As far up the Amazon as we will get

March 2, 2013
We landed in Manaus this morning and we have two days here so we will leave tomorrow about 6 pm. Having an overnight allows for some evening sightseeing such as seeing caiman's at night or enjoying the night life of the city. Manaus is situated on the banks of the Rio Negro which merges with the Rio Solimoes and the two are then known as the Amazon River. The river is 4000 miles long and has different names depending on the country it passes through. It has 1100 tributaries with 17 of them being at least 1000 miles long. The headwaters of the Solimoes River is at Nevado Mismi near Cusco, Peru and there are findings that years ago the rain water accumulated in the region flowed toward the Pacific. The Amazon is fed by nine countries: Colombia, Venezuela, Suriname, French Guyana, Guyana, Peru, Boliva, Brazil, and Equador. As the river reaches the Atlantic the sediment can be pushed up to 125 miles into the ocean. In fact ships will anchor near the delta so the fast moving water with sand can clean barnacles from the underside of the ship. The Amazon River delivers 11 times more water to the ocean than the Mississippi River. It is the 2nd longest river in the world, the Nile being the longest. The Amazon carries more water than the Nile and the 9 other longest rivers in the world. Manaus is the capital of the state of Amazonia and has 1.9 million residents and services 2.3 million in the surrounding area.
Manaus made its name and reputation on the back of the rubber industry in the late 1800s into early 1900s and buildings were prefab and shipped from Europe. The opera house was totally designed and imported. It took more than 15 years to complete the opulent work. The only bridge across the Amazon is just outside Manaus and we have a beautiful view of it from the ship. I am at awe to see the Amazonian Basin as my version had always been based on the Hollywood movies with grass shacks on stilts. This is a city and there are no mosquitoes in this region. Tomorrow I will be doing a tour to see where the two rivers come together. WiFi is available in the terminal free, and this city is as modern as many North American cities. There are buses and cars running around town and in the populated area but if one needs to go down or upriver there are all kinds of boats servicing small communities and villages along the way. There are many sea planes that take off from docks along the river. The river is so wide it looks like a huge lake rather than a river. You hardly see the water moving.
To add a bit of information Boca del Valeria has 75 residents and stopping there was a sight as all these kids came out to greet us with various tamed wild animals and reptiles to have their picture taken and collect tourist dollars. Cobras, sloths, monkeys and other strange creatures were interesting but I stayed on the ship and looked down and took pictures without paying the tourist dollar. Mez took some of our chocolate and passed it out to the children and afterward I wondered if they had dental care.
Santarem has about 276,000 residents and Belem has 1.4 million residents. Brazil has many Japanese, German, and Portuguese residents and indigenous peoples. I have not found it difficult to find people who speak English. This is quite an adventure and an experience I will long remember.
Some trivial factoids: There are riverboats that go up and down the river and some have air conditioned cabins to stay in on your two or three day journey. On top of the roof is a TV dish so people can watch TV as they bus up and down the river. They were installed in the late 80s because women would not travel on days when the soap operas were showing. Now they can watch their soap operas as they commute on the water buses. Now to the opera house -- In the 1880s most rubber tycoons came from Europe and settled in the jungle. As Manaus developed a thriving business in rubber plants the businessmen needed to keep their wives happy by giving them what they had and the type of life they had in Europe because no wife needed to live in the jungles of the Amazon. So they built this lavish opera house that looks like it is out of place in the jungle. I suppose that is where the women felt psychologically closer to home.