Manaus: Part One - "Welcome to the Jungle..........."

I am of the belief that travelling to Brazil and not going to see the Amazon, both the river and the forest, would be a crime, so I made sure to tack on an extra few days to fly to Manaus, the capital of the Amazonus region. We had an early start from Rio de Janeiro and a 4 hour flight to reach hot & humid Manaus, and we were standing in the lobby of our hotel before 11am, which was too early as our rooms would not be ready until 2pm. As it turned out, the rooms were ready early but we killed some time eating breakfast and hanging out at the pool. We had decided that the rest of the day would be turned over to rest and relaxation, to make up in some small way for the unreasonably early departure from Rio. As it was, Fiona and I laid around for a while before taking a walk to the nearby shopping centre to confirm what we had already thought, which was shopping centres are so generic these days, we could have been anywhere in the world...!! Don’t get me wrong, I was glad to have a bright, modern and generic ‘mall’ right on our doorstep, especially as it was air conditioned to about the same temperature as a fridge, and we even  spotted some sit-down restaurants off the food court that we used for a spot of dinner later in the day.

Our plan for our time in Manaus was to book up some tours, either a couple of single day tours or a multi-day jungle adventure tour, and I had done some serious research and found a couple of highly regarded tour operators, so next morning we went into town to check them out. We got a taxi to the famous Amazonian Theatre, a full sized Opera House built in 1896 by the rubber barons of the day, as part of their ambition to build a ‘Paris-in-the-Jungle’. The building is a very imposing one and must have been quite a sight back then when it was surrounded by jungle, but with the encroachment of modernity, it now sits in the middle of a bustling city of 2 million people. We sat in the cafe and had a little breakfast before going of a guided tour of this majestic old building, which is still used regularly, with its own film and theatre festival and a full opera season. It was as impressive from the inside as it was from the outside, and it was unfortunate that there was nothing scheduled to be performed there during the 5 days we had in Manaus, as it would have been great to attend something. I came away wondering how much it must have cost to cart all the Italian Marble, Venetian glass and gold plating, 1500kms up the Amazon river to build such an edifice, there must have been some serious money in rubber towards the end of the 19^th century.

The tour operators I wanted to check out were just down the road from the theatre, so we trooped down there in the 30 degree heat, to see what they could offer us, luckily they had air conditioning....! We chatted with a very nice guy about a handful of options, and instead of us making a decision there and then, we decided to go and have lunch to talk over the various possibilities. We found an awesome restaurant with seats outside, with a commanding view of the Amazonia Theatre, where I enjoyed a very delicious local ‘Tambqui’ fish dish, which as usual was probably big enough for all 3 of us. By the time we finished lunch and had made our minds up on what tours we wanted to do, it was really hot, and I mean hot, and we made our way back to the tour operator via any shop with air conditioning we could find. We had decided to do 2 single day tours, the first one the following day, Tuesday, was a jungle trek into the forest about

120kms north of Manaus to see some caves and waterfalls. The second tour we wanted was a full day on the Amazon River which included a whole variety of different experiences, which we wanted to do on the Thursday but we would have to wait to see if there was availability. This would give us a day off in between to chill out and lounge by the pool, and another relaxation day on Friday, before we left very early on Saturday morning to start the trip home. We went back to the hotel and met up on the roof just before sunset for our new tradition of watching the sun go down with a few bears in our hands. An Amazonian sunset did not disappoint.

Next morning we were up bright and early for our pick up at the hotel and our day of jungle hiking. We met Christine, the girl we had booked the tours with, who was leading the tour and proceed to head out to pick up another group, a very nice family from Sao Paulo. The 120km drive was quite long, and I was looking forward to stretching my legs when we got out of the bus, linked up with our local barefooted guide, Clemenza, and made ready to enter the forest in my hiking boots and long-sleeve t-shirt. We went through the usual instructions about the dangers of the forest, about brushing up against things, about biting insects and slippery paths, and made our way out of the direct sunlight into the seemingly cool shade of the forest. I soon realised that while it was significantly cooler under the

shade of the canopy, it was also a darn sight more humid in there to, and everything was dripping with water. We travelled in for about 20 minutes with the guides pointing out interesting flora and fauna before we came to the top of a slope, and were told to tread very carefully as it was very slippery. Within about 2 minutes of starting down the slope, I became the first casualty of the day as my boot slipped on some muddy leaves, and I fell and landed on a tree root using my arse as cushion.... Ouch..! I was not too worried about the fall, I was more worried about the legions of biting ants that were all over the place. Christina had taken great delight in telling us about an ant variety whose name translated into the ’24-hour ant’, because the bite was extremely painful and lasted for 24 hours. I sure as heck did not wasn’t a stream of them walking up the leg of my shorts on their way to my crutch as I sat on the path, so I was up and scrabbling down the slippery path before you could say ‘ants-in-your-pants’.  

