Empire's Last Casualty: Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Sachi G. Dastidar

In September of 2019 Shefali and I took a trip through Brazil. Our first stop was at Brazil’s Amazon Rain Forest, then to the newly-built capital city of Brasilia, followed by a trip to Iguassu Falls of Argentina and Brazil, and on the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro. Iguassu is a junction of three nations: Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Thus we journeyed to the Argentinian side of the Falls, then made a brief trip to the Paraguayan border city of Ciudad del Este.

If one lands at Manaus, the center of Amazon and the capital of Amazonas State, as we did, one may not realize that one is landing in the middle of a forest, as Manaus is a huge metropolis of 2.3 million people with freeways, skyscrapers, theaters, hotels and restaurants.

These days we hear a lot about fires in Amazon. There was none in the Metropolis. But we witnessed small fires set by residents during our road trip to our jungle lodge, as well as when we flew over the forest going to Brasilia. Most of the fires are at the edges of the forest as people were land/forest grabbing at the edges going towards the center. Manaus is at the center of the forest area, hundreds of miles from the border forest fire/cleansing.

Not until our flight landed at Manaus, we didn’t realize that it is a huge metropolis that sits in the middle of a dense rain forest. The city is giant place a combination of Dallas, USA and Delhi, India, or Baltimore, USA and Bangalore, India with old congested area to skyscrapers to highways and flyovers, schools and universities, fancy restaurants to street vendors, swimming holes to sandy beaches. The city has attracted settlers from Brazilian states as well as immigrants from countries of South America, the Caribbean and beyond.

Although rarely anyone understood English yet friendly locals were able to help us do whatever we wanted, i.e., everything.

We were in Manaus during Brazil’s independence celebration as a result we were able to enjoy a nice presentation at the Teatro Nacional, free of charge. It was a dance performance, and most of the songs were in English sung by an American.

Most of the museums, galleries, zoo, theaters are closed on Mondays. One of the biggest surprise of visiting the metropolis was that the city practically shuts down by 4:30 PM. We were able to find some eateries open near the Teatro Nacional, the cultural center of the city, a kilometer from our hotel, so that we could have dinner. We were located at the city center, near the port, yet almost all the places were shut down. Our hotel didn’t have a restaurant. People were extremely friendly. And in public buses riders offered their seats regularly, Here we met a young street vendor selling capuacu and abacate cold drinks in plastic tubes told us how he meditates and preform yoga, and knowing we are Indians wanted to offer us free drinks. (We refused, and paid for his drinks.) Then he asked “what mantra you chant?” During a walk back from the Indigenous Museum a man across the street came running saying, “I work for an Indian named Arshad who owns a tour company.” We conveyed our greetings to both, wishing them success!

Accidentally we ended up at Rio Negro subdivision, several kilometers from the center, which certainly has a wonderful beach, and is time worth spending.

The Amazon Metropolis of Manaus