Rumble in Jungle - Manaus

 Manaus is a city of two million, and most importantly, is the hub for peacock bass fishing in the Amazon.  Five of us, myself and Terri, Ron, Jim, and Stephen arrived a day early, and were taken on the guided tour of Manaus.

We started at the fruit and fish market.  This is a must see, and it's hard to really describe.  The fruit market is comprised of hundreds of booths, and acres and acres of space.  It's ten times the size of any Walmart you have ever seen.  The fish market is packed with literally just about every species the Amazon has to offer.  Tables piled high with peacock bass, oscars, surbim catfish, and the two fish that I think are the favorites in this part of Brazil, tambaqui and arapaima, or as the locals call it, piraracu.

After the fish market, we got back on the van and were taken to the Manaus opera house.  Terri, being the cultured one, was the one that wanted to see this the most, but we were all glad we went.  It was spectacular.  I would recommend going to Wikipedia to read about, but it was built in 1896, with the intent that it would be the jewel of the Amazon.  It seats 700, has 198 chandeliers imported from Italy, it's dome is covered with 36,000 ceramic tiles.  It took 15 years to complete.  See it!

 We then took a boat out to the Meeting of Waters, where the pale Amazon river meets the dark Rio Negro river.  The two rivers are very different temperatures, causing them to run side by side for six kilometers.  You could dip your hand in the water, then dip it just a few feet over and feel a tremendous temperature difference.

We then went to my personal favorite, the arapaima farm.  Arapaimas are a large, primitive fish, that can grow to immense sizes, nine feet or so, they are the largest scaled freshwater fish in the world.  We were taken to a large pen, where we were handed a thick piece of wood, with a rope tied to the end, and a fish was tied to the rope.  When we lowered it into the pen, arapaimas
in the 150 to 200 pound range would come get it, followed by a wrestling match that we always lost.  Lots of full grown dudes giggling like kids.  Super fun.

Back to the hotel.  Most of the group went out to a Brazilian steak house to stuff themselves, but I don't always handle super heavy evening meals well.  Terri and I enjoyed a nice fish dinner at the hotel, and went to bed early.  We are being picked up at the lobby at 6:30 in the morning, we will be on a small plane by 7:30, and land in the middle of the Amazon jungle around 9:30 or so.
Hard to sleep knowing what's coming.  Tomorrow, fishing.