Manaus - Brazil

City & Culture

What a fanastic week we spent in Manaus.  It is a city in the heart of the Amazon rainforest jungle located along the enormous Rio Negro.  The weather is consistent throughout the year averaging a low of 23 and a high of 33 with some months rainier than others.  We expected rain every day and were very lucky only to get it the morning we were heading back to the airport!  This town is well worth visiting because it offers a look into the history of Brazil ... specifically the "Rubber Boom" which lasted only a few decades.  There are many beautifully preserved buildings from the late 1800's-early 1900's.

This is the gorgeous Teatro Amazonas, located in the edge of historic downtown, not too far from the port.  It is maintained by the city and is used daily to host a variety of cultural events...opera, dance, plays... Almost everything is free to the general public, you simply have to line up before the event.  We took advantage of an evening of dance and another night we saw a madrigal choir/guitar ensemble.  We missed getting in to see the music in honour of Vinicius de Moraes because we were not in line in time, but it worked out ok.  In the end, we enjoyed an outdoor concert in the plaza in front of the theatre with Elias Morreira (from Brazil's The Voice) and it was very good and also free!

The Teatro Amazonas offered a free one hour tour on the Tuesday we were there (it is probably a regular thing and was every half hour).  The structure is incredible and was built entirely from materials that came from Europe.  The "Rubber Barons" took advantage of the ships that would come and go from Europe to transport the rubber out of the Amazon to load them with goods from Europe when returning.

Our hotel was a block from this building, the Palacete Provincial, which currently houses 5 separate museums, all of which are free to visit.  Sculpture, art, restoration techniques, an enormous collection of the monetary currencies of Brazil (really interesting actually!) I have to admit that, of all the cities I have visited in my life, Manaus has the best cultural tourism setup.  Culture is highly prized and guides are very friendly and informative. Everyone we met was helpful and courteous.  It was very pleasant.

This is the Palacio Rio Negro which was the residence of one of the Rubber Barons, but currently is used by the Governor when he has meetings or needs to sign documents and it is also set up as a museum, showing how the house once was.  There is an art gallery wing and another large salon which can be rented for events like weddings.  This was yet another cultural treasure that was within a short walking distance of our hotel.

Notice the incredible dip in the road between the sidewalk and the road itself.  We saw huge gaps like this everywhere.  Aside from being a serious trip hazard, it must be something Manaus has developed to deal with the volume of rainwater, or at least this is what I imagine is the reason.

Very close to the edge of the river is the Municipal Market.  It is a well organized building with a fish market on one side, a beef market on the other side and an indigenous crafts and local herbs/remedies market in the middle.

We got some cool things here.  Some items are pricey, but overall, there is a huge variety of gifts and souvenirs to choose from that are interesting, local and affordable.

The photo above shows homemade hot pepper sauce.  There were many vendors with stalls like this one...recycled coke bottles, water bottles....the labels peeled off and filled with many tiny peppers and a murky liquid.  Definitely not standardized or regulated, but decidedly local!  We were not brave enough.

In addition to the peppers, there was a huge variety of foodstuffs, remedies, herbs and potions made of plants I had never heard of.  I became very intrigued by these.  I also was aware that locals were definitely buying and using these products.  Interestingly, we did not see many pharmacies in Manaus, but did see many herb vendors. 

We found a local ice cream parlour which, in addition to offering the usual chocolate, vanilla etc., had a number of local flavours that I had to try (left to right, top to bottom): tapioca, açai, taperebá, castanha, creme de cupuaçu and buriti. I liked all of them but the buriti tasted a little like curried chicken!

I got a chance to learn more about the many plants at another cultural/museum space called the Usina Chaminé.  The building was constructed originally to burn waste but never actually functioned.  The tax payers revolted and threw the company out.  The building remained mainly vacant for many years and was eventually adopted as a community space.  The best feature is the art/craft/learning centre for kids on the main floor which, like so much of Manaus' culture, is free.  The other part is a museum on the second floor which shows the sights, smells and tastes of the Amazon.  I am shown here inhaling the intoxicating aroma of Andiroba oil (or was it Breu Branco?) The aromatherapist in me loved this exhibit! I also got to buy some local essential oils, carrier oils, nut butters and tree resins at an essences shop nearby.  Yay!

The photo above was not part of the guided tour of the Usina Chamine, but Cassio and I expressed so much interest in the building that our guide offered to show us the actual burning stack.  (not in use, obviously).  It was like crawling through a low tunnel and then coming out and standing in a tube with the sun far away overhead! Cool!

Life by the river is obviously dominated by boats.  Boats of all sizes! Little boats for ferrying about and large boats that function like buses and transport trucks to neighbouring towns.  The large boats have regular routes and schedules.  We watched with fascination as their holds were filled with all manner of supplies; frozen chickens, sacks of grain, boxes of who-knows-what.  The upper decks were lined with hammocks and miscellaneous belongings and travellers.  The photo above shows a rare moment of calm with really only one person in sight....It actually was much more bustling than this.

Imagine....Everything has to be carried off a truck, down stairs, across a dock, and up narrow gang planks to get onto a boat....It was a constant stream of incredibly well behaved, patient people, going about their business.  People in Manaus were not pushy, rude or loud.  They smiled.  They were pleasant.  They never rushed, but they kept a steady work pace.  It was impressive and different from other parts of Brazil I have seen.

