Blog da Virginia Costa

Praça Heliodoro Balbi is also called by the locals as Police's Place. In this building below, restored in 2008, is now the Palacete Provincial which holds five museums inside. I didn't have time to visit them but I am sure it is worth the visit.  Em 2004 a praça também abrigava o prédio do Comando Geral da Policia Militar do Estado, onde outrora existia o Palacete Provincial. Em 2008 o prédio foi restaurado  para ser um dos mais novos espaços culturais da cidade, recebendo novamente o nome de Palacete Provincial que abriga cinco museus em seu interior.   C lose to Praça Heliodoro Balbi there is a real place to try guaraná, the  Casa Do Guarana Saterê.  Inside this small door, this family business has been doing all kinds of drinks with it and aça í  since 1987.  Guaraná, açaí, and soy come  “in natura” from small producers of the Amazon region. They are brought to the company where they are classified, cleaned, and pr...

  The Mercado is located by the port and it is also being remodeled. It is as dirty and crowded as almost all markets. I would never miss this one. The beautiful iron construction dates from 1883.   Banana chips are made from these huge bananas ( pacova) and it is sold on the streets. They taste exactly like potato chips.  The pirarucu is found only in the Amazon Basin. It lives in the calm waters of the river bank pools.  It is one of the biggest scaly freshwater fish in the world, reaching up to 3 meters long (118.11 inches) and 250 kilograms (113.5 pounds).  The pirarucu eats certain species of catfish and insects. It is known to leap out of the water and grab small birds from the overhanging trees.   They are living fossils belonging to the Osteoglossidae (bony tongue) family of fishes.      The "tongue" is about five inches long and bony. Its rough surface is used by natives as a rasp to smooth wood. Its scales are used as...

Ponta Negra Beach, Manaus   We took a cab to go to Praia Ponta Negra. It is completely different from downtown Manaus, I mean, there are lots of nice modern buildings and new sidewalks. The beach is still being remodeled as everything else in town. It is far and we spent paid a lot of money with the cab back and forth and I think it was not worth going there. Nowadays there is Uber so it might be better.  Restaurante Banzeiro, Manaus   At night we went to one of the famous restaurants, the  Banzeiro . They are specialized in Amazon food. Their Chef is Felipe Schaedler. He has received many awards. The dish for two is huge. Floating port, Manaus  As I mentioned before, Manaus is all about the river so the floating port plays a very important role. There are only a few roads so people use boats to go from one place to another. Sometimes it takes days.   We went in the low tide which is not pretty. This year they had the highest flood. Check ...

Manaus is all about the Amazon River but you've also got to see a few of its historical buildings. The famous Teatro Amazonas is a good starting point.  Its dome was built with 33 thousand pieces of pottery and depicts the colors of the Brazilian flag. Teatro Amazonas, Manaus From 1896, in European-inspired architecture - most of the materials used in the construction were brought from France and England.  Teatro Amazonas, Manaus No matter where you stand in the audience when you look at the paintings on the ceiling, you have the impression of being under the Eiffel Tower.  Manaus was a very wealthy city at the time the Teatro was built. People got really rich because of the rubber/latex tree  (seringueira). Teatro Amazonas, Manaus Women of that time thought their dresses would get ruined if they were cleaned with the dark water from the Rio Negro, so instead, they had them shipped all the way to Europe just to get them washed. The complete Teatro...