Amid the bustling city of Manaus (once the largest exporter of rubber in the world, I'm not sure if it still is) that is surrounded by rivers and jungles, lies a little bit of high-brow culture - the Teatros Amazonas - Manaus' famous opera house.
Opened in 1896, the theater was built with Italian and Scottish influence, and the only influence of Brazil is a rubber roadway outside the entrance so that late arriving carriages didn't make too much noise. It's really pretty and we have an amazing view of it from our hotel room.
The opera house offers almost daily shows ranging from free to $R60 - plays, opera, orchestras - you name it, and Danielle and I were lucky enough to experience a free performance last night. Plus it was a nice reprieve of cushioned chairs and air conditioning (as opposed to the wooden planks of the row boat we spent four days sitting on.)
How good can it be if it's free you ask? Sooo amazing. We saw the Amazon Philharmonic put on an hour and a half performance, playing Mozart and a bunch of other composers whose names I cannot spell off the top of my head. Anyway, we might as well have been at Lincoln Center - it was that good. And the conductor was cute...
Today after spending the morning at the open market buying random hand made crafts, we ventured to Parque do Mindu - what has got to be the crappiest park I've ever been to...
It starts off pretty nice - you think you are going to have a nice stroll in the woods with a pretty river rumbling through. But this river is now a garbage dump, filled with trash, and surrounded by disgusting couches and broken TVs and emits a pungent smell. The maps telling you where you are have large missing chunks, and the trail signs are broken or non-existant.
But...this park is also the home to an endangered species of primate called the pi-faced tamarin, and we were lucky enough to find a few. They only live in areas of secondary forest, and cannot be found in other areas of primary jungle in the Amazon. But if they are living in parks like this, no wonder they are endangered.
Overall I have had an amazing experience exploring 4 different states of Brazil. Each state has its own distinct culture, and it was great having the opportunity to visit cities, rural areas and jungle!
Now if only we can get home! I cannot wait to take a real shower and hit up a yoga class! Unfortunately there seems to be a hurricaine in NC on its way up to NY that might interrupt our flight from Atlanta to NYC - but at least if we get stuck we wont't have to apologize for our crappy Portuguese!
Hope you enjoyed reading!
April
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