The following entries are from our trip to Manaus, Brazil. We traveled there September 12-20, 2006.

Photos can be found at the following links:

Manaus Photos (I)

Manaus Photos (II)

And videos can be accessed via the following link:

Brazil videos - YouTube

Day 1 – Denver to Miami

My father and I stayed in the Miami International Airport Hotel, which honestly felt like another country in itself, as English seemed not to be a primary language for most, and it was a melting pot culture. We decided to take a stroll (or cab ride, rather) down to South Beach and ate some dinner along the restaurants there. I eventually went up the Atlantic Ocean, even though it was dark and felt the surprisingly warm water. We lounged around and got a cab ride from a guy originally from Haiti to South Beach, and on the way back got a driver native to Turkey. Again, there was such a melting pot of diversity. It was pretty cool. We decided to call it a night around 11, even though we didn’t have our flight to Manaus until nearly 7 the next evening. We were both prepared to get a lot of sleep, in case our arrival into Manaus (at 1 a.m., no less) should give us problems. We wanted to be alert.

Day 2 – Miami to Manaus, Brazil.

We hung out at the Hotel bar for almost the entire afternoon, waiting to check in our bags with TAM. We tried to take a small walk around Miami, but anyone that’s been at an airport knows that it’s nearly impossible to leave on foot, unless maybe you’re in San Diego or something. Anyway, the flight down there was relatively quiet, and we arrived around 1 a.m. Getting off the plane you could just feel the humidity and sticky-ness of the air as it clings to your skin. I figured it was going to be a hard demon to fight, as I’m a wuss with heat. We met up with our guide for the city, Prakash, an India native, who took us to the hotel. On the way, he told of one of his colleagues that we’d meet later who was absolutely crazy. He apparently was crazy in the sense of being like the recently deceased Steve Irwin. Prakash made a joke that he always said if this colleague ever got bitten by a poisonous snake, the snake would probably die, not this guy. I laughed at the joke thinking “Yeah, right.” I found out a couple days later just how much the joke was on me.

The weird thing about arriving to Manaus was that the time zone was the same as EST, so it was like being in Miami. But if you look on a map, Brazil is technically in a different time zone, since it’s so many miles East of where Miami is. We got to the hotel which was absolutely stunning with its rich Brazilian woods and cast iron accents, red shingled roofs and stucco-like walls. Our room was pleasantly cool, and I finally collapsed around 2 a.m.

Day 3 – Manaus

Today was our city tour, both with Prakash and by ourselves. In the morning we took it upon ourselves to visit the beach and put our legs into the Rio Negro. It wasn’t too cold, but that wasn’t surprising on a day where the temperature was in the low 30’s C (between 94-100 F). Manaus is situated 3 degrees from the equator, so one can imagine that the temperature is pretty hot, and even reaches up to 118-119 (with 90-100% humidity) in the wet season (late December to late June). After seeing the beautiful sand, existing so close to the Amazon, we took our city tour.

One of the first things that we saw was the Opera House, the first major landmark to be built in Manaus in 1896. The city, at the time was a booming center for rubber extraction. It was at that point one of the richest areas in the world, and so to commemorate it, they imported a theater from many parts of Europe. Portugal, France, England and somewhere else I believe. To say the least, it was stunning, especially to view it and realize that when it was built, it was transported over 2000 miles, then assembled in the middle of the Amazon.

Also on the tour we stopped by a market where fish and fruit were hung and we learned of their interesting (and dangerous) properties. We saw fish that were essentially the same, genetically, but had different colors for camouflage purposes, in both the Rio Negro and Amazon (Rio Salimoes? I forget how to spell it, but there’s the Black River and the Brown River).

We also saw some of the slums of Manaus which were so incredibly poor. Words can’t describe their lifestyle, but a lot of them had satellite dishes (virtually pointed up to the equator), so it’s all relative I suppose. After our tour we went back to our hotel and hung out for the rest of the night. I believe today was the hottest day while we were in Brazil, clocking in at 37 C, which translates to about 104 F. The humidity was in the upper 90’s, if not 100. We ate at the hotel restaurant and I had good spaghetti with meat sauce. I wasn’t sure what the food would bring in the next few days, as the next afternoon we would be heading into the jungle.

Day 4 – Manaus and transfer to Jungle Othon Palace

Today my father and I had a late breakfast but I decided to try an omelet type food, only instead of eggs it’s made from a tapioca base. With butter on it, it’s not unlike a tortilla, but definitely has a different taste and texture. It was quite tasty though. So after that we took a trip down to the beach area again and sat down to have some drinks. While we were there, a man who looked drunk began to stagger towards us. The vendor quickly ran up to the man and shoved him away, as to not disturb us. It was unique in the sense that the man was probably relatively harmless, but all the same the vendor didn’t want him around. After a couple hours of this we went back to the hotel and got ready to check out of our room, as we would be meeting up with Moreno, our previously mentioned jungle expert. We waited in the hotel lobby until about 2:30, and met up with an Italian couple, Max and Nancy who would be taking the boat ride with us. Max is 32 and Nancy is 28. Max spoke decent broken English and Nancy didn’t speak a lick but picked things up here and there from her husband.

The boat ride out was pleasant, as I can’t remember the last time I took a boat ride. Probably in 2003 in Waco and nearly broke a friend’s back. Fortunately for all who were there, I wasn’t the driver this time around. The ride was about an hour and a half, nearly 30 miles NW on the Rio Negro. Our floating hotel finally came into sight in a tributary off the main river and we landed, greeted with a very sweet drink from the staff.

The Jungle Othon Palace is a floating boat hotel. It has 24 rooms but only 12 were available as the others were undergoing construction. In front of the main hotel was another floating piece which housed the swimming pool, restaurant (and “bar”) and recreation area with pool and ping-pong.

After we got settled into our room (and not the one we paid for, since it was under construction and unavailable) we had dinner. It was buffet style and I found enough there to satisfy my hunger and tried to stay safe with foods that I knew. Afterwards I dipped my legs into the pool and tried to lie in the hammock. That is, until the bats came in and flew with their erratic pattern overhead. I decided to play pool with Maia (a man who spoke good English and was happy to converse with me) and discovered the pool tables are quite tiny. But then again, so were the pockets. And the pool balls. It was weird to see such a scaled down pool table but I made a few decent shots, being the horrible pool player that I am. After that we hung out for a while by the pool and decided to call it a night, as we would be quite busy the next day.