Manaus, Brazil!

We arrived on Sunday morning in Manaus, Brazil! As I looked out the window I saw that we were docked to a floating dock along with about 20 river boats on the other side of the dock. It was quite a site. There was so much hustle and bustle in the city. I joined my friends Carrie, Hannah, Brittany, Stephanie, and Amber for breakfast and we decided that we would spend the day wandering around the city. We wanted to definitely find the Opera House which was our major goal.

 

Once we set off into the city, it was so much different than the past places we've been. There were no taxi drivers trying to shove us into their taxis. Everyone seemed to be pretty chill and mellow. Perhaps this was because it was a Sunday and everyone was in church....which the churches by the way are beautiful! So we make it through the port area and into the city. There is a really crowded marketplace ahead of us selling everything from fruits to churros to cell phones in little tiny stands that are all crammed together. We walked through the marketplace for a long time just soaking up everything around us and probably looking like the biggest tourists ever with our maps and cameras out. We walked by one of the Cathedrals where Mass was occuring. The doors were slightly opened and the sound of people singing drifted out into the street. We decided to venture further into the city where we came upon another marketplace that was huge! There were so many tents where people were selling lots of junk! Lots of little kids were buying so many random things. As a kid I would have thought of it as a goldmine too!! There were street performers everywhere.

 

As we made our way through the market and past the other side we kept on walking and found the Opera House. It is beautiful! The dome on top of the building looks like the brazilian flag. We went inside and all the decorations from the floor to the ceiling were so ornate. We ended up sitting down (The a/c felt wonderful!!!) and we ended up watching the orchestra perform for about an hour and a half. It was an amazing experience. Then we left the opera house and met up with some other SAS kids who were walking around.

 

As we walked I noticed that all the buildings are painted bright colors....the sidewalks too! We made our way back to the ship for lunch which was the most delicious lunch ever.....we had FRENCH FRIES!!! I was absolutely stuffed after that. But we headed back into the city. We were going to walk to this artisian marketplace....as you cant ell there are a billion marketplaces in Manaus...but everything was closed around 3. So we didnt make it that far and ended up finding a pizza place where some SAS kids were hanging out. We had a beer with them and just chilled out for a while. Finally it was time to head back to the ship to prepare for my night time gator adventure....more to come on that later!!!