And then some, March 2023

 

Manaus, Brazil is a bit below the Equator, like three degrees.  And that makes it tropical, Amazon rainforest tropical.  Very different from where we live in Nevada City, CA, which is 39+ degrees north ...  in the Sierra Nevada foothills at 3200', whereas Manaus is only 302' above sea level.  3000' lower than us.  We're a four-season climate, with winter snows.  So, of course, what we'd be seeing flora- and fauna-wise would be unfamiliar, even exotic.  That makes traveling so very cool -- appreciating the diversity.  We were excited to be down here, and below is some of what we saw.  (enlarge any picture)

Definitely not seen near our house!

Except for the Anhinga, which can be seen in Florida and along the Gulf of Mexico in the US, almost all of the birds we saw were new to us.

Clockwise, from top left: Achiote (Bixa orellana), Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa), Guaraná berry (Paullinia cupana), Hot Lips (Psychotria elata), and the mysterious pacifier flower with seeds, bottom left.  Guaraná, with its black seeds partly covered in white (they look like eyeballs), is an effective stimulant that contains about twice the concentration of caffeine found in coffee beans and is used in energy drinks.

We see lots of herons in North America, but never the Cocoi Heron, South America's largest heron, left, nor the Rufescent Tiger-Heron, another So American bird, right.

We saw Greater Kiskadees in Texas once, a while back,

but the Lesser guys were a new find.

No monkeys in our neighborhood, unless it's in a zoo.

Three separate three-toed sloths.

For some really cool sloth facts, go to:

https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/fascinating-facts/sloth

Meeting of the Waters -- Rio Negro meets the Solimões (Amazon) -- up close.

By Portal da Copa - Portal da Copa, from Wikipedia

How it looks from the air!  Rio Negro at left, Solimões joins at right.

Where the two rivers meet, just a bit east of Manaus, Brazil, they flow side by side within the same channel for several miles. This phenomenon is due to the differences in temperature, speed, and amount of dissolved sediments in the waters of the two rivers. The Rio Negro flows at near 1.2 mph at a temperature of 82°F, while the Rio Solimões flows between 2–4 mph at a temperature of 72°F. The light-colored water is rich with sediment from the Andes Mountains, whereas the black water, running from the Colombian hills and interior jungles, is nearly sediment-free and colored by decayed leaf and plant matter.  Turbulent eddies driven by the faster-moving whitewater eventually mix the two, as they merge to become the Lower Amazon River.  Inquiring minds want to know.  You're welcome! (thanks, Wiki)

Truly another world for us.  Wonderful.

One more day, Thurs, 3/16/23

 

From the hotel this morning, our bus deposited us at the Mercado Adolpho Lisboa.  Dodging raindrops, the group scooted into another world.  The market, constructed between 1880-1883, is one of the largest open markets in the city of Manaus, offering fresh fruits, spices, fish, souvenirs, traditional indigenous medications, and more.

Whatever you want, whatever you need, you can find it here.

Lots of fresh, raw Brazil nuts were offered for sale (we bought two bags), as well as peppers, manioc flours, beans, and packages of things we didn't recognize.

A huge carne (meat) section, which was kinda gross (for me).

And an even larger peixe (fish) market.  You name it, we saw it.

And this is (I believe) the fish we had for lunch.

But I could be wrong ....

After seeing all the foodstuffs for sale in the market, we walked to the other side to check out the non-food mercado shopping booths, which mostly featured tourist-y stuff.

Not far away was the elegant Scholz palace, now a museum -- built in an eclectic style in 1903 as the private residence of wealthy rubber baron, Karl Waldemar Scholz.  After the decline of the rubber boom in Brazil, he lost the house and it was auctioned off.  Now known as Palácio Rio Negro, it served as the state capital and governor's residence for many years till it was turned into a cultural center in 1997.  Amazing structure in the Amazon.

This statue Scholz commissioned is allegedly of his love (girlfriend? mistress? wife?).  She spent six weeks living in the palace and then left.  Adios!  The statue looks innocuous enough, but she has snakes running through her hair and a knife in her right hand behind her back.  Two-timing snake?

