Manaus, Brazil

Our base for Manaus was to be the HI Hostel which is really nice and the cook your own eggs, cheese and ham toasties, lots of fruit and an actual mug of coffee (mugs don't seem to exist here) for breakfast was fantastic after boat food. We had a group meal out at an Italian restaurant that night to celebrate Jeanne's birthday. The next morning the group split into two with all bar 7, including me staying in Manaus whilst the others went to an eco lodge in the jungle for 2 nights. I decided against the jungle as staying in a lodge 200km from Manaus with WIFI and a swimming pool wasn't really what I wanted to do and the jungle around Manaus is primary forest that people access all the time so in my head it's not really jungle jungle.

I have really enjoyed the time in Manaus despite the fact that it's rained pretty much all day, everyday. It's a relatively busy port city filled with scruffy buildings with pretty looking neglected ones interspersed between them. It's definitely not the touristy city with colourful parrots flying overhead that I thought it would be. Our first day we decided to head to Bosque da Cienca which is a kind of zoo but according to the guide book there are as many animals out of cages as there are in and it was our greatest chance of seeing a sloth just roaming around. It would have been great if we had made it there! It was all going so well, I had the bus number and the location of the bus stop but a friendly street vendor asked us where we were going and told us we could get on the bus coming which was not the bus number I'd scribbled on the paper! So myself, Sue, Vanessa, Anthony and Keith jumped on for a roller coaster ride around the residential streets of Manaus. It was definitely an interesting journey as we had no idea where to get off and the bus was bombing along the pot holed road as some speed that meant that it was very difficult to stand. I'd never felt so travel sick ever before. After nearly an hour on the bus we definitely were nowhere near the zoo and we got off the bus having been told a different number bus to get on. Keith found a man with decent English at the bus stop and he said that we should get on the same bus as him and he would tell us where to get off. We did but we still couldn't find the zoo!! It wasn't looking hopeful and the sky was black so we got a taxi back to town having seen not even a pigeon! The day wasn't a complete waste though as I managed to get a few more vest tops to replace some that were unwearable. To anyone out there who is headed off on their travels take note that a 7 year old vest from Primark will probably not survive!

Our second day was not great weather wise as there was so much rain for most of the day. The streets of Manaus can cope with the deluge as they have a large camber so the water just flows down the sides as 2 huge rivers. We went to the Opera house (Teatro Amazonas) for a tour. From the outside the building is pink and white with green and yellow dome dominating the cultural area of the city where the court house, many museums and a church are. Building started in 1882 when the governor of the Amazonas state, Eduardo Ribeiro pushed architectural and structural change in the city during the rubber boom. Ribeiro also sorted out the water and sewer system, public education, paving and street light creating Manaus into the “Paris of the Tropics”. The opera house was beautiful inside, with lots of fancy lights and the roof of the concert hall was painted to look like the underside of the Eiffel Tower. It was great as the orchestra was actually rehearsing at the time so we got to listen to a bit. The ballroom upstairs was lovely and the paintings were of the jungle except one which was a scene from a play which is like the Brazilian Romeo and Juliet. All the wood of the floors is from Brazil but pretty much everything else was brought over from Europe.

Myself and Vanessa finally made it to the Bosque da Cienca (Forest of Science) which wasn't a zoo at all. It was a scientific research and education centre. It was small, but a nice walk through some tropical forest. We didn't see sloths or any tropical birds but there were some large tanks with Amazonian manatees which had been rescued from the wild and we also saw some alligators, turtles (we managed to tickle their feet) and also a capyvara. The capyvara was just in the pathway eating fruit. It was the size of a small dog, a gingery brown colour with a pointy nose and long stick legs. It was very cute but a bit odd.

Manaus has been lots of fun despite the fact the city wasn't exactly how I thought it would be. When we leave here tomorrow we are headed north in to the hills and over to Venezuala which I'm really looking forward to. Brazil has been great but 50 days is enough and I'm sick of the rain. It will be Venezuela's dry season though so hopefully we won't see as much wet weather. The one thing I hope continues though is the fried snacks at the service stations!