Mar 4, 2013 - Manaus, Brazil

Saturday we docked in Manaus, a city of about two million people located almost 1000 miles from the Atlantic Ocean on the Rio Negro, not on the Amazon. The Rio Negro enters the Amazon about 15 miles south of Manaus – more on that later. Manaus is not the best city in the world or in South America to be traipsing around in by oneself, or even in small groups we are told. We have chosen one of the ship’s tours again in the belief that we will see more and feel better about it than trying to go off on our own and brazening it out. Before we...

Feb 25, 2013 - Manaus

Manaus is a surprisingly cosmopolitan city right next to the rainforest. People come here from around the world to venture into the surrounding jungle. One of the favorite sights is the “Meeting of the waters” where the inky waters of the Negro River meet the brown waters of the Amazon. It’s quite something to see and they flow side by side but do not mix. The other major attraction and strange sight to see here, 900 miles up the Amazon, is the Teatro Amazonas. It is a beautiful theatre that took over 15 years to build with materials...

Oct 29, 2012 - Manaus

Après 2 jours de bateau depuis Santarem, nous voici arrivés à Manaus. Cette fois, le bateau était beaucoup plus petit, il n'y avait plus le choix de prendre l'air conditionné ou non. Mais, avec le mouvement du bateau, il ne faisait pas trop chaud et les deux jours sont très vite passés. Manaus est une ville impressionnante de presque 2 mio d'habitants au milieu de l'Amazonie et proche de la confluence des 2 fleuves : le Rio Negro et le Rio Amazonas. L'eau du Rio Negro est noire et celle de l'Amzonas est blanche, les couleurs ne se mélangent...

Nov 6, 2011 - Manaus and The Amazon

Hi All, Last Sunday night I arrived in Manaus, Brazil - the largest city in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. From walking around the city you don´t get a feel for the fact you are in the rainforest, aside from the tropical weather. I stayed in the city for 2 days, visiting a local port and opera house and a couple of nice parks. One of which has a nice little cafe serving acai juice. Acai is an Amazonian berry which has a gritty texture when made into a juice. In my opinion it tastes a little like blackberries, however is meant to be...

Aug 5, 2011 - Manaus, hopefully not for long.

Well, here we are still and it seems we have exhausted all it has to offer (or at least that we can be bothered to achieve). A slight error was made on the boats behalf, it was meant to be delayed and take about 2 days longer. It seems they have been overly efficient and we have arrived 2 weeks earlier than what we had hoped. We have been trying to get to a place in the northern part of Manaus call the Museo de Cience, but no one has heard of it nor the street name of where it is. We found some instructions and tried to follow them but the...

Aug 1, 2011 - Amazon Journey Part 2

Sorry for no photos, we missed several opportunities and there much to see in the middle of the river. There are a couple of vids, but there is a 5 a month limit, will try and add them in 3/4 weeks time. Anyway, we struggled a little more in Tabatinga to get our boat (being bigger and hotter) but once found we were again set. The Brazilian police thought otherwise. This was the first time we actually had our bags completely searched and not just us, but everyone. Everyones bags were taken completely apart, which for us back packers...

Jan 15, 2011 - Food

Saturday, January 15, 2011 All we seemed to do today is eat! We were on the excursion boat at 10:00 am that would take us to the Manaus marina, then a bus to the airport for our flight to Fortaleza. We had breakfast at the lodge before we left and the first thing we’ll be doing when we reach Manaus will be to have lunch from 11:15 - 12:00. It seemed the practical thing to do, because we’ll be going through airports with one stop-over where we won’t change planes and we won’t get a decent meal until we get to Fortaleza. The meal we’ll be...

Jan 14, 2011 - Manaus Continued

Friday, January 14, 2011 There was a hard rain pounding on my roof very early in the morning. If you think it’s going to rain, you’re right. It rains every day, especially now during the rainy season. The first morning the sun was at a perfect angle on the foliage around my cabin. It would have been a perfect time to take a picture, but I decided I’d be sure to take it the following morning. The following morning we had a downpour and this morning we’re leaving and it’s rather overcast. So you have to strike when the “iron is hot” or it’s a...

Jan 13, 2011 - Manaus

Thursday, January 13, 2011 We split into two groups for our 1 ½ hour walk through the Amazon jungle. Any was our guide along with his assistant. Any stopped frequently along the path, that was not paved or marked clearly, so you knew that you were walking in a jungle. We had to step carefully over roots, duck under low-hanging branches and try to not touch any vegetation which could be irritating or have sharp thorns. Any said that if we fall, just drop and not try to brace ourselves of grab onto any support. Some used walking sticks which...

Sep 15, 2010 - Manaus, Brazil

Arr 'early' at midnight, the 14th, but stay on ferry the night getting a taxi to IH Hostel Manaus arr about 7 am...very tired! Together w/ Italian friend, Enrico (70 yr young, lives in S. foot of Italy on family 'farm'), we took taxis to Hostel Manaus where we stayed 'til 11 am resting and waiting until they knew they had room in dorms for us. They had a 5r. breakfast of much fruit, bread, coffee/tea, chez and meat. Afterward Bon & I headed for bus station 20 min. away by city bus...tho we had to hunt down where to get it...the city center...

Jan 5, 2010 - Away to Brazil

So we took an overnight bus to the border. Starting at 6am we started having to go through security checks. The first one was fairly thorough, they made us take everything out of our suitcases and put it back. This was applied to every passenger on the bus so we didn´t feel very discriminated against. The second one was at the bus station in Maceio,the border town, where, for some reason, they figured Brad and I were smuggling drugs. They practically took our suitcase apart looking for drugs. Who knows why they chose us over the foreigners...

Dec 5, 2009 - Manausecours!

Arrivant à l´aéroport de Manaus à minuit, nous avons dû réserver à l´avance une auberge de jeunesse, et leur demander de nous envoyer un taxi. Déjà victimes du Coup du Brésilien, on comprend rapidement que le chauffeur ne viendra jamais. Par chance, nous ne sommes pas les seuls oubliés, nous rencontrons 2 Danoises qui ont réservé dans la même auberge, nous partageons un taxi. Arrivés à une heure du matin à l´auberge, un peu agacés, nous sommes accueillis par un étudiant brésilien, désagréable, qui fait office de réceptionniste. Avec un air...