MANAUS, BRAZIL

Manaus, located 800 miles up the Amazon River from the Atlantic Ocean in the heart of Brazil, blossomed during the late 1800s and early 1900s because of the boom in the rubber industry. Charles Goodyear patented rubber vulcanization in 1839, the automobile was invented and the industrial revolution began, so rubber was a vital commodity. “Rubber Barons” emerged, along with many jobs, and Manaus became the “Paris of the Tropics”. Lavish homes and buildings were built, among them the famous Opera House. The glass chandeliers were imported from Murano, Italy, the steel columns were handcrafted in Scotland, the wood for the chairs and floor tiles came from Brazil (Bahia) but was sent to Europe to be carefully molded before being returned to the jungle for installation, and the ceiling mural was painted by an Italian painter, Domenico di Angelis -- his technique makes it look like the main characters are always watching you. It took more than 15 years to complete. Many famous actors, singers and dancers appeared in the Opera House in its heyday.

Manaus has one of the first floating docks, added in 1906. Because of this clever innovation, loading didn’t depend on the river flow and tides any longer which was important for their port operations. The Amazon can rise as much as 65 feet in a heavy wet season!

We arrived on a Sunday and unfortunately most of the stores were closed. However, we were able to take a shuttle bus to a hotel resort, giving us the opportunity to see much of the city, as well as a small zoo operated by the hotel.

On Monday we took a cruise and short walk through the Amazon jungle to Lake January where we saw giant water lilies whose leaves were about 3 feet in diameter! Happily the caymans (small alligators) were nowhere to be seen… Along the way, it was fascinating to see the floating houses -- balsa wood logs are used to keep them afloat -- and the houses on stilts with the occasional cow and few chickens scratching about. We saw many water birds -- among them white and blue herons, along with other native (unknown!) birds near the shore or in the wild rice growing wild close to the shore. It’s not cultivated for food.

At last we reached another Meeting of the Waters, this time the Amazon which is called the Salimoes River at this point, and the Rio Negro. It was amazing to see the muddy café-au-lait colored Amazon flowing beside the dark, clear water of the Rio Negro without mixing! This phenomenon is caused by the different chemical composition of the suspended particles in each -- one is more acidic than the other, as well as different currents and temperatures. You can actually see a stripe before they finally blend after more than three miles! This happens in several places where tributaries feed into the 4,500 miles of the central Amazon River.

What an education this trip is!