We eventually arrived at a shallow river that ran at the bottom of the slope, which came out of an impressive cave in the side of a 50 foot escarpment. We soon had our shoes and socks off and we were wading into the cave that had been sculpted out of the sandstone over many thousands of years, on the slightly prickly gravel of the river bed. As we moved into the cave and light faded, Clemenza put on her touch and we progressed even further into the cave system, stopping only to point out the bat colonies that made the cave roof their home. Once we were deep enough inside the torch was turned off and it was of course absolutely pitch black, it was only then could you occasionally feel the bats flying around our heads, creepy..... We retraced our tracks back to the cave entrance and then proceeded to continue to wade along the river under the cliff face, over boulders and between trees, until we came to a spot where a waterfall pouring off the top of the cliff into a

series of small pools had created a natural amphitheatre. Spectacular....  At this point I pretty much soaked to the skin from sweat and the waterfall and was feeling pretty tired, so I was glad that we stayed at this spot for a while to enjoy the cool water and paddle about the pools. I should have realised then that in order to get back to the starting point of the hike would involve a long slow climb, but for some reason I just imagined we would climb up from the river and be back at the bus. Boy was I wrong.... It was a long slow slog uphill in blistering humidity, so much so I started sweating in places that I didn’t know I had places...!! I decided that if barefoot was good enough for the guide then it was good enough for me, and I proceeded up the track like ‘George-of-the-Jungle’. Look at me I thought, a scruffy headed boy from a

council estate in Kent, walking barefoot in the Amazon jungle, who would have guessed...? This did not last long as I soon discovered the joy of the biting ants, fortunately not the ’24-hour variety’, but painful none the less, and I soon stopped to put my boots on again. We walked for what seemed like hours, (probably not more than one), and I imagined that at the top of each rise the forest would open up and I would see the bus, but the forest seemed to go on forever. Eventually we did resurface on the road and I was glad to finally see the bus and it’s welcoming air conditioning, as I was very overheated and completely knackered. Funnily enough, neither Fiona nor Yates seemed as tired as I was, but this was all soon forgotten as we headed off for a late lunch and a fist full of beers.

The remainder of the afternoon was taken up visiting another much more ferocious set of waterfalls that must have tumbled about 100 feet down a series of ledges and troughs, before turning into a deep river in which people could swim if they were so inclined. I was far too tired to do any swimming but both Fiona & Yates took the opportunity to splash about in the cool and fast moving water, whilst I watched from the sensible comfort of a plastic garden chair.  It was about 5pm when we hit the road to get back to Manaus and I think everyone was satisfyingly fatigued with the days activities, which had been a lot of fun, if maybe a bit tiring for this old man.  We were back at the hotel around 7pm where we freshened up before planning to head out for some food. It was only then, when I came out of the shower, that Fiona spotted the enormous great bruise on my arse from my fall on the slippery path earlier in the day, I had not even felt it, which was quite amazing considering both the colour and size...! At this point my body waved a white flag and I surrendered to the comfort of room service and a warm bed to nurse my injuries and get some well earned rest.

Wednesday 23^rd July was scheduled to be a rest day for us all, but it was also Fiona’s Birthday, and therefore we had a birthday breakfast in the hotel before doing a little wandering and shopping in the local area. Yates had very kindly brought a small cake and some candles, and between us we lured Fiona on to the roof on the pretence of watching the sunset, and surprised her with a rousing chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’, cake and beer. What else could a girl want...? We also then proceeded to go out for a slap up meal at a fancy

fish restaurant nearby, where we enjoyed cocktails, some fine food, a bottle of Argentinian Chardonnay, and rounded off nicely with some port and more cake back in the hotel.  Happy Birthday darling...............

In part 2, our day trip up the River Amazon .....

Some more photo's from Rio..... Bumper edition

Here are some additional photo's of us from Rio de Janerio..... Enjoy...!

