Manaus: Gateway to the Amazon

I finished work on Friday, met Katie and we took a late flight to Manaus, which is in the state of Amazonas. It was the first stop on a three week holiday around the north and north-east of Brazil and it didn’t dawn on me until the plane, quite how great this was going to be! Manaus is the capital city of Amazonas; it hosted games during the 2014 World Cup and is home to many large businesses due to its very low corporation tax. It is also surrounded by the world’s most famous rainforest. The plan was simple – spend a day in Manaus, then travel into the Amazon for a four day/3 night stay, and then have another evening and morning in Manaus before moving on. We were both full of excitement and some trepidation at the idea of sleeping in the Amazon. As a wise man (Karl Pilkington) once said, holidays aren't that appealing "anywhere you have to get a vaccination to visit". You need a yellow fever vaccination and malaria meds for the Amazon. It's the thousand other unknown tropical diseases that perhaps are more frightening... Anyway before we speak about the Amazon, we want to share our thoughts on Manaus…

The history and success of Manaus all centres on rubber. The rubber boom occurred between 1879 and 1912, during which time up to 80k tonnes of rubber was made each year. It was the influx of wealth and the building of the beautiful theatre that earned Manaus the name “Paris of the tropics”. There was a lot of wealth in the area due to the hard work of the slaves and the new money was flaunted around back in the day. It’s easy to forget that a lot of Brazil was built by slaves when you live in Rio.

We spent the first day walking around the city, taking in the sights. We saw churches, palaces, parks, the aforementioned theatre and the main plaza. The city was a lot bigger than we expected (over 2 million people). I mean, the place is built in the middle of the rainforest! The indigenous culture is still on display, especially in the market that was happening close to the port. There was some cool tat for sale and we couldn’t help but indulge. Manaus is well worth spending a day or two visiting as there is a lot to see and do.

MUSA is a museum with a treetop tower overlooking the jungle. There are three levels – 28 metres, 35 metres and 42 metres. We went to the MUSA with some new friends from the Amazon and it was definitely worth it as you get to see the forest from a different perspective. We also walked around the museum and saw some interesting (and scary) spiders and snakes.

Us with our friends from the Amazon at the top of the tower

We had two evenings in Manaus and we spent one of them in the plaza by our hostel. It was very pleasant; there were some nice restaurants and a violinist to add some ambiance and atmosphere. We liked how they had lit up the church and the dome of the theatre. After enjoying some time people watching in the plaza, we went into the theatre to watch an Amazonian dance show that was a little bizarre…but free.

It felt like an end of year performance of a university dance group. They were all very good dancers, and there was definitely a theme or two running throughout the show but it really wasn't clear. They ticked the necessary boxes of having a multimedia element and a variety of music and dance styles but unless you had read the research and dissertation proposal, the actual meaning was as clear as the Amazon river itself! I think some of the weird and honestly wonderful movements were to represent various animals but who knows which. And the random inclusion of topless women was just bizarre. Although it probably pushed them from a 2:1 to a solid first. Needless to say it was entertaining and well danced but weird and quite detached from whatever meaning there was meant to be.

Our final night in Manaus was spent at Ponta Negra, a newly built and fairly affluent part of the city. It has a beach (on the river), a nice bridge and a great place to watch the sunset (the fourth in a row for us after the jungle expedition). The area was well worth going to for a gander and a cheeky beer by the beach. It was a little bizarre having come back from sleeping in the jungle to find this place (not too far away) full of tall condominiums and a lovely boardwalk.

I think you need a full day in Manaus to get a decent enough feel for the place. An early morning start in the MUSA, followed by a carefully selected local lunch (stay tuned folks!), then a trip to the market and an evening spent in the old plaza – that would be a great way to spend a day in the city. The Ponta Negra area is worth it if you have a bit more tine and fancy a little trip to the beach.

That's about that for Manuas. Scroll down to see more photos that we thought were worth sharing.

Costs & Prices

Note: 1 GBP was around 4.9 BRL or 1.55 USD.

Rio to Manaus Flight = £83 pp

Local Hostel Double Room = £27 per night

3D, 4N stay in the Amazon at Juma Lodge = r$720 pp Cash only (£147 pp)
3D, 4N stay in the Amazon at Juma Lodge = r$600 pp for dorm

There are lots of churches in Brazil, and Manaus is no exception

Praça Heliodoro Balbi

Ponta Negra, Manuas

Another bloody sunset over the Amazon...

The rays of the sun as it set were very cool

Good old moon...

The Amazon from the plane

You should know by now how much we love aeroplane photos!

Bird silhouettes are painted on windows at MUSA to stop real birds flying into them

You could get close to the animals in MUSA

View from the MUSA platform

Unusual Praying Mantis that we found on the floor

São Paulo In My Mouth

As we said, our trip to São Paulo was a bit like a little trip to Asia and the main reason was the food we ate! 

First up was a Chinese restaurant called Chi Fu. Dave's colleague had recommended to us and said it served authentic Beijing style duck. The thought of eating that melt-in-the-mouth crispy skin again meant it was literally the first place we went once we had dropped our bags at the hotel! We knew we were going to get the duck but once we were in there and saw some of the other dishes it wasn't such an easy decision! Everything looked really tasty and the size, style and business of the place felt just like China.Of course we did get the duck and it actually came as three dishes - a soup (not pictured as it was a bit naff), stir fried with beansprouts, ginger and all the usual Chinese flavours, and then the crispy skin with pancakes and hoisin sauce. The stir fry was really tasty and full of veg which was great. The skin was definitely reminiscent of what we had in Beijing, but it wasn't as juicy or as melty. But we weren't too disappointed as it had been so long since we'd had any kind of Chinese food!

