Our Trip to the Amazon...Manaus, Friday

Friday, November 11th, would prove to be a very, very full day. We disembarked the Iberostar at 8:30am. Our tour bus was waiting to take us to lots of places in Manaus. As we hiked up the walkway from the ship to the port, I got this picture of a sign with the years imprinted on it. Each year is at the high water mark for that year. Another reminder that in a few months the water will over this sign.

The first stop would be the Banana Market. This is the newer market for fresh fruit and veggies. They eat lots of bananas in this part of Brazil. I marveled that, in America, we only want bananas with no bruises when we purchase them. When we visited a banana plantation in Costa Rica, they were very careful with their bananas to not get any marks or bruises on them. This did not seem to be a concern at this market in Manaus. Here are pictures of the different foods found in the Banana Market.

I must comment on this food item. I don't remember what he called it. I believe it is made of several ingredients. Our guide said they like to eat it in the morning for breakfast. It gives you great energy and helps you not be hungry for a long time. In my Lord of the Rings brain, I translated that to be the Brazilian version of Lembas Bread that the elves made and gave to Frodo and company for their journey. 

We would then walk to the second building that makes up the complex. It would also have some veggies and then open up into the meat and fish market. I asked about refrigeration. Our guide said many of the locals do not have refrigerators. They come to the market every day to get food. Here are pictures from the second building. 

This huge fish in the pictures if a staple in this area. Our guide held up this picture and then showed us how they use this fish. The second picture is one scale from the fish. The third picture our guide is holding up the tongue of the fish which has been dried. It is used for a grater after it is dried. In the fourth picture our guide is holding up a root. When it is grated, the powder is used to made a nice beverage they all love. The fifth picture is our guide grating the root with the tongue of the fish. 

Now we would enter the fish and meat section of the market. The aroma in this area was less than desirable. We always marvel that they leave this meat and fish out in the open air, unrefrigerated, for extended periods of time. 

This fish is named after the meeting of the waters because the top is dark and the bottom is light.

Piranha

We would walk outside along the dock area. There was this walkway down to the ground. It goes down partway, turns a very sharp U-turn and then on down to the land. There was no railing. At one point I saw people walking down on the right side by the wall while others pushed big carts up using only one wheel on the outside of the wall. Ugh! The tents at the bottom are where the fishermen from across the river come and set up to sell their fish. When the river is flooded, they will simple bring their boats to the place where we are standing and sell their fish from their boats. 

Our group would walk from here to the building that was the original market. It is now a market for vendors to sell their handcraft items.

We were given one hour to shop. Claude and I found a place that sold cold water, found a nice bench, and waited while others shopped till they dropped. One advantage of moving to a much smaller home is you don't feel the need to buy a bunch of things to dust. 

Back on the bus and off to adventure two for this day, the Centro Cultural Palacio Rio Negro. This was originally built by Karl Waldemar Shulz as his home. He made his money in the rubber period. For a good period of time, this area was the only source of rubber in the world. That is why Manaus grew so large in the middle of the Amazon. Eventually they took plants to other places and the rubber boom ended. Karl Shulz eventually sold his home and it would become the Palace of Government and also home to governors. Later it because the Cultural Palace of today. The furnishing are original to the home.

The floors are a reminder of the meeting of the waters with light and dark woods. This was also in other buildings we visited.

The wealthy people wore the fashions of the day in Paris. It didn't matter they were in the Amazon heat and humidity. Looking good was important.

This is a picture of Manuas on November 28, 1909.

We returned to our bus to find we had a different bus. We got on what we thought was our bus and our backpacks were not the ones in our seats. We got off the bus and started to get on the other bus only to find they were unloading the things inside and moving them to the bus we just exited. Say what?? For some reason, their dispatcher sent them another bus and, while we were in the Cultural Center, they moved all our luggage from the storage to the new bus and were moving our items from inside to this new bus. Some items went to wrong seats but we got it all straightened out in the end. Never found out the need for switching buses. 

Our next stop turned out to be a highlight of the trip. We went to visit the Manaus Opera House. It is also called the Teatro Amazonas. This building harks back to the age of wealth due to rubber. It is a beautiful building and we would be able to watch a bit of a rehearsal. 

Lego built and donated a replica of the Manaus Opera House made out of Legos. (3 pictures) 

Watching the rehearsal.

This is the Mirror of Beauty. It is said that, only if you are beautiful, can you see your reflection in the mirror. I peeked around the edge and, sure enough, I saw myself. I am beautiful!!

This is 'courting chairs'. It was inappropriate for a young man and young woman to be seen together when not married. The young man would sit on one side chair. The young woman would sit in the other side chair. The parents of one of the young people would sit in the middle. 

There is an elegant ballroom in the opera house. It has inlaid wooden floors, a beautiful painting on the ceiling and a collection of spittoons at one end. 

This is the ceiling on the outside portico. 

The next two pictures are what the dressing rooms would be like. 

This Allen organ was donated by the United States. It was only played a few times. Turns out the people of Brazil did not know how to play with all the stops and pedals and layers of keyboards. 

Inside the theater is stunning. The center of the ceiling is painted to look like you are standing under the Eiffel Tower. Every column has a theater masked person with the name of a composer on it. The most expensive box seat was right by the stage. It was also the worst view in the house. It was better to be seen than to be able to see. The Governor's Box is at the center back of the theater. No one but the Governor or his guests are allowed to sit in this box. 

Across the street from the front of the Opera House is a beautiful plaza with this statue. It is the Monument Abertura dos Portos. The sculpture is an allegorical representation of the 4 corners of the world, Asia, America, Africa and Europe, which are presented by ships at the base of each side. The tile flooring is another representation of the meeting of the waters.

On to our last tourist stop for the day, the City Museum. This was the old city office building. This was a neat museum with several very clever exhibits. 

This room featured portraits of all the Mayors.

This was neat. They have a tree stump and they project a map of Manaus over the rings to show the age and how the city has grown and changed over the years. The first is the 1890-1912 and the second is 1990.

One room had glass floors so you could see the excavation of ruins under the building.

Talk about information overload. Our poor minds were full and our bodies were weary. Back on the bus we went to find Florentina's again for a nice lunch. After lunch, it was finally late enough to get our rooms at the hotel. We would have these rooms until we left for the airport.

Claude and I chose to take the bus from the hotel to the Manaus Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Roxanna and Bruce and Nataniel would also go. Shari and Mark went and stayed to do a session. Shari speaks Spanish. The grounds are beautiful and peaceful. I never saw a palm tree with red trunks. 

We went back to the hotel. We opted out of dinner in the restaurant and polished off some cookies we had instead. We showered and went to bed about 7pm. We had to be back up at midnight to get dressed an checked out for a 12:30am bus ride to the airport.