When I tell people that I’m going to visit Manaus (something I do about once a year) I get two kinds of reaction. One is the completely blank “what the hell is Manaus” look and the other is the “Omg isn’t that in the middle of the Amazon Jungle, what the hell are you going there for” look. Mostly people think that I’m going to be moving around in dug-out canoes and sleeping in hammocks suspended between two trees while billions of insects try to eat me alive. So off I go again to explain that yes ,Manaus is in the middle of the Amazon Jungle, but it is also a thriving city of nearly two million people. Not nearly as adventurous as it seems. Once upon a time I guess people still had to arive in Manaus by boat, up the river from the Amazon delta, but today you can comfortably fly into the modern airport and within half an hour of landing you can already be in one of the modern air-conditioned hotels that grace this bustling, industrial city. Now, why did I mention the air-conditioning? Well it is in the middle of the Amazon Jungle but it has four seasons like the rest of the world as explained to me by a friend who lives there. They have the hot season, the hotter season, the ridiculously hot season and the OMG what am I doing here it’s so hot season. Needless to say I always visit during the hot season.
The city is not actually situated on the Amazon river but on the banks of the Rio Negro, which flows down from the Colombian Andes, crossing a large part of the Amazon jungle till it meets with the Rio Solimoes, which comes from Peru, just a few kilometres down river from Manaus. The interesting thing about these two rivers is that they have different colours, different temperatures and different speeds. The Rio Negro is dark black looking (hence its name) has a temperature of 28°c and flows at a lesiurely 2 kilometres an hour, the Solimoes is yellowish brown, has a temperature of 22°c and flows at approximately 5 kilometres an hour. This difference in the two rivers creates a spectacular phenomenon, known as “Encontro dos Aguas”, where the two rivers meeting together don’t actually mix but continue flowing downstream side by side for nearly 10 kilometres. Then, and only then these waters become the Amazon. It is possible to take a ferry ride to view this yourself but it is even more spectacular when, if you are lucky, you see it from the airplane as you land in Manaus. My photo is from the ferry.
Although Manaus is today a modern, industrial city many inhabitants still live along the banks of the river, involved in traditional occupations such as boat building, where the distinction between housing and boatyard would seem to be a little hazy.
Others live away from the city itself, though still along the banks of the river in house boats due to the impossibility of building any permanent constructions which would be swept away during periods of high water.
The city is not actually situated on the Amazon river but on the banks of the Rio Negro, which flows down from the Colombian Andes, crossing a large part of the Amazon jungle till it meets with the Rio Solimoes, which comes from Peru, just a few kilometres down river from Manaus. The interesting thing about these two rivers is that they have different colours, different temperatures and different speeds. The Rio Negro is dark black looking (hence its name) has a temperature of 28°c and flows at a lesiurely 2 kilometres an hour, the Solimoes is yellowish brown, has a temperature of 22°c and flows at approximately 5 kilometres an hour. This difference in the two rivers creates a spectacular phenomenon, known as “Encontro dos Aguas”, where the two rivers meeting together don’t actually mix but continue flowing downstream side by side for nearly 10 kilometres. Then, and only then these waters become the Amazon. It is possible to take a ferry ride to view this yourself but it is even more spectacular when, if you are lucky, you see it from the airplane as you land in Manaus. My photo is from the ferry.
Although Manaus is today a modern, industrial city many inhabitants still live along the banks of the river, involved in traditional occupations such as boat building, where the distinction between housing and boatyard would seem to be a little hazy.
Others live away from the city itself, though still along the banks of the river in house boats due to the impossibility of building any permanent constructions which would be swept away during periods of high water.
