Manaus

Manaus is a city of 2 million people 1000 miles up the Amazon from the Atlantic Ocean. It was a sleepy colonial port city until the 19^th century, when the discovery of the rubber tree turned Manaus into a boomtown. By the end of the 19^th century, Manaus had electric lighting and a marvelous tram system, while much of the world was still struggling with gas lighting.

The opera house (Pictures 1 and 2) could rival many in Europe. Jenny Lind performed here and Caruso arrived, but wouldn’t leave his ship because of a cholera scare! Imagine the time it took to get here from Europe or the United States prior to air travel! All the materials for the opera house were brought from Europe.

At the same time, the robber barons were displaying their wealth in grandiose style. Today a cultural center, the house shown in Picture 3 belonged to Waldemar Schoz, a wealthy German involved in the rubber trade.

In the 20^th century the rubber market in Brazil collapsed. Why?  It was against Brazilian law to remove rubber plants or seeds from Brazil. But a crafty Englishman, named Henry Wickam, managed to transport 70,000 seeds out of the country in 1876, telling the customs people that they were rare plants to take to Queen Victoria. They were planted in Kew Gardens in London and the 7000 that survived were taken to Malaysia to start rubber plantations. It was much easier to harvest and transport rubber from a plantation in Malaysia, rather than from the jungle 1000 miles up the Amazon. By 1912, the boom was over and Manaus reverted once more to a sleepy town. Henry Wickam is referred to as “Amazon’s Executioner” by the Brazilians. He was knighted by the Brits!

Today Manaus has reinvented itself as an industrial city and has been granted Free Trade Zone status by the Brazilian government. It is a hub for air, water and truck  (only 2 roads in this part of the world) transportation and we saw huge numbers of ocean-going tankers and cargo ships plying the river and trucks filled with soy beans depositing their loads at the port.

There is a huge market for all kinds of produce and fish (Picture 4). Boats line the river (Picture 5) and ferry people to local villages, as well as to further ports, such as Belem. The amount of boat traffic explains why the Rio Negro is filled with floating gas stations (Picture 6).

The city was honored when Brazil chose it to host several opening games for the World Cup next year. Of course this required a new stadium and a bridge across the Rio Negro. (There are no bridges across the Amazon.) Only 18,000 people live on the other side of the river, so it is their “bridge to nowhere”!