December 30 - Manaus achieved!

Dec 28 – left home for Regina in mixed snow/slush conditions. Rupert is at home in care of a friend and we are off to the Amazon.

Dec 29 – 5 am leave for the airport to catch a 6:30am flight to Toronto. Uneventful, arrived T.O. at around 10:30EST and proceeded to sit around and wait for our next flight which didn’t leave until 3:00pm. I have no compliments at this point for the quality of amusements behind the Homeland Security “Iron Curtain” – not even a Tim Horton’s for Pete’s sake! Anyway – you don’t care about that. We climbed aboard another uneventful flight to Miami and had a lovely (she reported sarcastically) eight hour lay over. I also have no compliments to the folks at Miami International Airport (acronym – MIA – seriously!). Some of the things that happened to be MIA at MIA were: directions to different concourses, any reasonable amount of seating – uncomfortable or not (never saw any comfortable at all come to think of it); available security at midnight when we were required to go through it; any source of beverages at midnight (not a vending machine to be had) and a few other things that I will not list here for fear of boring the audience. We did get a room at the Miami International Airport (MIA) Hotel which is an interesting throwback to the 80s in Miami – décor and sheets. And when was the last time you were in a hotel where there was an ashtray on the side tables? However, it was clean and provided a lovely refreshing shower and an attempt at sleep. We did not succeed in the sleep department for fear of missing our next flight but at least we got some horizontal time which was an excellent change from the endless Economy class airplane seats and Boarding Gate Dis-comfort zones.  Then – we boarded our flight to Manaus (a charter flight operated by Miami International Airline (also MIA) and yes, you may say “Who?” because we had never heard of them either which does make one a little nervous when heading off to the heart of the rainforest. Fortunately for us – despite the 70s era seats – the crew and the plane held true and we flew through the night to Brazil. I watched the sun rise over endless miles of forest and then watched the clouds close in as we neared Manaus. We broke through low-level cloud and rain at 8 am over virgin rainforest and the Rio Negro and Rio Amazon.  Wow – it really does look like those National Geographic documentaries and the scale of the place is off the charts. But more on the forest tomorrow. For today – we landed at a city of nearly 2 million in the heart of the largest rainforest on earth, accessible only by air and the Rivers. Yup, city of nearly 2 million; airport smaller than Regina’s. Seriously. Only 5 gates and we were the only plane there – well, the only operational one. They had nicely left some weathered hulks of 737s that had gone before at the end of the runway. Perhaps to remind us of what the jungle is capable of? Who knows. It felt a lot like an “Indiana Jones” or “Romancing the Stone” scene and made it wonderfully real.  One small luggage carousel and one cheerful, tiny customs agent later we were released to Manaus.  Holy Hot and Humid, Batman! 30˚C and approximately 120% humidity. At this spot in the Amazon basin they tell us it rarely goes much below 90% humidity even in the dry season. It is now the rainy season. What that humidex calculates to is more than I care to think about at this point. Let us just say that people who have been traveling in the same clothes for more than 48hours ought not to spend too much time in it! So here is what we saw – you step out of the little airport and there is the rainforest – huge and green and thick and lush and steaming and looking exactly like it ought – and no sign at all of that 2 million person city that you are supposedly in the midst of. It feels like it would take mere minutes for the rainforest to reclaim everything, including you.  You can feel everything growing almost feverishly all around you. 

We took a drive through the city and saw an interesting mixture of old and new, shabby and ultra-modern. Manaus in its heyday was the richest city in the world. Huge fortunes were made for Americans and Europeans. It all went bust when rubber seedlings were smuggled out to Asia and the city went into rapid decline. Apparently the white folk speak of those days longingly and the local Indian population speaks of them with horror. Fast forward a few decades and eventually the Government of Brazil stepped in and decided to make Manaus a “free port” – basically a tax haven – and the boom is on again. Our guide said that last year they exported 3000 cars a month into Manaus. This year it is up to 8000 a month – complete with an absolute traffic nightmare. Over 500 huge multi-nationals including such global giants as Phillips Electric and Yamaha now call Manaus home – and remember, no roads to speak of – access only by river or through that tiny airport.

Anyway, more about Manaus and the River tomorrow. Today we sleep and try to adjust to the climate. I wonder if Dale’s hair will curl? We are now aboard our ship – the Pacific Princess. Yes, those of you over 40 may recognize that name – it is the one and only Love Boat. The Captain is now an Italian and she is showing her age a little but it is nice to be on a relatively small ship on a big river. And hey, who thought we would ever actually sail on THE Love Boat?

Until tomorrow -