Thursday – Manaus – Day 1

I’d spent the morning painting, and completed two pieces from Santarem and Boca Do Valeria, and was ready for a break. Both Tracey and I had been assigned escort duties on the ‘Manaus city tour’; not an excursion that either of us would have chosen to do, but had offered to escort anyway.

Fully lunched, we headed out to the quayside to introduce ourselves to the shoreside guides on our respective coaches, and then the rain came down…

Boy, did it rain……

Not for long, though, fortunately.

The first thing we noticed about the port was that we weren’t berthed in the place that we’ve always been parked in before. This time, anyone wanting to go into the city independently would have to take the shuttle bus that had been laid on. The bus would take you across the floating bridge, through to a point where access was available into the main shopping areas, and a pavilion had been set up for passengers to sit, have a drink, and use the free wi-fi. It turns out that the whole port area as we’ve always known it, has been privately owned by a man who is an ex-senator. In all those eight years (apparently), he hasn’t improved the site at all, despite charging four times the previous berthing fees to ships (somewhere in the region of $4000 per day). This year, the World Cup is coming to Manaus, and the government want the port back, so that they can refurbish it in time for the shedloads of football-mad visitors it’s expecting to receive. The owner isn’t budging though; hence, the current fisaco. Essentially, no-one is allowed to walk through the privately-owned land, which is why there’s a shuttle bus. This was all told to me by the guide on my coach, who seems confident that the disagreement between the local government and the ex-senator will be ironed-out (at a large cost, though, which is causing much bad feeling amongst many local residents).

The tour took us to Manaus’s most famous landmark; its famed Opera House, where we were fortunate enough to be able to see around inside of it (sometimes, rehearsals or performances prevent such visits) – this part of the tour lasted approximately 40 minutes. From here, we were taken to the Governor’s house; a very colonial-looking building, with a lovely cool, mostly wooden, interior (roughly 30 minutes). The tour continued past the city’s prison, paused to show us the stilt houses piled up on top of each other, and ended up at a large market, where we were given a staggering 60 minutes to enjoy it…

As markets go, I have to say that this one wasn’t particularly scintillating. The fact that it was a modern, purpose-built market seemed to make it worse; just a block or two beyond, I knew for a fact that the streets of Manuas are one huge market, and a more interesting one at that. One or two passengers looked slightly bemused at the fact that we’d been given so long to spend here, yet had been told by the guide, on answering questions of whereabouts in the city is the new World Cup football stadium to be found, and might it be possible to see it, that the stadium is too far out, and no, we wouldn’t have time to visit it.

So, the passengers whiled away an hour before our return to the ship, where we enjoyed a relaxed evening on board. We’ve been into Manaus in the evening, looking for action and adventure, before…. and failed to find it. So, we opted for staying in and having an early night, as we have a long day’s excursion tomorrow.