MUSA is the city's open-air natural history museum. Trails through the Reserva Adolpho Ducke pass enormous kapok and Brazil-nut trees, an orchidarium, a snake house, a butterfly enclosure, and a small ethnobotanical exhibit. The headline attraction is the canopy tower — 242 steps up, with a view over an unbroken green horizon that conveys the scale of the surrounding forest better than anything in the city centre.
MUSA is about 18 km from downtown Manaus on the northern edge of the city. A taxi takes 30–40 minutes. Wear closed shoes and bring water — humidity in the forest is high, and the climb up the tower is sweaty.