With a limited number of meals in the city, we really had to prioritise what we ate! When it came to the Japanese food though, this was actually pretty easy - Rio is full of sushi but what we hadn't had for a long time was a big bowl of delicious ramen noodles, like those amazing ones we had in Fukuoka. So I did some research online and picked a ramen restaurant called Ramen Kazu. When we arrived there was a "queue" of about 25 people waiting outside the restaurant and my mouth started watering because I knew I must have chosen well. While we waited we decided what we wanted and placed our order in advance, so it was ready really quickly once we finally got a table. The place is tiny with an open kitchen and a digibog - it was like being transported back to 2011! We started the meal with a portion of gyoza and had to demonstrate immense self control not to order another six. I could eat gyoza/potsitckers/mandu every day and not stop loving them. In fact, I pretty much did that in Korea! Anyway, thank goodness we stayed strong - the bowls of noodles were HUGE! Dave went for a soy broth, sliced pork, mushrooms and nori (seaweed) and he really enjoyed them. I liked them, but thought mine were nicer (Dave disagreed - it's always good when you think you have the best food!) Mine had a clear broth and really spicy minced pork. It was absolutely delicious and I was genuinely upset that I didn't manage to eat it all.

One of the nights we decided to treat ourselves to a cocktail on the rooftop bar of the fancy Hotel Unique, which is shaped like a boat, with huge porthole windows. We didn't get a good photo in the dark but if you click here, google will show you some. We arrived quite early so didn't have to wait long to be taken up in the special lift. Once up there we discovered it was very noisy and dark and the view wasn't that great. But we weren't disappointed because the cocktails we got were incredible! The photo is badly framed and Dave has been cropped out because we just don't know how to take selfies but the drink on the left is a lychee and vodka concoction that was really yummy. Unfortunately we couldn't really appreciate how yummy it was because it was so very overshadowed by the seductively dark and luxurious açaí and prosecco cocktail on the right. I haven't told you about açaí yet because it deserves its own post but in brief, it is a berry found in the Amazon that has an odd, almost chocolately flavour that worked so well in this cocktail, I bought the liqueur the next day!

I think I've waffled a bit too much in this post so far so I'm going to be a bit snappier with these final items.

Mortadella and mozzarella sandwich from the municipal market. A huge pile of meat shoved in a crusty bun but oddly lacking in flavour and generally not that impressive. Sorry Brazil, but your sandwiches just don't cut the mustard. Actually, mustard would have been good...

Oh, what's this?! A cheeky dumpling with pickles from the Japanese market at Liberdade? Well everyone else was doing it and we didn't want to be rude!

While we watched some football final thingy in a pub, we ate this lovely chicken. It didn't have a normal batter or breadcrumb coating - it was a bit more like cornflake chicken, if you've ever had that. Really crunchy but still juicy and it came with a really tangy and tasty passion fruit dipping sauce. Yum!

And speaking of passion fruit...look what we found! The search has certainly slowed but it hasn't stopped yet.

Weird & Wonderful: São Paulo

It's been sometime since we have posted a weird & wonderful together. The world hasn't become more normal though, we promise.

The coolest dog in the world

Piranha Fish to eat! If they have fed on a human before, does that make you a cannibal?

Testicles. My favourite snack.

Afro-Brazil museum contained an exhibit of famous people with multi-cultural heritage

This crossing was in Liberdade. Remind you of anything in Shibuya?

Naughty Graffiti

Super cute old-school post box for bread and milk

This was some slightly threatening graffiti we stumbled across while aimlessly wandering the streets

We felt really at home at the Gay Pride parade!

The pedestrian signals were changed all over town to represent the nearby famous monuments!

Beer is served super gelado! It sometimes contains ice crystals!

The Greatest Flight Since Sliced Bread Was Served Onboard

We recently blogged all about our trip to São Paulo and how awesome the city is. What we didn't talk about was the journey to get there. What is (I imagine) an arduous six hour drive turns out to be a rather wonderful one hour flight.

Besides all the usual nonsense of airports and security (although Brazil is actually better to get through than most) it was a great trip. It was the clearest of days and the flight took us along the coast, over the incredible beaches, rivers, and lagoons in the short one hour flight. The route the plane takes from Rio to São Paulo is below:

We have blogged about our journeys before such as a great bus through Vietnam & Laos and a flight through the rainforests of Borneo. This simple and cheap one hour flight was up there with all of them. Okay, enough talking - grab a window seat and let's get moving!

The map shows the flight is over coast line most of the way. It also shows the islands of Ilha Gande and Restinga da Marambaia. Restinga da Marambaia is worth a google to see how interesting the shape of this island is. Flying over it was truly beautiful.

Is it just me or does this look like a rhino balancing a ball on it's horn?!

So many secluded and beautiful beaches, such as Paraty, which we hope to visit at some point

A view over some of Rio with the area where we live (Barra) at the top of the picture (beach side).

The journey back into Rio was a steep descent with some sharp moves to land safely at Santos Dumont airport. We flew very close to Christ the Redeemer and I almost wanted to high five the fella. You would never guess from this photo that this statue is in the middle of a city.

The journey into São Paulo showed how densely packed the city was and as I mentioned last blog, it felt like Tokyo mixed with Hanoi.

Anyway we thought the photos were worth sharing and if you are ever flying betwee Rio and São Paulo, make sure you grab a window seat!