"The Grand Aurelia"
Image and concept design : Bogna Michels
NFT made with Extraverse
Stepping off the boat after your 3-hour trek up the Amazon river, you could be forgiven for feeling lost. Peering into the dense brush of the perfectly preserved, old cloud rainforest, you may think you’ve been dropped off in the wrong spot, with no luxury resort in sight. However, once you glance up, you’ll begin to understand why the Grand Aurelia Resort has been rated one of the most exclusive and luxurious destinations in the country, as well as the perfect place to retreat from the concrete jungle.
High above, you’ll espy six stunning glass and wood rooms set 200 feet above the ground, existing perfectly at the limit where the upper canopy of this sensational rainforest meets the sky. Each room has floor to ceiling windows on each side to immerse you completely in your environment. You’ll become one with the branches of the trees as the tamarins stop on a branch outside your window to gaze curiously at you.
Each morning, as you begin the day with a full breakfast on your patio you’ll marvel as flocks of brightly colored macaws soar past. You’ll hear what sounds like the roaring whine of a jet engine in the distance – howler monkeys calling to each other across the tops of the trees. And of course you’ll become old friends with the squirrel monkeys who spend their days hopping along the resort’s stairways, chatting and playing with visitors.
On days when the rain floods down, nourishing the cloud forest all around you, you can retreat into your completely enclosed glass rooms protected from the storms, warm yourself by the fireplace, and watch the forest floor disappear into the mist below you. You feel as though you’re floating in a hanging garden, detached from roots and soil below.
Miles of hiking and bike trails lead deep into the property’s vast rainforest holdings, enabling you to exercise or explore the rainforest, guided or unguided. And yet, thousands of acres of land remain empty, virgin, and fully unexplored, waiting for adventurers to forge new trails.
The Resort is named after Aurelia Montes, the daughter of a local fisherman. She married Joao de Souza, one of the original rubber barons of the early 1900s and owner of an enormous fortune, said to be the greatest in the world at the time. Aurelia convinced him of the need to preserve the local habitat from deforestation and together they began acquiring vast tracts of land to create a preserve. He died penniless, and Aurelia lived into her 90s, managing and preserving the estate. Today, the Grand Aurelia remains the only development on that land, and carries on her legacy.
