Brazil - Manaus and the Meeting of The Waters

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Saturday 29 July - Brazil



We really wanted to see the Meeting of the Waters and arranged a tour which incorporated this with a city tour of Manaus. Manaus used to populated by wealthy rubber plantation owners and their attractive old houses are a testament to their wealth and opulent lifestyle, now most of the houses have fallen into disrepair, although the facades have protected status.They were mostly imported from Europe and assembled in Manaus. We went inside the beautiful opera house built in 1896, now called the Amazonas Theatre, where we were tempted to book tickets for the evening performance by a Brazilian Band but decided to wait and see what was playing on our return. The Palace of Justice which is now a cultural centre was also quite lovely.



We visited the richest rubber baron's house, a German named Karl W Scholz, now a museum. Apparently he sent all of his washing back to Europe! We drove past the bustling fruit market, lots of bananas, and stopped at the daily fish market which was enormous with so many different types of fish we had never seen before. Over the so called English Bridge an Iron Bridge dating from the 1800's. Past the houses on stilts; the Government is trying to rehouse all of the people who live there as the homes are unsafe and liable to flooding. The program apparently started well with many inhabitants given their own new homes specifically built for them in the city and the area they left being turned into pleasant parks, however the project has now run out of money.



Off we go to a harbour to collect our boat to see the Meeting of the Waters. This is the confluence between the dark (blackwater) Rio Negro and the pale sandy-coloured (whitewater) Amazon River or Rio Solimões, as the upper section of the Amazon is known in Brazil upriver of this confluence.For 6 km (3.7 mi) the two rivers' waters run side by side without mixing. So really this is the start of The Amazon river.This phenomenon is due to the differences in temperature, speed and water density of the two rivers. The Rio Negro flows at near 2 km/h (1.2 mph) at a temperature of 28 °C (82 °F), while the Rio Solimões flows between 4 and 6 km/h (2.5–3.7 mph) at a temperature of 22 °C (72 °F). It was very dramatic to see but although we put our hands in the waters neither of us would have been able to identify the temperature difference. We then went to see the giant lily pads and the floating village where there are floating snack bars, a school and churches all built on a particular tree trunk which is very buoyant. We were lucky to see a yellow headed falcon and some whistling ducks, although they were silent.



We had a lovely very meal in the restaurant Caxiri, overlooking the opera house which was extremely busy for the evening performance. The restaurant was described as a 'contemporary and sophisticated interpretation of the best of Amazon cuisine'. We chose tambaqui again which was served 'en papillote' and was excellent. After dinner we went to the square where there was a band playing outside with a mixture of wide range of songs by Frank Sinatra, Karen Carpenter, etc. We loved it and were dancing in the street with mostly local people.

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