Day 6 Manaus – a little bit of sight seeing 10th May 2011

So I guess now that I am official started on this adventure its time to start a little serious sight seeing. We first headed to the Teatro Amazonas to get tickets for an english tour. In the mean time we had to seek out a bank. Here they have serious security and a ticket system. We eventually found a bank that let us withdraw some cash!
So, back to the sigh seeing. The Teatro didn’t wow me from the outside but we were told that it was worth a look on the inside. Much of the material used to build it was imported from Europe.



The dome roof of the opera house



The Opera house is still in use today and we were lucky enough to watch some rehearsals. The curtain is a painted canvas that goes straight up into the dome (shown in the picture above). It is not rolled at all. The ceiling is covered by painted canvases from Europe which depict the arts.

This model is made from lego bricks and was donated to the opera house.







We then went to investigate the fish market which is pretty much as you expect. Rows and rows of fish of varying size and ugliness. Actually it was interesting but it was so hot. We had interesting sandwich with our beers called “Sandwhich Salada” No it wasn’t a salad sandwhich. It had egg, ham, beef patty, cheese, tomato and lettuce. Yummy!

So you think that being in the middle of the amazon that maybe it would be a good idea to visit the zoo to see the animals we might not see in the wild. Hmmmm. We took a local bus which was an adventure in its own right. The zoo itself is a strange place. Its run by some sort of army training center. They had Jaguars, Cougars, plenty of birds, caiman and monkeys. Many of the cages were way too small for the animals except the for the monkeys which had a great space. Its not one you would go out of your way to visit but there was a school trip that day so we ended up being the main attraction. Especially we I slipped and fell on my arse! So yes I am covered in bruises yet again! Why would a region with so much rain have such slippery surfaces?

We had a lovely last meal in Manaus with the group. Followed by the coldest beers in town at Armandos. All round a very pleasant evening.