Goodbye Salvador, Hello Rio de Janeiro

We chilled out for a couple of days before we left Salvador, generally lying around the apartment and nipping out for a bite to eat. On our last night in town we were invited out by our friend ’Pedro’, who took us to a local club to watch a sort of Salvador ‘super-group’, made up of musicians and singers from a number of other groups from the area. I still don’t remember their name, but it was their opportunity to get together and play some songs that they enjoyed outside their normal genre, and they were really good, tight & talented. It was one of those nights that only the locals knew about and I swear that every person in the place sang along to every song, and even though we didn’t know the words to most of the songs, we still had a blast. The band played half their set and then invited a few other musicians up on stage to join in, and proceeded to belt another few well-known Brazilian songs and crowd favourites. When the original band kicked off the second half of the set, they dedicated a song to us and thanked us for coming to Brazil, which was pretty cool. At the end of the night we were invited in to the VIP area and introduced to the band members and had a good chat with one of the singers that had spent some time in the USA. It was a very memorable night out and we were very grateful to Pedro for inviting us.

The downside of our night out was that we didn’t get to bed until after 3am, and we had to be up and out of the apartment at 10am for out flight to Rio de Janeiro, but we managed it somehow. We had a bleary eyed but uneventful flight, followed by a straightforward taxi trip to our hotel in Arpoador, neatly positioned between Ipanema & Copacabana beaches. We took some time for a short afternoon nap and agreed to meet at the rooftop swimming pool at around 5pm to watch the sun go down over the impressive Rio skyline. The colour of the sky as it set over Ipanema’s mountain backdrop was stunning and it was hard to drag ourselves away even once the sun had fully set, but we wanted to go and walk along the world-famous Copacabana

beach before it got totally dark. We walked along the promenade for quite some while, watching the street hawkers and beach goers, and enjoying the marginally cooler temperatures. After a while we were getting a bit peckish so we turned-around and headed back towards our hotel as we had see a cool place to eat, called TT Burgers. We were not disappointed, the burger was one of the best I have had in a while, all washed down with a nice crafty pilsner... yay...!!

As we only had 3 days in Rio we wanted to make the most of our time, so we made plans to spend the next day on a bus tour of the highlights of the city. The weather forecast was for a warm cloudless day and it was shaping up nicely when the tour bus picked us up early and did the usual round up of other passengers, before heading off towards our first stop on the tour, Christ the Redeemer. We were soon on the scenic railway heading up the Corcovado, then onto the lift and then the escalators to the feet of the iconic statue. The awesome experience of seeing both the Christ the Redeemer statue and the stunning views over the rest of the city was sort of balanced out by the virtual rugby scrum of people all trying to do the same thing. At first I was disappointed that we only had 35 minutes at the top, but to be honest that was as much of the seething mass of humanity that I could take, we admired the impressive views and took our photo and then retreated back to the train. The train ride itself was half the fun of visiting the place and we made sure to grab some good seats for the trip back down.

From there we took a trip past the Maracana football stadium, the site of the World Cup final only 4 days previous, and we got to stroll around outside and take some photo’s. After that we saw the Sambadrome, where the annual Rio carnival takes place, and then the obligatory stop at a gift shop to buy souvenirs. By this time it was lunchtime and we went to a Churascaria, (Brazilian BBQ) just off of Copacabana, where we had a great meal and a chance for some more Caiprahinia’s.

Yates & I decided that it was time to test out our theory about Cachaça, the distilled spirit made from sugarcane juice, which is the main alcoholic ingredient in our Caiprahinia’s. We thought that the brain-damaging shots we had had at the ‘Rabbit Hole’ bar in Sao Paulo were Cachaça, and trying them out again was going to be the only way to put this question to bed. So we ordered up a couple of Cachaça shots from the most enormous bottle I have ever seen, and guess what....? Yes, they were the same thing we had tried all that time ago, and so we took photos of each other shooting the stuff with hilarious results.