Two giant Strangler Figs, planted in or around 1901, remain shading the courtyard.  Great big towering trees, quite stunning. 

We're always ready for lunch ... especially when we're in one of Manaus' most famous and popular restaurants:  Caxiri, in the heart of Manaus.  

The fish was excellent.  Most of us chose the fish, but the few who opted for beef were disappointed, sorry to say.  

My tongue-in-cheek photo of the opera house from my seat at lunch.

All power poles are ugly sights.

Notice the dome in no way matches the building.

Construction of the Teatro Amazonas (opera house) was first proposed in 1881 by a member of the local House of Representatives, who envisioned a "jewel" in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.  And his dream came true.  Teatro Amazonas is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The aim of the building was to make the City of Manaus a cultural Mecca in Brazil.

Infinity mirrors in the gorgeous opera house lobby.  But we were too short, and the mirror has a slight curve, rendering it not true.  If you enlarge the pic, you can see the tops of our heads.

The theatre was inaugurated on Dec 31, 1896, with the first performance on Jan 7, 1897, featuring the famous Enrico Caruso performing in the Italian opera, La Gioconda.  With the invention of artificial rubber, Manaus lost its main source of income. The wealthy left town, and the opera house closed down. There wasn’t a single performance in Teatro Amazonas for 90 years!  It was returned to life in 2001 with a change in government.  It's home now to the Amazon philharmonic and an annual film festival.  It's marvelous to have such beauty in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest.

 

Auditorium seating for 701.  Exquisite artwork by Italian artists on the theatre’s ceiling.  Murano glass chandeliers.  No expense was spared in creating the opera house.  Most, if not all, materials in the making came from afar.

All dressed up in her fancy dress, this lucky girl has her quinceañera photos taken at the opera house.  So glamorous.  Seeing her was an added bonus for the Road Scholar group.

From the stage, looking toward the rear of the opera house.  It would be terrific to sit in one of the boxes and listen to a concert.

Seating fit for a governor or a pope.

Quite a tour, not sure how long.  Hard to believe something like this exists out here in the middle of the Brazilian rainforest.

St Sebastian Square

with its optical illusion tile work.

Across the way, Abertura dos Portos monument (Opening of the Ports) sits in the center of St Sebastian Square in front of the opera house.  Inaugurated in 1900, it commemorates the liberation of the ports of the Amazon River to foreign trade in 1866.

Up close, the monument symbolizes the four corners of the world: Asia, America, Africa and Europe, each represented by a ship, with a seated boy on the prow of each ship, and each boy carrying something representative of their continent.

Ahhhh, ice cream after it all.  What could be better?

Our day in Manaus finished, we returned to the hotel.  We had free time in late afternoon and all evening.  Our bags were packed, crammed with stinky clothes!  I guess we could've slept, but didn't.  We had some terrible flight times going home -- leaving the hotel later, like 1 in the morning, our flight to Miami via Panama at 3:50am, connecting flights, and finally touchdown in Sacramento at Midnight Friday.  Needless to say, we were struck stupid by the time son, Matt, picked us up.  We spent the night with him, wife, Jen, and six-year-old granddaughter, Everly Rose.

Evie loved her sloth!

The four feet of snow had melted into lots of piles, but the driveway had been cleared.  The house was empty; our friends returned to their home.  We have a long ceiling crack in our great room and a small vertical crack above the fireplace mantel, and another minor crack at the other end of the great room.  Four feet of heavy snow, plus rain, will do some damage.  Not sure how serious it is ... we've been advised to wait a bit to see what else develops.  Had to empty out the garage freezer with its spoiled food.  Outside, we lost branches and one small tree, and our roadsides are littered with downed trees.

As soon as we touched down in the airport, we got sick with nasty colds, but these are mostly gone now.  Today as I type this, (Wednesday, 3/29/23), we're watching it alternately snow, sleet, rain, and get sunny.  Another foot of snow fell yesterday, and everyone we know is heartily sick of it.  

So, that wraps up our journey to the exotic Brazilian Amazon rainforest, a water world for sure, a place we never thought we'd see, and different from anywhere we've been, full of wonderful sights.  We had a grand time and are glad we went, although the timing for us wasn't good.  So be it.  Over and out from Nevada City, California.

