Grand South America & Antarctica Voyage, Manaus, Brazil, Day 2... Part 2 of 2

 Today, was a daylong adventure in experiencing the Amazon River up close and personal…Ann, Cathy and I left the ship at 7 am to meet our guide Aldinei at the cruise terminal. Aldinei gave us a choice, to go the Opera House or swim with dolphins first. I thought we should go swim with the dolphins first to beat the crowds…in the end this turned to be such a wise decision. We took the stairs down to the riverbed platform to board our six-passenger small boat. We sailed down river crossing under the Phillip Daou Bridge. We docked at a floating barge to swim with the pink dolphins. After this adventure we started our 13-mile boat ride to the Meeting of the Waters. Following the Negro River, the next thing we knew we were in a violent storm with the waves crashing into the boat…we all had visions of the boat being swamped. As well, the winds were pushing us closer to the rocks on shore. Our guide told us we would have to wait out the storm before we could proceed to the meeting of the waters or cross the river back to Manaus. It just wasn’t safe to do anything else…  I was working on safety strategies in my head, especially how to save my photos…  Wait it out we did, and the life jackets overhead were very reassuring…thankfully everything worked out. With the Amazon tributaries not passable due to the low water levels we decided to return to Manaus. Returning to the city we visited the Feira Manaus Moderna market…this market is huge and is divided by sections such as; fish, meat, fruits, vegetables, spices, etc.  What a great stop! The fish section is like a book of all the kinds of fish from the Amazon River. Next, we went to the spectacular Manaus Opera House.  The building stands out as one of the most stunning buildings in the city and most famous landmark in the heart of the Amazon rainforest. This lavish pink-and-white Opera House, known as the Teatro Amazonas, was built in 1896. This marvel of architecture features a dome of ceramic tiles imported from Europe, set in the colors of the Brazilian flag. The interior decoration of the opera house is extremely beautiful and lavishly decorated with various sculptures and columns all coming from Europe. We were very fortunate to tour the theatre while the cast and the Manaus’ Amazonas Philharmonic Orchestra were rehearsing for tonight’s opening performance of the Nutcracker. We returned to the ship and had a few more anxious moments on the tender with the turbulent waters of the river…we were happy to be back home safely on the ship. Despite the disappointment in not visiting the Amazon tributaries by boat, we had a very enjoyable day with a very knowledgeable Amazon guide Aldinei. Spent some quality time soaking up the sun on the back deck in the heat of the Amazon. Very early tomorrow morning we start our return journey out of the Amazon with a stop along the way in Alter do Chão.