| Manaus is a city of about 1.7 million people in the Center of The Amazon. In the beginning it became a very rich city because of the rubber boom. Such wealth paid for this opulent European style Opera House. It had traditional Brazilian colors of green and yellow for the tile roof, wooden floors made up of hundreds of different types of native woods, European marble walls, and classical sculptures. This is the best example of culture in the world's largest jungle. During our tour we heard the philharmonic orchestra practicing. | |
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Here Tiffany ventures out into a very hot and humid city. On a few
occasions we took buses to get more of a feeling of the city. That interest
quickly wore off. Besides getting lost and waiting over 45 minutes for
a bus that never showed up, the climate was simply uncomfortable.
We hopped in a cab that took us to our destination - the Amazon jungle museum. It is a private museum owned by a Japanese citizen. Most people who live in Manaus have never even heard of it. |
| The outskirts of the city show how homes and jungle try hard to fit
together. The rubber boom days are over and recently the city was
turned into a free-trading zone, no import taxes. Down the road from a
hut like this, you'd see a very modern air-conditioned shopping center
selling the latest in televisions and other electronics. To whom .... we're
not sure.
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