  

To the city, Wed. 3/15/23

 

Perhaps in our dreams we were returning to the city, but when the 5:30am knock came, we knew it was one more, our last, chance to wander the Amazon by canoe.  Seize the Day!  Wolf had told us earlier that this excursion was not to be missed.

And he was right ... beginning with this glorious sunrise.  He was specifically looking for pink dolphins, but all we caught from the corner of our eyes was a splash.  That's okay, we played with them yesterday!

The canoe doubled back, passing our home (the Pilgrim) tied up to a tree.  We pointed our noses further into the lake (Lake Acajatuba).

Aha!  The early morning sun highlighted a sloth high in a tree near the water's edge.  Or as Wolf aptly put it, "no, it's not a big knapsack up there, it's a sloth doing what it does best.  Nothing."

I've said it before, the guides/guys have keen eyesight (also lots of practice) to be able to spot anything out here that isn't moving.  This heron was invisible if it held still, right?  So, it didn't move as the canoe paused and then slid past.

Lookee here, another knapsack of a sloth, high in the branches.  They resemble giant ant nests or would if they were lower in the tree.  Nice fingernails.

Of course we've seen these wee White-winged swallows before, but they get an extra nod in today's post because they're cute.

Wolf thought about nosing the canoe in here, but decided against it.

Instead we went a bit further in and gazed around.  Looks like grassland for quite a distance, then more jungle.  Wait a minute, that's not land.  It's grass and a type of rice growing on water!  The rice isn't really for humans as the grains are too small.  You just would not want to try to walk out there.

We backed out and continued our explore.  We heard the monkeys "chirping" and then saw the troop of Squirrel Monkeys zipping through the trees, some with babies on their backs.  They're tiny and fast, not easy to see or photograph.

This vessel surprised us out here by ourselves as we were.

We waved and so did he.

Now we're talking sloth.  As with the other sloths, this arboreal dude was high in the treetops, upside down and hanging by its three toes ... and apparently eating.  Its diet is leaves, twigs and fruit.  Because of their slow movement and metabolism, it can take up to a month for a sloth to digest a single meal.  Sloths descend to the ground only once a week to poop!  (four pics of the same sloth)

A sleepy morning for some -- we spotted a number of Red Howler Monkeys, each curled in a ball, like the blob you see way up there, above.  Hard to tell if its sound asleep or grooming.

And then we saw these two (and a couple of others nearby) who were eating fruit in the palm trees.  I'm just glad they didn't start howling -- it's very loud!

Well, that was about it.  We stayed out even longer than usual and were late for our 8am breakfast!  We had a grand time out this morning, seeing all the wildlife (esp the sloths), appreciating our last foray into the Amazon wilderness.

We had to pack and get ready to disembark (hopefully not in rain).  Our riverboat adventure is over and we'll move to the TRYP Hotel in Manaus for the night.

Our luggage was taken away by canoe to the mainland and thence to our hotel.  We, however, were whisked away to lunch at a restaurant "no tourist ever goes to."  A place for locals, featuring local fish. Served with rice/beans and a mango salad.  The fish was surprisingly easy to eat.

And it was delicious, whatever kind it was.  I heard the name more than once, but couldn't pronounce it myself nor spell what I couldn't say!  We were sitting outside under a roof, which was good, 'cause the rain commenced to pour ... pounding on the roof like a drum.

Fried sardines were also served (above, left, at bottom), and chicken leg quarters.  Bernice said the chicken was even better than the fish!  And the fish was great.  I included the restaurant name.

We were supposed to visit the opera house today, but it was closed, so we'll see it tomorrow.  This afternoon was for lounging and repacking and resting and reading and blogging, any or all.

We did have a fun dinner at the hotel this evening.  Jimmy wore his kinda-Hawaiian shirt above, and when Ken saw him, he jumped up, saying, "I'm gonna put mine on, too!"  He disappeared upstairs and came down looking very Hawaiian!  We had a good time with our group.

Tomorrow we're going to the opera!