Manaus was the starting point of our Amazon adventure. We wouldn’t have flown there just to see the city, but while you are there why not to explore.
Manaus is the city in the middle of Amazon. The easiest way to reach it is by plane otherwise it might take days from Rio. It’s the capital of the state with 2 mil inhabitants. Quite a small city comparing with Rio or Sao Paulo, but has almost the same number of people as the whole Latvia.
For our first nights we used Couchsurfing again. There weren’t many people who host in Manaus, but again we were lucky. Nae responded to our request and agreed to host us not only for the first couple of days, but also the night when we came back from the jungle. As Nae works during the days her father Joel showed us around the city. Joel is already retired and his whole life worked as programmer. He even build the first computer in 1960s there in Manaus. After arriving the first day Joel showed us a great view from the top of their building which is in the very center of Manaus. From there you can see all main sights: Amazon Theater, Downtown, river etc. We also went to different markets selling various typical amazon fruits, vegetables and fishes. The most interesting part was piles of bananas and watermelons. After the markets Joel drove us through industrial zone where a lot of big worldwide companies have their factories. It’s quite convenient as Manaus is still a tax free zone. On the other hand it helps local people to get the jobs and they really need that as Manaus still trying to recover from poor recent history.
After picking Joel’s wife from work (she’s working as a teacher) we went to check quite a new park near the city center where a lot of local people are walking or running. Forgot to mention that Joel is very fit man and still runs marathons. Currently he is preparing for the next marathon and he is 74 years old!
In the evening we met Nae with couple of her friends at the bar. Enjoyed dinner and a couple of caipirinhas.
Next morning we got up just around 11am. Had lunch with Joel and went to rest a bit more because it’s really hot during daytime in Manaus, so it’s better to stay inside where you have air conditioning. We left home just around 2pm and headed straight to see Amazon Theater. It’s really nice and definitely one of the main sights in Manaus. We also found a post and sent some postcards to our families in Lithuania.
After Nae came back from work we went for a dinner in the square near the theater where we tried local fish and fish wrapped in fried bananas. Yummy!
Next morning after saying goodbye we left for the jungle. We came back after 5 days and had only one night before the flight to Rio. That night there was a party in one of the rock clubs. First band was a bit weird as it consisted of almost only the girls (one guy played the piano) and all of them were so unique and interesting to watch. That evening we also met Nae’s friend who also hosts people through Couchsurfing. It was really fun night with very strong caipirinhas which didn’t help us next morning when we had to catch the flight back to Rio, however everything ended well.
Highlights:
Amazon Theater
Fruits market
19 years old Nae’s cat
Great local rock club with live music