Manaus on the Amazon -WTRD 55

Our Manaus Accommodations

Thursday, March 3, 2016, Worrall Travel R Day (WTRD) 55

Tharrya picked us up about 8:45 am from our accommodations and delivered us to the airport around 9:15.  It has been wonderful having suWe flew to Brasilia at 12:55, and the boarding time on our transfer was also 12:55.  The last boarding call was being announced as we disembarked from the first flight.  No time to buy any lunch. 

There were minimal snacks on the flight to Manaus.  By the time we got off the plane at 4:15, we were starving.  We worried about our luggage as there was so little time to transfer bags in Brasila, but no worries, our luggage arrived with us.  Pretty efficient and fast bag transfer in place.

Once we gathered our bags and exited baggage claim, we spotted our guide for the next week.  His name is Luis.  He was recommended to us by our AirBnB host, a botany professor, as the best, most knowledgeable Amazon eco guide he knows.  Russ made connections with the guide, and he will transport us wherever we go, and has made arrangements for five days of tour guiding, including and a trip to a jungle lodge for two nights by boat.

We spot Luis, and we are off.  Luis speaks excellent English and Portuguese, and is the owner of Tuhiri Tours, which means in an indigenous language, Living in the Forest (Jungle).  See our Trip Advisor Review.  He is rebuilding his current website.  But he also is on Facebook
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Luiz Magalhaes

He brings us to our accommodations, a vey old and rustic home of a botany professor, in a neighborhood that has seen better days and looks a bit sketchy to me.  I am not sure it will be safe, but the house is gated and looks comfortable inside. Luis drops and picks us up at the door.

Manuel is warm and welcoming. He has lived in this house for 25 years.  He and Luis attended high school together.  Members of Manuel's family live upstairs.  He lives downstairs.  There are five bedrooms, 3 with ensuite bathrooms, two with a shared bathroom.  The common areas do not have air conditioning, but the bedrooms do.  Thank goodness.

Manuel is a Botony Professor, specialized in seeds. Note the seed work in the doorway of dining area.

He rents out rooms through AirBnB to mature individuals.  He and Archie Robert (Rob) are the same age, only 16 days different and they bond easily.  But every one warms up to Archie Rob easily.  His big smile, laugh, and Portuguese are endearing.

After meeting our host and dropping off our luggage, Luis takes us to a local restaurant where we finally can feed ourselves on steak and vegetables, and then to a supermarket, where we buy cheese, snacks, beer, and wine.  By the time we return to our casa, we are ready to take showers.  Unfortunately, our bathroom has a plumbing problem.  The toilet works, but the running water in the  sink and shower do not.  Our threesome are the only guests, so we use another of the bathrooms off the rooms that are setup with bunk beds.

Russ cranks the temperature down in our room and we fall into a fitful sleep in a new environment.  The bed reminds me of the one we had in Las Brancas in Mexico.  The mattress has a slippery plastic covering, and the sheets are not cotton but a slippery polyester nylon fabric.  With just a little body movement, it doesn't take long before everything slips around and off and the sheets are tangled all around us and our bodies are on the plastic mattress.  We remake the bed a couple of times during the night and try to sleep like a corpse, perfectly still.  Ha!

Tomorrow, we will be going with Luis on a scientific tour in the morning and historic opera house in the afternoon.

All is well with the Worrall Travel Rs in Amazonia