Manaus, Brazil

Thursday, March 1, 2012 – Manaus, Brazil

Over two million population. The center seems small as you dock but once you get driving around the streets, you realize how large it really is. We took the free shuttle bus offered by the jeweler Amsterdam Sauer this time (as opposed to H. Stern) to the Tropical Hotel, here the H. Stern store is right near the other store! It is about 30 minutes from town but we had negotiated a deal where we could tour the Manaus Opera House, they would wait, and then take us to the store. Worked our well as had some time prior to the 20-30 minute tour to see San Sebastiao church It is a neoclassical church built around 1888 in gray colors with white Italian marble, stained glass windows and a beautiful blue and white cupola of angels. The black and white Portuguese granite patterns in the sidewalk are said to represent the meeting of the waters (rivers coming together in the two colors).

The opera house: for a theatre buff, what a sight! If I saw only one site in Manaus, it would be the theatre. An incredibly large and ornate building, it is hard to imagine it here in the middle of nowhere. Our guide said many locals don’t even visit it – even where they are free concerts! It was definitely made for a different time period, in 1896, at the peak of the rubber boom. They offer tours every ½ hour and if you are over 60, it is ½ price! 5 reales – about $3.50. The lobby is marble and inlaid tropical hardwoods, the concert hall is magnificent with rich colors and each seat has its own air vent under it for your own private central air conditioning, provided by the ceiling vents and recirculation. Ingenuous! As we entered the theatre, the symphony was rehearsing! Almost as good as the real thing! The concert hall upstairs has a magnificent floor of the dark and lighter colored woods (you have put on slippers to walk around) and a romantic mural. Too bad the event tonight is a private function! This says it all: “The Opera House is an extravagant, impressive testament to the legacy of the rubber boom.”

The private van took us to the Tropical Hotel, where many tour groups stay prior to their cruise/tour. When you visit Amsterdam Sauer, please ask for Luciana Hatoum. She was very helpful and we found out the rarest types of Imperial Topaz stones are salmon and red colors. One stone was $15,000 – no purchase there! www.amsteredamsauer.com There is also a zoo at the hotel! We walked through to see the quati, capivara (that is the one I was trying to describe from a few days ago), common woolly monkey, bare-eared squirrel monkey, razor billed currasow, festive parrot, blue and yellow macaw and collared peccary. You will have to google what you don’t know as there were far too many to describe.

Private taxi back to the ship, quick lunch and off to the Mercado Adolpho Lisboa. The iron and now-demolished glass are a copy of the market hall in Les Halles, Paris. Local fish, fruit, vegetables, there is even a small launch area where many small boats glide up to unload their goods to be sold in the market. It was dirty with trash littered all around – a real market – not a tourist attraction. Tried to find the hospital or optometrist for Gene’s glasses, took the local city bus, dropped off photos at the camera shop (315 to be printed!), toured the Court House, built in 1900, which is now the cultural center. There was a wing of sculptures of Amazonian subjects in bronze (very interesting) and a photography exhibition. The building would have been exquisite in its time. Some paint and work on the façade are needed but the interior is worth a visit – ornate entrance with four Tuscan columns, Italian chandeliers, center staircase with a clock in rosewood…

Late dinner, took a nap as I was not feeling well, went to the late show of the local Amazonia Folklorica Show/Simetria Norte.

“Tourists don’t know where they’ve been, travelers don’t know where they’re going.” - Paul Theroux