Day Five – morning in the jungle, Manaus, then Rio

Environment Protectors
We woke up and had breakfast and then received certificates from the hotel naming us “Environment Protector” for having participated in their excursions. In each of the circumstances, at no point did we feel endangered and it was clear that the excursions were had the goal of engendering understanding and respect for the ecosystem.
Sadly, we headed back to Manaus by boat. The Rio Negro has several locations where it becomes very wide, referred to as “bays.” The trip between the Ariaú and Manaus goes through a narrow point that separates two of these bays. Adhjacent to the Ariaú is the world’s largest river archipelago – the Anavilhanas Archipelago, which is entirely under protection by the Brazilian government as an ecological preserve.

Manaus and the Teatro Amazonas
While back in Manaus, we decided to tour the Teatro Amazonas – which is a beautiful opera house that’s still in use today to stage productions. All elements of the TA were designed and sourced in Europe, so It’s an amazing testament to what people can do if they get too much money too quickly. Alex was pleased to see that there is a replica of the TA on display made entirely of over 36,000 Lego blocks (see below).

We got the benefit of having an earnest taxi driver that looked old enough to be around when the TA was built in 1896. He spent a lot of time bragging about how Manaus is so “safe and calm” that you just don’t see police on the street. He got creative with explanations beginning with the third policeman I pointed out as we passed . I decided to lay off on him because I did not want him to get into an accident (in case he forgot to take his Geritol that morning or something like that…).

We made it back to the airport in time to have a late lunch at Bob’s for R$57 ($30) for the equivalent of 4 value meals at Mickey D’s. Ouch! And we did not even get toys with our meals, and Bob’s doesn’t have Ronald McDonald, the Hamburglar or even Mayor McCheese…

Hapless Tourists Connecting in Brasília
Of course getting from Manaus to Rio was not easy. Our layover in Brasília, however, put is in a position to experience the kindness of Brazilians. Every monitor in the airport showed our flight as departing from Gate 10, as did our e-tickets and boarding passes. Gate 10 was under construction and every time we asked an airline employee which gate it was and how could we depart a gate that’s under construction, we got a different and contradictory answer. What impressed me was how three different random people made it a point to stop and try to help us, explaining that it would either end up being gate 9 or gate E/F (downstairs) but we’d just have to listen carefully for the announcement when boarding. All 3 of the people had a good laugh with us at how bizarre the situation was, but told us to keep the faith and listen carefully to the announcements because apparently that gate had been like that for about 6 months and it was never consistent which gate the Rio flight departed from. Ahhhh – only in Brazil !!!!!!!!!

Arriving in Rio
The flights to Rio (connecting in Brasília) were uneventful, other than the Brasília-Rio flight was full of business people in business suits, briefcases and blackberries. Even though the pilot said the temperature in Brasília was 26°C (80°F), most everyone wore cold weather clothing and there I was in shorts and flip-flops. No - we did not stick out at all on that flight. Not a bit...

Transportation Tip for fellow tourists:
If you go to Rio for the first time, getting a taxi can be a bewildering experience. I strongly suggest stopping at one of the "Radio Taxi" kiosks before you exit customs and you can pay a set rate by credit card to your hotel. Then, you can change money and do whatever you want for future transportation when you get to your hotel. Radio Taxi companies include "Cootramo," Transcoopass" and one or two others.

We arrived at Santos Dumont airport (the one closer to town) and the sight of Corcovado made me feel good. Rio captivated me ever since I first stepped foot there in the mid-seventies as a kid, and all the time I’ve spent in Rio over the years has given me such a sense of familiarity about it that it’s almost like a second home town for me.

Rio - the Original “Sin City”
I thought I was so clever to get a flight into Santos Dumont airport because it’s a short 10-15 minute cab ride from Copacabana. Wrong! Things in Brazil are simply not that easy. We ran into a traffic jam along the way on the Aterro do Flamengo because the police put up a sobriety checkpoint. We were frustrated because we were so tired, but also amazed because the Aterro is akin to Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive – it’s an expressway along the water with four lanes in each direction and it is only one of two direct routes linking Rio’s Zona Sul with the rest of the city. I could not imagine any police department in the U.S. shutting down an 8-lane highway to run a sobriety checkpoint, but here we were in the city whose reputation as “Sin City” was centuries-old (See Carnaval picture above) before Las Vegas was even built and they’ve shut down a major highway for a sobriety checkpoint at 10 p.m. on a Thursday night.

Brazil never ceases to amaze me.

Changes in Brazil (part II)
The fact that there was a sobriety checkpoint at all is a recent phenomenon in Brazil because there are multiple public-service ads on buses and taxis urging people to not drink and drive. Sobriety checkpoints are not new, but the focus on drunk driving in such a comprehensive way is noteworthy, particularly in a town that's all about leisure and entertainment. In addition, we noticed many public service ads regarding domestic violence and other "serious" topics that we took to be a sign that Brazil as a society is undergoing some changes.