I decided to take some time to upload some photos from our July trip to Rio de Janeiro and the Amazon in Brazil. Tonight, I uploaded photos of Manaus, Brazil, a city in the heart of the Amazon basin located at the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimoes, which meet and form the Amazon River. Manaus was forgettable. It’s a gritty city in an otherwise wild and fairly unspoiled area of the Amazon. We spent the day in Manaus to tour the city before jumping off to our Amazon adventure. It wasn’t a very fun day. Unless you want a taste of a typical Brazilian city, there’s no reason to spend more than a couple of hours there. The highlight is the Theater of the Amazons, a beautiful opera house. Other than that, Manaus leaves the impression that it has seen better days. Indeed, it has. During the heyday of Brazil’s rubber production, it was one of the country’s most affluent cities. While it is now home to several electronics companies — thanks to the Brazilian government’s efforts to make Manaus a manufacturing hub — it is definitely not a high-tech city. Enjoy the photos, shutterbugs.
