Manaus

Our flights are all thrown off by a delayed departure from Manaus, but we have made the most of our time here by taking a quick tour. First, we hit our hotel rooms and slept HARD for as long as we could.  For some of us, that was about eight hours, even though those hours were in the daytime.

Whether we slept or not, we hustled downstairs at 3pm to start a city tour.  Because we hadn't had legitimate meals all day, we at some snacks at the little concession area of the hotel lobby, then set out for the famous Manaus opera house, which is a wonder.

It is utterly European in almost every way, though there are a few nods to the context of the Amazon in the art and in some of the figures that are represented there.  Our guide Deangelo told us a quick history of Brazil in general and Manaus in particular to help us set the scene, then talked about how the rubber boom led to the creation of this fish-out-of-water opera house in the middle of the rainforest.

We got to sit in the seats (made from local jacaranda trees, now an endangered species) and test the acoustics of the space, and we also checked out the special box seats, the ballroom, and the glorious balcony, all on a private tour with our guide.

We wandered around the square near the opera house and found a wonderful community-based arts gallery that featured some of the work of Turiarte (the collective that includes our Anã friends) and Tucumarte (the basketmakers from Urucureá). Each of us fell in love with some item (or items) there, so that random stop was very satisfying.

We then went to a riverwalk area that was hopping with walkers, joggers, rollerbladers, Zumba people, and snackers who were going from food truck to food truck tasting local foods. It seemed like it could be easy to spend a whole evening on that little stretch of pavement along the river, but we were on a quest to get a real meal for today so we headed on out to our planned meal at a churrascaria.

There is a great salad/side bar that has a wide range of items but most of us were focused on the specialty of the house: meat. This particular restaurant doesn't slice the meat directly from skewers onto your plate right at the table, as you have to walk up to a counter to get whatever loads of meat you want.  We were hungry and tired so we made quite good use of the offerings of the churrasco cooks.

And now we are back at the hotel, expecting to leave in less than three hours to get to our flight from Manaus to Miami. We'll travel all day tomorrow and get back to the Bay around 7.  Apologies to anyone who was counting on our schedule holding as planned.

We'll be in a computer lab for a few days but we invite you to join us and see some of our final projects on Monday, February 17, at 7pm in Galileo 201 on the Saint Mary's College campus.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Inside of the Manaus Opera House, the DIRTies learned about its history and key ties to European interior design and architecture.

The DIRTies taking in the view of the buildings surrounding the opera house.

On the DIRTies' final day in Brazil, they were able to visit the world renowned Manaus Opera House.

A view of the Monumento a Abertura dos Portos as Nacoes Amigas.

The DIRTies got to explore Manuas at night just before visiting a Brazilian Steak House and leaving for the US.