Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil March 14

This was our second day in Manaus and the weather is a bit cooler but the humidity is still very high.  Instead of a tour we took a walk to the "Public Market".  This building was designed by Gustav Eiffel and originally constructed in 1882.  When we were here in 2012 this building was under renovation in order to be finished before the World Cup was held in Brazil in 2014.  Manaus was one of several cities in Brazil that built new stadiums to be used for the Wold Cup matches.

The building with the red roof is the public market

Building was originally built in 1882

The building has lots of ornate iron work

Many of the market booths were selling small bags of spices and herbs as well as home made bottled drinks

This booth was selling cheeses

This one was selling dried shrimp. There was a whole section for meats and another for fish as well as quite a few selling souvenirs.












There is also a bridge across the Rio Negro river that was finished since we were here in 2012.  We were told that the bridge cost over a billion dollars.  There are only three small cities across the river so basically the bridge doesn't go anywhere important.  This is one of the many projects that are the reason for the recent demonstrations throughout Brazil against corruption in the government.

We had two beautiful sunsets while docked in Manaus.  You can see the "Bridge to Nowhere" in the background











On our second morning the "Seabourn Quest" docked right behind our ship.  This ship was built by the same company that built our ship but it is 10 years newer and only carries about 450 guests.  It still amazes us that ocean going vessels can travel 1000 miles up the Amazon.

The Seabourn Quest

These boats are how the children living along the river get to school

There are hundreds of these boats that travel up and down the rivers transporting people and their goods. The people sleep in hammocks on the upper decks while the cargo is on the lowest deck.  Some of these trips to distant cities can be five days.