Dec 25 2006
Brazil Trip Diary: Day 12
We arrived in Manaus, the capital city of Amazonia state. Manaus has a very interesting story: it was a boom town for about three decades after Europeans found use for rubber. However, a canning Englishman smuggled (or transported under false pretense) some rubber tree seeds out to SE Asia. Manaus soon declined as a result.
However, during the dream-like thirty years, the city built a grand church, an opera house, libraries and other public facilities. Except a few electronic cables, the opera house was built entirely by Europeans—not only all the materials but even the construction workers. The public markets were designed by Eiffel and were modeled after those in Paris.
Today, the city lives on light manufacturing (electronics and motorcycles, etc.) and tourism. Most of the industrial materials are shipped in and out through the Amazon River. But there is only one highway linking the city to the outside world.
Our guide, Milton, is quite knowledgeable about the city and the River. He looked tired because his neighbor partied all night, but we talked more as the tour went on. He said Brazil was known for its sex industry. Many foreigners came for hedonistic activities. According to Milton, the picture was often exaggerated: there was no organized sex tourism. He did say the guides often act like pimps depending on their clients. I remember Andre kept referring to his Swiss American client as a “fucker”. Now I know what he meant.
We boarded on a boat to tour the “Meeting of the Rivers”. It is where the Negro River flows into the Amazon River. Each is a large river but with very different characteristics. Negro is of solid black color (more minerals less sediments), warmer and slower. Amazon is the opposite. So where the two river meets forms a clear black and white demarcation line. The muddy materials in the Amazon turns and rolls along the line liking clouds in the sky. The line is as wide as the river itself and is almost like a runway where tour boats lining up one after another.
Afterwards, we checked into the Tropical Hotel. Milton told us it is the best in town. But I found it at best a second tiered one in sophistication. It is a very large hotel and very expensive too. It also has a mini-zoo where we saw Amazon jaguar (onca) for the first time. It is a beautiful animal. I could never forget my first impression of it. But all it does is staring across a cage-full of its favorite prey, capivara (guinea pigs) or pacing in circles in the small cage.
Just as curious as the wild animals are the middle class visitors to the hotel: almost all white, spend freely and certainly know how to enjoy themselves (the pool in the hotel creates artificial waves). Most hotel staff could only manage a few English words. It looks like most of the hotels patrons are local gentries. In the lobby, there is framed collection of celebrity autographs: from Kissinger to Japanese royalties to Lady Diana. Knowing the most celebrated “Jane” once shared the same thinning red carpets with a low-life me, I felt that there is equality after all.
We took a nap in the hotel and left for airport at midnight. The flight is at 2:45. We don’t know what to expect.