Manaus

Most of my fellow travelers and I managed to find a pretty decent hotel for the price about a km from the port in Manaus up by the Amazon Theater. By this point, we had become a pretty tight group and we not in any hurry to say goodbye to each other. I will mention that two of these traverlers were 18-year olds from London travelling together, which is something I cannot imagine having done at that age...but then these two had been traveling with their respective families all of their lives.

Manaus was a little dirty and grungy, but not that bad. It was a Saturday and most of the town was occupied with shopping at the many stores and sidewalk kiosks. Prices in Brazil, by the way, are high. While I realize the real has appreciated ridiculously against the dollar since 2006, I am really not sure how Brazilians afford to live here. I paid the equivalent of $4.50 for a what amounted to a small milkshake at one of the ice cream shops that sold ice cream by weight (much like many of the restaurant buffets that charge by kilo). I have to conclude the real is overvalued, but then currency valuations are not my field.

I did take a brief tour to the Amazon Theater, which was interesting for the artwork on the cupola. I had hoped to actually be able to attend a show of some kind since it was Saturday, but the next show was not until the following week. A show not being an option, I opted instead for a final night out with my fellow backpackers (who had decided to do on the following day what most people who come to Manaus do, take a jungle trip), where we all got our fill of caiprinha, Brazil's most notable alcoholic beverage. I did not care too much for it, but some of the others did, so drink them we did. The next morning it was an early awakening for an early three-hour flight down to see Brazil capital, Brasilia.