Manaus, Brazil, South America

I had a very good night’s sleep and had a very nice breakfast down in the dining room of the hotel. There was fresh fruit, juices, eggs, and bread. Pretty good for a cheap hotel. I went out into the city to explore, only to find out that there’s not really much to explore here. Right around the corner from my hotel is the Amazonas Theatre, which is really beautiful. It’s a huge pink building with some colorful mosaic art around the top of it.

Right across the street from the theatre is the Palace of Justice, which is a really beautiful yellow building. Besides these two buildings, there seems to be nothing at all to look at in Manaus. I checked out both of the buildings, got a bite to eat, and then took a walk down to the port to go to an ATM. The port area in Manaus is NOT nice. There were lots of homeless people on the streets, and tons of prostitutes on every corner. It even made me nervous just to go to the ATM because all these people would know I have money after coming out of there, but it ended up being fine. I got my money, and then got the heck out of there.

I just hung out for the rest of the night since it’s been raining like crazy outside. I guess this should be expected since I’m so close to the rain forest. I’ve packed up my bag that I’m taking with me to the jungle, and I’ll leave my other big bag at the tour office tomorrow morning. I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much for this tour, but I think it’s going to be really cool to see what’s out there in the jungle!