It makes sense that for all the boat traffic, you would have floating gas stations.  These stations often have a few tables and places to eat, washrooms, water, ice, gas, (of course), and other sundry supplies. The price of gas at the time was R$3.50 per litre...the same as in São Paulo the same week.... hmmm

Nature

Rather than chronologically describe our trip, this time we chose to organize it more by city and nature. Manaus is dominated by nature either way, but you get the idea.  The photo above is from our 5 hour spectacular excursion with Tabaco, an exceptional, informative and friendly local tour guide.  For the low price of R$200 (U$60, which could have been divided with up to 3 more people) we had a private tour and our day included encounters with the following: Rio Negro - little estuaries for small boats that become "roads" for cars in the dry season that took us to remote and secluded areas with trees growing out of the water, enormous water lilies (Vitória Regia) that we could touch and feel their spiny (!) bottoms; fish, birds, monkeys, praying mantis, dragonflies, lizards, dolphins (just hanging out....not planned, not trained, not enclosed!); a visit to his in-law's "cottage" where we met his wife's 104 year old grandmother and saw all manner of plants and trees, and tried the fruit of a local tree (Ingá); the meeting of the waters; the list goes on....

In the wet season, the trees are in several feet of water...in the dry season, people like Tabaco and his family go out and cut back the brush to make sure there are navigable waterways/roads throughout the year. When we were slowly going through, it was a tranquil and kind of eerie place...it felt like we were the only people in the world.  Awesome!

Vitoria Régia.  We saw one with a nest and five eggs, we saw snails, frogs and pretty birds...the giant lilies are home to a whole ecosystem.

This is how a number of people live right on the river.

This is the ingá pod.  You eat the white part around the dark, black seeds.  Tabaco took a number of these ingá pods in the boat and we snacked on them... sweet and juicy.

This picture is actually from the following day when we went to the INPA Bosque da Ciência which is a kind of a park/institute/preserve/wildlife rescue/education centre... It is a large jungle like park in the middle of the city of Manaus and has exhibits, trails, research buildings and animal rescue and nursery enclosures (some looked cleaner and better maintained than others).... I included the photo above to show some of the vast range of insects and seeds to be found in the Amazon.  For our trip, we could have gone for the full on jungle tour experience and spent anywhere from 3 days to much longer trekking and roughing it in the actual forest.  I am sad to say, but I think I prefer to see these beetles in a glass case....sorry.

This is a small selection of the variety of seeds we found just walking along the river's edge at the Praia da Lua beach for a short 30 minutes. (on yet another day)

School bus!

Not my most flattering picture, but this is the one that best shows the meeting of the waters.  The Rio Negro and the Rio Solimões meet to form the Amazon river in Brazil.  They are very distinctly different colours....one is full of organic silt and the the other composed more of minerals.  I have to say that a few pictures do not do justice to how this impacts you in person.  We saw this white and black water from overhead flying into Manaus and it is even noticeable from Google Earth satellite images.  When your tiny boat is straddled over the two waters, it is even more impressive.

What you are seeing is NOT a shadow!

Near the meeting of the waters we just happened to notice a small school of dolphins swimming nearby! We were much happier to see the dolphins this way as we opted out of the big day tour that included "swimming with the dolphins" which truly felt like a miserable experience for the poor animals and one that I believe is being phased out for compassionate reasons, thankfully.

From the downtown of Manaus, you take a 45 minute local bus (#120) to the end of the line in Ponta Negra (a suburb of Manaus) which stops very close to the Marina Davi which, as the name suggests, is a little marina where you can hop more local "water buses". The boat dropped people off at a few stops and then dropped us off here, at the "Selva" film set which is a reconstruction of a real rubber plantation that existed in the 1800's about 600km upriver.  The film, Selva, was based on real events and portrayed life working in the rubber industry (it was a real life love story too).  After the film crew packed up, it was decided to turn the "set" into a museum.  It took some time to get there but it was WELL worth it.

The guide on the tour took us through the forest and to the various structures and not only talked about life, but demonstrated the process of collecting and preparing rubber...describing the indentured servitude and pretty wretched conditions of the workers...

It was a harsh and deadly place to live, but it certainly had its beauty too. 

When we arrived at the Museu do Seringal (the rubber museum's name), there were another 7 or so people who had just started a tour.  We joined them and then the guide showed us what we had missed in the beginning after the rest of the tour was finished.  I mention this because we decided to take our time and not rush to get on the next water bus that arrived (they have to radio for one to come) to take the 7 tourists.  Instead, we stayed behind to finish the tour, ask a lot of questions and just hang out for a while.  It was just the 4 people that work at the museum and Cassio and I and the birds..... the boat took longer than everyone expected to come and fetch us, (it was around lunch time, so tack on another 45 min wait) but it was so quiet and peaceful and pretty that we didn't mind at all.  The staff stretched out on hammocks which were actually part of the museum, and offered for us to do the same, but we took advantage of wandering around the place.  Lovely! oh, and again, super cheap.  R$5 per person.

We asked the boat "bus" driver to drop us off at Praia da Lua which is a beach only accessible by boat. Above is Cassio at the edge of the beach.  The water drops off quite suddenly and it is known to be a bit dangerous ... all of a sudden you are in deep water with a very soft, sandy river edge that is hard to get out of.  For someone who swims, this is not a problem, but there have been drownings in the past and I imagine it is largely due to people expecting to be able to simply wade in water along the river's edge.

The colour of the river water was seriously strange....I have swum in dark lakes before, but this was different....garnet wine .... dark tea....

Our lunch at Praia da Lua....two kinds of local fish ... we don't remember their names and were going to photograph the menu to refer to but the water bus came right as we were finishing up eating and we reasoned it was better to run to catch the boat rather than know which fish we ate and wait another hour for the next boat!  

This is lovely panoramic view of Ponta Negra Beach.  And so ends our trip to Manaus.  See you next time!!!