Manaus is the capital city of the State of Amazonas and is entirely surrounded by the Brazilian Amazon Rain Forest. Manaus has a current population of about 2 million inhabitants and first settled by the Portuguese in the mid 17th century. During the latter part of the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Brazilian Amazon enjoyed a period of great wealth, when it was the only supplier of rubber. During this short lived “Rubber Boom” many business men became very wealthy who shaped the appearance of the region’s main cities and areas of commerce. Manaus, was especially effected during this frenzied time where a number of its most impressive landmarks date form this period of opulence, including the buildings such as the magnificent Teatro Amazonas, the Customs House and the Mercado Municipal Adolfo Lisboa. Manaus deservedly earned the nickname, Paris of the Jungle dung this period. Today, Manaus is the Amazon’s largest city, an uncanny pocket of sophistication in the middle of the jungle. Few places on the earth offers such a variety of plants, trees, birds, insects, and wildlife. One of the most spectacular natural highlights is the Encontro das Aguas or meeting of the waters, where the dark Rio Negro joins with the much lighter and sandy Rio Solimoes.
It is at the meeting of these two rivers where our pictures and our day begins here in Manaus. It is the different temperatures, flow rates and densities that causes this incredible natural line of water between these two rivers. The dark colour of the Rio Negro is a result of the items decomposing in the river which also also causes this river to have a high level of tannins. These tannins have also attributed to the founding of Manaus as it is not a very good area for mosquitos to breed, in short, there are no mosquitos in Manaus which helped the europeans build this city here.
We were a group of 6 today and negotiated 2 taxis to take us to the Zoo and back while allowing us a 90 minute visit - $10 US per person. The zoo was some 7 kilometres away. The zoo is run by the military and is home to rescue animals. There are many of the animals one would see here in the Amazon at this zoo, from spiders and butterflies, to birds and some large Jaguar cats (including a black Jaguar). 90 minutes is a good amount of time here. We had the taxis drop us off the famous Opera house for some pics and walk through, we only spent a little time here to get daytime pictures because we would be coming back in the evening for a Jazz performance - a great chance to see this building in full production as it where. We continued for a little more walk about before heading back to the ship to get ready for the evening’s events. We did take the HAL excursion to the Opera House just to keep it real easy and they did a wonderful job. Champagne in the show lounge as we waited for our transportation and then all the senior officers, including the captain greeted us all as we filtered into the opera house - a very nice touch. The theatre itself was incredible, a great work of art. No money or detail was spared as the very wealthy rubber barons were playing the one up man ship game in outdoing each other, who would think of putting some an amazing building in the middle of a jungle. Acoustically, the opera house is set up perfectly with the main seating area and then the four tiers surrounding this area and stage, some private booths while others more open. The Amazon Jazz Orchestra of over 20 players, played a fantastic set including the Girl from Ipenema and Toquilla. A great night at the Opera.
We were back just before 9 and was able to get into the dining room for a quick dinner before seeing the local show at the theatre on the ship at 10 o’clock. Another wonderful show, this was a two for night with the opera house and the local show and this is why the blog upload was not last night but tonight. Also, we had another early morning with our HAL Excursion tour in the morning.
A few pics of our day, hope you enjoy….
No comments:
Post a Comment