only 13 suites, split across three categories: Treehouse, Luxury, and Premium.

The Premium suites are the most spacious, some with hydromassage tubs (ofurôs) on private balconies that open right onto the forest.

Keeping the lodge to 13 rooms is a decision, not a limitation. Fewer guests means quieter decks, more personal service, and a lighter footprint on the surrounding forest, which is exactly what most travelers want after coming this far up the Rio Negro.

6 – Amazonian cuisine at the Camu-Camu restaurant

The Mirante do Gavião’s restaurant is named Camu-Camu, after a small Amazonian fruit with one of the highest natural vitamin C contents of any food on Earth.

The kitchen serves contemporary Amazonian food à la carte, built around regional ingredients such as tucupi, tambaqui fish, jambu, and cupuaçu.

The menu is led by chef Débora Shornik, who spent around eight years working alongside Argentinian chef Paola Carosella before bringing her cooking to the rainforest. The result treats regional Amazonian ingredients as fine dining rather than an afterthought.

7 – Wildlife from the lookout decks (including pink river dolphins)

True to its name, the lodge is dotted with elevated lookouts and observation decks. From them, guests regularly spot birds, sloths, and iguanas without leaving the property because the buildings sit right up against native forest, with Brazil nut and tucumã palm trees growing between them.

The main attraction, however, lies on the water. The stretch of the Rio Negro surrounding Novo Airão stands out as one of Brazil’s top locations to spot the pink river dolphin (also known as the boto-cor-de-rosa), an iconic species of the Amazon.

At PlanetaEXO, we favor natural encounters over staged ones. Watching a pink river dolphin choose to surface beside your canoe, on its own terms, beats any forced interaction. Sightings are never guaranteed in a wild ecosystem, but they happen more often than you think.

👉 Read more: 15 Amazon Animals: Unravel the Wildlife in Brazil

8 – More than a lodge: a community partner in Novo Airão

Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge is deeply tied to the town it belongs to. It was built largely by the local community, with around 60 residents trained and employed across roughly two years of construction, applying traditional boat-building carpentry to reforestation wood.

Its sustainability commitments run through the whole operation, from solar power for electricity and hot water to an organic garden, composting, effluent treatment, and rainwater use.

The lodge’s community ties reach well beyond its own walls. Mirante do Gavião is a sponsor of the Fundação Almerinda Malaquias (FAM), a Novo Airão non-profit that trains local people in craftwork and soap-making, runs environmental education for young people, and supports responsible ecotourism. In 2024 alone, FAM helped 190 people enroll in school and 45 families generate income across ten riverside communities.

That blend of comfort, design, and real community roots is what makes the lodge such a natural fit for ecotourism travelers.

👉 Read more: 8 conservation projects in the Amazon to support in 2025

Experience Mirante do Gavião Amazon Lodge with PlanetaEXO

Now that you know what makes this award-winning lodge in Novo Airão so distinctive, the next step is to see it with your own eyes, from the decks over the Rio Negro to the flooded forests of Anavilhanas National Park.

As an ecotourism platform, PlanetaEXO has a long partnership with Mirante do Gavião. From the moment of booking to the customization of your itinerary, our team helps organize your trip to ensure your experience is as hassle-free and fulfilling as possible. Contact us now!