Manaus Day 1

After two days on the boat, we arrived in Manaus. I had the inner part of my right left and the outer part of my left leg sunburned pretty bad (from sitting next to the open window) and this weird rash. I didn't know it was a rash until I looked in the mirror, and it was kind of scary. I think you probably don't want more details than that.

Anyway, Manaus is a pretty cool place. It is hard to get to by anything other than boat or plane. There is a bus up to Boa Vista, from which you can get to Venezuela and Guiana, Suriname, etc. pretty easily. Manaus has a lot of cool early nineteenth-century architecture, a lot of which came from rubber companies who had a big presence there back in the day. Because of that, there are some really great buildings such as the opera house and other things. I will have to put on some pictures whenever I can get them off of my camera.

We arrived at the dock and I left the boat with the couple I mentioned in my previous posts. The hostel owner in Leticia told us about a place to stay in Manaus. But I didn’t want to stay with them at the same place and then get stuck hanging out with them for a few days, I told them I was going to wander around a little first. The English girl was like—wander around, in the rain? I said yes, and that it wasn’t raining that bad. So I was checking out the area near the dock there, where there are lots of little shops and markets with food and clothes and all. I liked it. But every ten minutes or so, I would come around a corner and see the couple, and then have to hide before they saw me. I know that I probably sound like a little kid based on some of the things I do; I agree that they are childish. :)

Anyway, I avoided them. But then I realized I didn’t know of another place to stay, so I decided to go check out the place and at least then be able to get in and out without meeting up with them. I was carrying all of my stuff and the sun came out, which means that it got hot and humid. I arrived at a place, which turned out to be different from the one they went to but I did not know that. I signed up to get a room and had to exchange money first. I left, went to an exchange place, and the guy told me that there was nowhere in Manaus that exchanged Colombian pesos. Turns out there is basically nowhere in Brazil that exchanges Colombian pesos. Whenever I can change them, I will in essence be $75 richer because the 150,000 pesos are useless to me right now!

I had no Brazilian reais and so I needed to find an ATM. I looked and looked, still with all of my stuff, and all of the ATMs I tried wouldn’t take my cards. I never liked Wells Fargo or Chase anyhow, and this didn’t help. I had tried a few and was walking across this main plaza in the city. This guy and his wife or girlfriend asked me if I was looking for a hotel. I said I had found a place, but wasn’t set on it. He told me he could get me a great deal on a private hotel room. It was really cheap. I thought for a little, wondering if this was a scam or something, and said I would take it. We walked there, and it turned out to be a decent place. I think the normal rooms were really nice, but I got this room in the basement that was ok but not great.

The first one we went into had a big puddle of water and a big dead cockroach upside down in the middle of it. I decided against that one, and then the next one had some other problem but I can’t remember what it was. It seems like it was dirty. The last one we tried was clean and that was fine. It had three single beds, which is kind of weird now that I think about it, a few fans, and its own bathroom. I left my stuff, and headed out to keep looking for an ATM. I tried probably 5 or 6 at least, couldn’t get anything. I finally saw HSBC and figured I could take out money there, and it worked. The first thing I bought was a can of guaraná, and it was beautiful.

After getting some food, I was checking out the opera house that was a few blocks away from the hotel. Then I saw the couple, and my first instinct was to get out of sight. But then I remembered that I owed them money, and couldn’t pay it back because I only had 3 bills of 50,000 Colombian pesos and no Brazilian reais yet. I was going to pay them at the place we stayed or at least go back and find them to pay them, but hadn’t done it yet. They had paid for the taxi ride back on the day we boarded the boat. So I came up to them, shot the breeze a little, paid them, and got invited to a thing on the river the next day with them. I said if I wanted to, I would be at their hotel in the morning. That was the last time I saw them.

The rest of the day I was exploring around town and reading. I enjoyed the architecture more than anything, with its great colors and turn-of-the-century features. It was really hot and I had this rash cream all over, but I really enjoyed the first day in the city.