Brazil day 1

On the first day in Manaus, I decided to go with a small group of people into down town. The four of us got lost, on purpose! We started by going to a bank. That was an adventure in itself. The ATM was in the middle of a really busy block full of locals. While we were waiting in line we found some other Semester at Sea people who were getting money too. When it was finally our turn we had the worst time trying to figure out how to work out the ATM machines. I was one of the first ones to figure out how on earth to work the machine and took out money. Once we all had what we needed we just started walking.

                The first place we stopped at was the Teatro Amazonas; the local Opera House. The architecture in this building was something you would only thing to see in pictures. Much of the architecture was influenced by the European. The ceiling in the auditorium was painted similarly to that of the Sistine Chapel. There was an interesting story about the auditorium. When it was first open there was obviously no air conditioning and so the seats were made with whicker so that the flow of what little air was in the building could flow better. On the tour of the Opera House our tour guide was telling us about all of the different European influences that were in the building. Almost all of the furniture was brought over, all the floors were made from European woods, and most of the paintings were done by European artists. One thing that was pretty funny would be in the Ballroom. First, the Ballroom was my favorite part of the tour. The floor was made with two colors of wood to symbolize the meeting of the waters in the Amazon River. This floor is also made with no nails or glue. It is simply made with grooves that fit together perfectly. The funny part was in one of the only original paintings done by a local of Brazil. In this picture it has these magnificent gigantic trees from the Amazon and then some squirrels. Yeah, squirrels; which don’t exist in Brazil were in this painting in down town Brazil. The Opera House is definitely somewhere that I want to return to someday.

                Right outside of the Opera House was a monument called the Plaza of St. Sebastion. Here is a monument that coincides with the Catholic Church across the street from it. The floor of this “mini park” also has black and white tiles to symbolize the meeting of the waters again. This monument was strangely located in the center of Manaus surrounded by buildings. It was a perfect place to get away from the street vendors and all the noise that normally comes with a big city.

                We also walked around the local market. A lot of the things that you could buy were things that you could find in America. I think the most entertaining thing I found was hello Kitty and Power Rangers note books! I almost bought one just to say I bought Hello Kitty in Brazil. Once we dodged around the street vendors, the fruit stands, and random people and children on the street trying to lure you into a corner store in an ally we found yet another park. This park was breath taking. The park had small ponds (kind of like the ones in Greenville’s park) surrounded by native trees and shrubs. The park was full of locals just people watching. I think that some of the people there thought we were crazy because we just kept walking around in circles taking pictures and saying how beautiful the park was. It was again in a very strange place but gave a restful twist to the hustle and bustle of the city. It was a comforting place to just sit and rest for a moment. The sound of the water, the rustle of the trees in the breeze, and the soft sound of children running around made this small park in the middle of Manaus almost feel like home.

                Right across from the park we found a museum that used to be the old police station for Manaus. Inside it gave us the history of almost every aspect of the state of Amazonas. I think the most interesting part was the coin collection. They had coins from all over South America and the world. It was so intriguing to see how money has changed over time. The museum also showed us the history of the police and military in Manaus. It was cool to see how similar and yet how different our western culture is compared to that of Brazil.

                During my time in Brazil I tried a variety of local foods. I tried some of their native fruit, ice cream, juices, and main dishes. Most of their fruit was good. Much of the fruit you have to peal which is actually good for tourist because when they rinse they obviously do that in water and some people can have bad reactions to water in other countries. A lot of their fruits have a million seeds in them. Fun fact: one of their fruits is actually used to make cheddar cheese yellow! So cool right :) I also tried their ice cream which had the texture of gelato. All of the ice cream flavors were in Portuguese so we just pointed to what we wanted. I got a chocolate ice cream, some caramel type ice cream, and an Ishua ice cream (which is a native fruit). I think the only one I didn’t really like was the Ishua one because it was kind of gritty. The juices were good too. I had one that kind of tasted like pineapple juice but it had something else in it that I couldn’t quite figure out. Finally the main dishes were amazing! We went to this restaurant called Ki-Temprera; a local place that a few people had told us about. No one in the restaurant spoke any English and most of the menu was in Portuguese. So when we ordered we only knew what type of meat we got and we just pointed to something on the menu. We got whatever got, and boy was it good! I had a chicken dish that had four cheeses melted on top with rice and some sort of steamed and sautéed vegetable. I think we were all a little nervous about what we would get but it was really quite good. The people in the restaurant were very friendly and more than willing to help in any way that they could. We recommended this place to anyone and everyone that we knew! My first day was great! I can’t wait to tell you all about the rest of my time in Brazil!