Manaus, Brazil

Manaus was our port that was the furthest up the Amazon-about 1000 miles from the mouth.
A town that was built with the riches from rubber.

An amazing sunrise that morning...

One of those ferries that we saw being loaded to the hilt back in Santarem.

A confluence of two rivers with different water colors--the Amazon is muddy and the Rio Negro is dark.

A power plant spews out steam on the other side of the hill.

A people carrier shows how brown the water was.

As we come in closer to town, gas stations for boats were moored close to busy port spaces.

There was a lot of river boat traffic to service communities further up the river.

Really a lot (!) of river boats...

 
Next to our docking area: the Amazon Grand Iberostar and a local river boat.

 
Our greeters on the ground.

 
We caught a bus.

School kids wait for their bus...

 
Palm fruit and a kid in the produce...

An arapaima hangs over the fish merchants. This is a huge Amazonian freshwater fish that adapted to the muddy waters by learning to breathe through its mouth. It is now also being successfully farmed.

 
This guy pretends to eat the salt-cured arapaima.

 
The skins of these fish with the striped tails have all been finely scored.

 
Arapaima rolls

  
Across the street from the market, river boats were being loaded and unloaded in a steady stream of traffic.

 
Back up on the waterside walkway: Feeding the all those workers...

 
Dockside haircuttery...

A tough place to eke out a living.

Dockside market