Day 38: Rio to Manaus with layover in Brasilia
Uneventful travel day
- Woke up to rain in Rio, glad we didn’t have one of our 3 precious days in that city impacted by the weather.
- One final breakfast buffet in Rio
- Then we flew from Rio to Manaus, with a short layover in Brasilia. We were given 3 different middle seats on both of the flights. I guess there is a rule that kids can’t be separated from parents so flight attendants had to explain to business travelers that they were trading their window or aisle seat with a gringo rugrat with an iPad. Everyone was very cool about it.
- Manaus is the capital of the Amazonas state in the north of Brasil. It’s surrounded by the rainforest and is our launching point for our Amazon river and jungle experience, coming up this week. The main attraction in town, other than the access to the rain forest, is a huge theater next to the main square.
- First impression: Manaus is a pretty bleak place, made more so by a grey, overcast day with low clouds.
- We’re staying all together in a tiny and simple hotel room with one double bed and a bunk bed. I’m writing this from the top bunk b/c it doesn’t really have a railing and we were worried about a kid falling off.
- We have a tour of the “meeting of the waters” tomorrow and we start a 3 night boat cruise on Friday.
- We had an afternoon to kill so we grabbed lunch around the block from the hotel and I got a haircut. There wasn’t one word of English spoken across 3 barbers but I escaped with minimal damage done!
