In Carcassonne: Amazonas, players sail their boats to the Amazon to discover abundant wildlife. Players score points not only for discovering animals, but also for visiting native villages and water courses while their boat moves forward on the Amazon. Amazon is full of caimans and piranhas which often (and somewhat unpredictably) bring points to those who are farthest down the river (you move your boats forward when you encounter boat symbols on your water courses and also when you do not place any meeple on water courses or villages, nor huts in jungles). The game ends - as usual - when all tiles have been used up, and the two boats fartherst down the river score some bonus points (depending on the number of players).

Carcassonne: Amazonas is the third title in the "Carcassonne Around the World" series, preceded by Carcassonne: South Seas and Carcassonne: Gold Rush.