Manaus

Manaus has to be one of the strangest locations in the world for a city of two million. It lies deep in the midst of the jungle, 900 miles upriver from the mouth of the Amazon, 1000 miles to Belem (the nearest major city). It is so cutoff from civilisation that it is near impossible to reach by car, instead you have to fly or take the boat.

The Mercado Municipal, modelled
 after the Les Halles market in Paris

 

The unusual location of the city, and its grand and sometimes dilapidated public buildings, are products of the rubber boom which began well over a hundred years ago The area around Manaus is rich in rubber trees (a species unique to Brazil until the seeds were exported), and from around 1850 until 1910 untold riches were brought to the few rubber barons who had a near monopoly on its supply.  It was an era of endless lust for the flexible, durable, waterproof commodity. The sap tapped from the trees was refined and vulcanised (what a great word that is) and then shipped out to produce macs, wellingtons and above all else tyres - bicycle tyres, car tyres, truck tyres - across the globe.

 

The grand Teatro Amazonas stands in the centre
of Manaus

The huge inflows of profit were used to build a city within the wild jungle modelled upon a French municipality, or one of the great baroque metropolis of northern Italy. Electric lights installed and a tram network constructed (before many cities in Europe or North America had these), huge baronial palaces, a vast and delicately designed steel and glass market building, a palace of justice, an ornate governors house. But chief among these monuments to rubber stood the Opera House (Teatro Amazonas) - designed to pay tribute the great La Scala of Milan. Huge, opulent and lavishly decorated with 36 chandeliers from Italy, and plush furniture from France.

 

 

The inside of the Teatro Amazonas

We attended a tour during the day of this striking building, and in the evening took in a showing of the original 1931 film of Dracula, the soundtrack played by an 12 piece string orchestra illuminated by haunting lowlight. It was fantastically atmospheric.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Praça São Sebastião, Manuas

 

 

 

In 1910 the British managed to steal a few rubber seeds and take them over to Malaysia to grow and then sell and as a result the monopoly was broken. For some years Manaus went down the tubes - few jobs, high crime - until regenerated in the sixties through the creation of a successful free trade zone. In recent years burgeoning eco tourism brings those who want to see the Amazon to the city - including us.