The rest of the tour was a visit to ’ Sugarloaf Mountain’, a very distinctive looking mountain overlooking the city and Guanabara Bay. To get to the summit involved one cable car trip to the top of Morro da Urca, taking us up to 220 meters high, and then second car ascends to Pão de Açúcar, (Sugarloaf Mountain), bringing us to the top at 396 meters. Once again, the 360 degree views over the whole of city were simply amazing, and it was easy to spot the landmarks we had seen earlier in the day and many more of the famous beaches around the city. It was a gloriously sunny afternoon and everywhere you looked there was something fascinating to see, and we even got to see some elusive monkeys...! You would think that having seen the city from one elevated vantage point, you would have seen it all, but no, this city

is astonishing, and I am certain that anyone that travels to Rio will know what I mean when I say it is easy to run out of superlatives for the beauty & splendour of this, the ‘Marvellous City’. We could not have asked for a better day or a better tour to see so much of the city, and we all enjoyed it immensely. After arriving back at our hotel we did a quick trip to buy some beers and once again headed up onto the roof for a couple of hours to watch the sun go down over Ipanema.  I’m not sure I have enjoyed a sundown as much as I did that day, with a stunning backdrop, a glowing sunset, some close friends and a bottle of a fine Belgian beer in my hand. Later we wandered along the Ipanema beach for a while before heading inland to find something to eat at an Italian Pizzaria, and after eating far too much it was back to the hotel for some well-earned sleep.

The following day we decided we would take it very easy, and therefore after breakfast we walked down to the Copacabana to chill-out for the day. After securing 3 chairs, an umbrella and a choice spot on the sand, I proceeded to have my first Caiprahinia of the day while Fiona & Yates went for a swim. We whiled the hours away with a combination of swimming, watching the beach-goers, tanning, fending off the hawkers, and ordering beach Caiprahinia’s & beer. By about 4pm I was quite drunk and a little bit sunburned, so we moved off the beach to one of the many beachside food kiosks and proceed to mow through some meaty snacks and a few more beers. We returned to the hotel for a short nap before our now traditional sunset beers next to the roof-top swimming pool, where I enjoyed another couple of Belgian beers and the sun slowly set over the mountains. Awesome day.

We awoke on our last day in Rio de Janeiro to unfamiliar low clouds and a slight drizzle, but that was not going to put us off our stride. After ploughing our way through the hotel buffet breakfast, we saddled up and took a walk to the very conveniently located Copacabana Fort, which was originally built by the Portuguese invaders in the 16^th Century as defence against the French, Dutch, British and occasional pirates. It was surprisingly fascinating and full of interesting little nooks & crannies

containing all sorts of exhibits, and perfect for a rainy morning. In the grounds of the fort was what I took to be the most popular Saturday morning restaurant/cafe in the area, popular with all the local good-looking and wealthy people, great views over the whole of the Copacabana beach with views to Sugarloaf, and a queue of at least 20 groups of people waiting to get in. Yates was adamant that he wanted to go for a swim at some point and the weather Gods must have been on his side and the slight drizzle dissipated and patches of blue sky started appearing. We first looked at swimming at Ipanema, but with the wind coming directly onshore, the waves were enormous and pounding. I think Yates gave it some

consideration but when we pointed out that no-one else on the beach was anywhere near the water, we changed our minds and headed back to the Copacabana. The waves on the ‘Copa’ looked very tame in comparison, and Yates duly rented his beach chair & umbrella and proceeded in to the ocean, while Fiona and I sat at the bar watching. Fiona finally decided to join Yates in the waves while continued to drink my beer, and they looked like they we having fun until a set of bigger waves set about them, and I watched as Yates disappeared into the base of a particularly big wave, as Fiona turned her back on it and tried to make her way out of water as quick as she could. They both got bowled over by the power of the waves, Fiona escaping with just a mouth full of seawater, while Yates got tumbled about a bit and got a nasty looking graze on his knees for his trouble. Ah, all the fun of the beach.....

Playtime was over at the beach so we went back to the hotel for a while, to rest up and to start packing for a very early flight to Manaus in the Amazon the next morning. In fact the flight was so early we were going to have to leave the hotel at 5am, so we decided to have an early dinner and get an early night. On the Thursday night, we had gone past a very high recommended restaurant in Ipanema called, ‘Zara’s Bistro Tropical’, but it was full at the time and we didn’t feel like waiting, so we thought we would give it another shot, albeit, at a much earlier time. We were in luck and got a table right away and started ordering our cocktails and looking through the menu. It was a great little place with a real bohemian feel about it, the service was great and the food was an eclectic French/Brazilian fusion, very rich and very delicious. We even had dessert....! By the end of it we finally managed to rack up a bill that was higher than the one we had on the very first night in Sao Paulo, and we paid up and proceeded to roll back to the hotel, stuffed, slightly drunk, but extremely happy.

Next stop: Manaus in the heart of the Amazon.....

Some more photo's from our time in Salvador

Here are some extra photo's of us during our time in Salvador...... Enjoy...!