Manaus

15.09.2013 – 22.09.2013

Manaus, the city is characterized well by its not official names through the ages: Heart of the Amazon, the City of the Forest, Paris of the Jungle.


The historic Custom House of Manaus - Alfândega. It is not open to visitors.

About a hundred meters towards the city is – The Clock Tower. "Little Big Ben".


The sign of the port of Manaus.


As the connection by land with the rest of Brazil is practically missing (except the BR -319 highway), then trailers are transported with large barges along the river.


Just next to the port there is the City Market designed by Gustav Eiffel. It has been being restored for a longer time already and soon the works will be completely finished.

In fact, the city is still quite surreal, all together - it's location- in the middle of the rainforest, and thousands of kilometers away from other big cities. And access by the plane (within 4 hours from Sao Paulo !), or along the river. Because the river is so deep that also large container ships and cruise ships can come here. And of course, these signs of the former gorgeous times. There are only walls left of many beautiful buildings now.






The area near the harbor, a kind of chaos, but all functions, the trade goes on from white to dark and a bit longer too. Life goes on.


Ponta Negra is the newest and richest region by the Rio Negro River.




According to the display there are 266 days left to the beginning of FIFA 2014, and the Games will be held in Manaus too.


Iranduba bridge.

The first bridge over the Rio Negro River is here, 1,600 kilometers from the mouth of the Amazonas. Not over the Amazonas. To be more precise - the two major rivers, the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimoes meet here and the Amazonas begins.


The bridge- is 3595 meters long, it was built for four years, and the President of Brazil - Dilma Rouseff – attended the opening.








Manaus downtown traffic is totally ok, ie, like the usual situation in South America, where you accept the other road users. I mean the drivers of the vehicles, the pedestrians should take care of their safety sometimes themselves.


The brown water is from the Rio Solimos and the darker is of the Rio Negro. "Meeting the Waters" is an important tourist destination and from the port and nearby places one can buy a “voyage along the river”. 

The waters of the both river waters mix as far as 6 km further, because the rivers flow at different speeds and have different temperatures. The speed of the Rio Solimos is 4-6 km / h and the temperature is 22 degrees, and for the Rio Negro the corresponding figures are - 2 km / h and the temperature - 28 degrees.


Speed Boat will take off when all the seats are occupied and reaches at the other side of the river in half an hour.




The passenger port on the opposite bank.










For a change, some pictures of everyday life.


I finally got a mobile Internet to operate properly. I bought a TIM Brasil calling card from the street and in the mall it probably took about 10 minutes to register the card and have some other formalities. And the thing worked, although slow, but it worked.

About overnight possibilities.. Usually decent tourists arrive here by plane or ship, and generally stop at a before- booked hotel or hostel. Generally. Anyway, the looking for a campsite during first night ended quite unsuccessfully. And most of the time of the second day was spent on searching in the internet, and then on visiting the found addresses. So much was immediately clear that there are no a classic camping sites here. And neither Caravan Park (otherwise, there is Brazil Camping Club Brasil) http://www.campingclube.com.br/, but not in this area).

I guess it does not pay off. And we could not find secure and convenient hostels in the center of the town. And in Manaus it will take more than one or two days to get acquainted with and look around in town. But finally the overnight problem found an extremely positive solution. During the search we met " The Amazon Handbook " author Clive Maguire, http://www.amazonhandbook.com/. His book gives a very good overview of the city of Manaus and the surrounding attractions, and there are references to both- the overnight places and the schedules of the larger vessels moving along the Amazon River.

And the next day Clive took us in his boat to a trip along the river.


Boat parking. The visitor has nothing else to do at the gate but only say the name of the boat, park the car and then wait.


Until the boat will be found out.


Shelters for larger vehicles.


The Filling Station on the river.










The Rubber Plantation Museum. It can be reached only by boat.




The museum is a reconstruction of The Rubber Farm of Seringal Villa Paroiso, located near Humaita, and is like it was in the year of 1912. Most of the furnishings are original articles. The movie Selva (2002)was filmed here as well. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210971/


















Rubber.






The picking of raw rubber. NB The pail in the picture is not in the normal size (10 liters), but - 10 cm high.






Two boat piers. The right one is used in the case of higher water levels. Depending on the season the level of the water may differ up to 10 meters.




Evening in Rio Negro. And the fish having been caught from water of almost +28 degrees means that catch is nearly half cooked..

For further travel plans – probably upwards - in the direction of Boa Vista, as it is “The Less Rainy Season Now” But more about it - already in the next post.