Manuals Day 2 (Highlights of Manaus)

So this was an early day since we got to bed after midnight but we made it through breakfast and to the tour on time. One of these days we will learn these type of tours our not our thing. The tour guides they use are always so proud of their cities and spend way too much time talking about stuff to the smallest detail. This was the same as some of our tour guides in Greece where they couldn’t walk and talk at the same time and you spent a large amount of time standing in front of a tree or something like that while they told you the story of rubber. This excursion began on a bus after the tender ride in from the ship, was nice to be on an air conditioned bus instead of a hot river boat. Our first stop was the Opera House, this was in the main square where it was fun to see all of the Christmas Decorations.

We now went into the Opera House and it was beautiful, makes you realize what a boom town this city was in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when the rubber industry was at its peak. The Opera House was constructed in 1896, in the main concert hall if you look up at the dome it is the view as if you were under the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The curtain is the original one and was created in Paris and depicts the meeting of the waters, Rio Negro and the Solimoes to form the Amazon. The curtain was opened by hand and was never folded as it was lifted straight up into the dome.

We were fortunate that there was an orchestra practicing while we were touring and they let us observe them from the boxes. They were practicing for a Christmas performance and this was our first realization that Christmas was almost here.

Our next stop was an indigenous wildlife refuge, there really were not any pictures worth displaying from this place, it was in awful shape and I felt so bad for the animals that were being kept there. After that stop we were heading to the Military Zoo which is a wildlife refuge outside the city. This place was much nicer than the wildlife refuge, it is actually a Military training facility, Brazil has a 1 year compulsory military service at the age of 18. We were all a bit confused with why they have a training facility where military personnel are caring for the animals. I guess when you don’t fight too many wars it is good training for the youth on how to treat and respect native animals in the region. We didn’t get too many pictures in the zoo as we were a bit exhausted and hot and pretty much did a quick tour and got back on the Air Conditioned Bus.

This was our last stop and the bus returned us to the port where there was a tender waiting for us along with some cold wash cloths. So we said goodbye to Manuas and on to our next stop the small town of Parintins.