I was dreaming about this city since I have written a paper about Brazil in high school. I have been waiting curiously to see the leftovers from the great buildings that were built during the 19th century after the rubber boom β and before the rubber was smuggled out to Southeast Asiaβ¦. A little dream came true. Had the first glance of it already from the plane.
The Amazonas is about km long, and the two source rivers the Rio Solimoes and the Rio Negro confluence just below Manaus. The Rio Negro is about 14 km wide next to the city. It is hard to imagine that width for me, who considered the Danube a rather wide river in Budapestβ¦.
We understand: me, Katalin need to acclimatize. Manaus seemed a perfect place for it. First, we had to find the city buses to the center. The airport is about 15 km away from the center, and no way that we can spend as much as the taxi drivers want. And we are not in a hurry. The young girl from the tourist info was helpful, told us with pretty good English which buses are good for us, how much they cost and where we should wait.
We also collected some tourist maps of the city β it will be good for later. The bus ride was long but cheap, and it was easy to get off at the harbor, and from there we found our accommodation. There, as we expected, the staff owner? It was a good idea to take a pocket dictionary Finnish-Portuguese!!! Read about our budget: How expensive traveling in Brazil is? Yes, in Finland we still had to wear long sleeves in June, so dear reader, you can imagine how white we wereβ¦ Katalin was quite anxious about it, she can turn into red in minutes by the sun and her anger as well..
Luckily, this issue was solved in an hour, so we could continue enjoying Manaus. The city was very lively with tourists around the famous buildings and museums.
