Visits to museums are an inevitable part of the experience of the traveller with an enquiring mind. To sleep in a museum sounds a bit much, but the Casa Dos Frades, the former Franciscan Friary, was converted into a hotel with such taste and imagination that no traveller in his or her right mind could possibly have been disenchanted with it.
Before embarking on our ultimate adventure in Manaus- a 2-night, 3-day stay in Gero’s lodge in the jungle on the other side of the river- we all explored downtown together in the company of the man himself. Later, those inclined paid 25 reais or US$5 for a one-hour guided visit to the Teatro Manaus (the Opera House), just across the square from our hotel. To this day it baffles me that Christine and I were allowed free entry.
We had no reais (Brazilian currency) with us. The officials seemed willing to accept our US dollars, but they had no change. Nevertheless, they kindly waved us in. I wondered whether the same would happen to a foreigner in a similar position in our own country. The visit to the Teatro Amazonas was worth every minute of the hour of the English-guided tour.
With roofing tiles and furnishings from France, marble and crystal chandeliers from Italy, steel walls and iron work from England and Scotland, this indeed was Europe transported into the jungle. “The Italian architect Celestial Sacardim designed the 700-seat auditorium in the distinct shape of a lyre in the fashion of the Palais Garnier Opera House in Paris,” said our guide.
“But not everything is European”, our guide emphasised. “Look at the curtain on the stage. The illustration on it is by Brazilian painter Crispim do Amaral. It depicts the local water goddess Iara near where the waters meet,” he added. “When was the first opera performed here?” asked one eager European-sounding tourist. “In 1897, a year after its official opening, Amilcare Ponchielli’s La Gioconda was performed”, the guide responded. “The Italian tenor Enrique Caruso starred in it,” he added.
We also learnt that the theatre closed in 1924 after the Brazilian rubber industry went into sharp decline because of competition from British–owned rubber plantations in Malaysia and Sri Lanka.
Surreptitiously, an Englishman had smuggled rubber pods to these British colonies, which began producing rubber more cheaply and efficiently than the Brazilian rubber barons could. It reopened in 1997 for regular concerts.
For more reasons than one, it held not a single concert for some 70 years! Deservedly, in July of this year the Manaus Opera House and San Sebastian Square nearby were officially inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list. If I had a say, I would include Hotel Dos Frades in the list.
We’re now back at the hotel preparing to leave early the following morning for Gero’s eco-lodge where we were to spend two nights. I arranged with Claudia to leave a room free for our group to have the bulk of our luggage stored, small backpacks being more practical for such a short stay. Shortly after breakfast, Gero arrived, greeting us in his own inimitable style that he perfected over the years. “Walla Walla Walla”, he screamed, and we all knew it was time to get on the move. The bus had arrived to take us to the Ceasa market and port (a 15-minute drive, if that much), from where speedboats would be waiting to take us to the village of Careiro, gateway to the Amazon rainforest on the other side of the Rio Negro.
With a group of our size (34), we used two speedboats to get across the Rio Negro, stopping to witness the point where the Rio Negro met and ran alongside the Solimoes. By pure chance, Christine and I crossed in the boat in which Gero happened to be. “See where the rivers meet. They flow side by side for miles without mixing”, said Gero, enthusiastically, his words tumbling one after the other.
“The dark colour of Rio Negro flowing all the way from Colombia comes from decayed leaves and plant matter. And the pale, sandy colour of the Solimoes, the experts say, comes from erosion from the Andes Mountains in Peru,” continued Gero. “Do both rivers ever mix”? asked one traveller. “They start mixing about six kilometres from this point and merge fully about 80 kilometres downstream to form one river,” Gero dutifully responded.
Meanwhile, we have reached the other side of the Rio Negro to the municipality of Careiro, where we transferred to two buses, stopping briefly to stock up on water before undertaking the final part of our journey to Gero’s lodge located in the Mamori basin. For part of the way we drove on an access road to the controversial Trans Amazon highway 319, which was hastily built through the rainforest to link Manaus to Porto Velho in the state of Rondonia- a distance of 900 kilometres!
It’s been nicknamed the Road of Ghosts.
We’re in the final stages of an odyssey to Gero’s lodge, the Ararinha Jungle Hotel. We say goodbye to the bus drivers at a jetty on the Mamori Basin where we transfer to two speedboats which bring us closer to our destination.
We then transfer into three canoes, the boatmen first ensuring that their vessels are well balanced before setting off across the lake for our jungle hotel. As we drew closer to the lush embankment where the main building stands, a flush of excitement comes over us. Waiting to greet us was Kelly (Gero’s wife) and his crew of guides, cooks, housekeepers, and other members of staff.
Presumably we had come to relax but there was not a dull moment during our brief stay at Ararinha Lodge. With the aid of guides particularly keen on pointing out to us an array of medicinal plants and what they are used for , we explored the jungle by day and night, becoming experts in getting in and out
of canoes in the process.
We all went fishing in our canoes for piranhas with limited luck. We had slightly better luck wildlife spotting. We saw pink belly and grey belly dolphins, caimans, monkeys, and a variety of birds. We even had the opportunity to visit by canoe a farm belonging to a Caboclo family (mixture of the indigenous and the Portuguese-descended Brazilian). Some of us were moved to take a dip or a swim in the water of the Amazon not far from Ararinha Lodge.
It was with sad hearts that we said goodbye to the jungle as we made our way back to Manaus to continue the next leg of our journey.
Jan Westmaas is the author of Out of the Box Tales of Travel 1972 -2013. He is a linguist, teacher and traveller extraordinaire.
