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Porto Velho
Capital city of Rondônia, Brazil

Porto Velho

Porto Velho is the capital of the Brazilian state of Rondônia, in the upper Amazon River basin.

Plan a trip to Porto Velho→From Rio Branco

The population is 460,434 people. Located on the border of Rondônia and the state of Amazonas, the town is an important trading center for cassiterite, the mining of tin, which represents the most important economic activity in the region, as well as a transportation and communication center. It is on the eastern shore of the Madeira River, one of the main tributaries of the Amazon River. It is also Rondônia's largest city, and the largest state capital of Brazil by area.

Get in

Getting to Porto Velho

  1. 01
    Governador Jorge Teixeira de Oliveira International Airport

    There are several connections from major cities with LATAM and GOL throughout the country as well as regional flights with smaller carriers such as Ocean Air, Rico and TAVJ.

See

Worth seeing

Railway station Estação da Ferrovia, Ferroviária. Built as compensation for Brazil taking over the state of Acre from Bolivia, and to transport rubber and other Amazon produce. Since long not operational, the station is rapidly suffering from decline. The once excellent museum is now closed for reforms, with nobody able to tell when it will open again.

Do

Things to do

When available do go and eat an açaí with guaraná and granola. You'll love the taste of this dark brown sweet local fruit. On the weekly market or on the central square get a vatapá or tacacá. Maybe you won't like the taste but when you eat the included green leaves in the latter, you'll be sure to have a numb tongue for an hour or so.

Eat

Where to eat

SESC Centro, For a real cheap and if you like healthy meal go here. Next to the postoffice (correios) on Av. 7 de Setembro on Dutra. Government subsidised training centre/ school. Restaurante Clube Ferroviaria, Av. 7 de Setembro, two blocks from the river, in a sports complex. Comida por kilo place, serving the standard rice and beans for reasonable prices. Good service.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0), Wikimedia Commons.