Manaus

Manaus

Manaus truly sits right in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest. 
If you want to visit, you'll need to go by plane or in a boat.
The city became very rich during the rubber boom at the turn of the 19th/ 20th century. During this time the population also expanded.

The stunning Opera House (Teatro Amazonas) was built towards the end of this wild-rubber 'boom', in 1896, out of the finest material from Europe, and was once visited by all the most famous opera divas and maestros. 
This jewel of a building is the top attraction in Manaus.

                                       ↓Legos

We had planned on going to a performance one night but found that everyone else in town had that on their agendas as well. So...we settled on dinner at a cute sidewalk cafe across the street. Dianne and I had açai and Don and Wayne ate a sandwich with bananas as one of the ingredients.

Manaus is also known as "Paris of the Jungle".

Our Amazon Tour

You can't go to Manaus without having an Amazon experience. 
While waiting for the boat, Don found some pure guarana juice. It tastes a lot different than the soda. 
The Amazon Jungle takes up a large chunk of South America.
A not-to-be-missed wonder is the Meeting of the Waters. Here, the dark waters of the Rio Negro encounter the sandy upper Amazon, known as the Rio Solimões. Although the rivers converge, they do not mix. Instead, they travel alongside each other in their journey for nearly four miles. The phenomenon happens due to differences in temperature, density and speed of the waters of each river. (This can actually be seen from space.) It looks a little bit like an oil slick, but it's not harmful to the environment.

Thus begins the longest and greatest river in the world!

The Amazon Rainforest is home to over 2,000 species of animals. We met four of them - the anaconda, pink river dolphin, sloth, and some kind of alligator thing.      
No jaguars or poison dart frogs were seen. Whew!
  

Lunch on a floating restaurant. Lots of fish and fresh fruits.

Ya gotta love those indigenous people. 

And, finally, and most importantly...the Manaus Temple.
It's practically a twin to our temple. This is the sixth temple in Brazil, the first in the north region of the country. Before it was built, Latter-day Saints from Manaus, a city isolated by major rivers and rain forests, had to travel by caravan to attend the temple in Sao Paulo, Brazil — a 15-day round trip journey by boat and bus — and then Caracas, Venezuela — an eight-day journey by bus. 

This temple is unique in that it is port-accessible from a landing on the Negro River for temple attendees arriving by boat.


One more last thing. 
There is also a bridge across the Rio Negro river that was finished in 2012. We were told that the bridge cost over a billion dollars. There are only three small cities across the river so basically the bridge doesn't go anywhere important.  

The "Bridge to Nowhere" is really impressive and big!

Bet you can't wait to see what we did next!