February 27 – Manaus, Brazil

February 27, 2017 – Manaus, Brazil
Last night they showed the Oscars in the theater. They set up a special bar and had special cocktails. They also had bags of popcorn. There were 12 of us in the theater. The red carpet show started at 9pm and the Oscars didn’t start until 10:30pm. By 11:30pm, I decided to go back and watch it on my cabin TV. The commercials can’t be shown so a red screen with an image of an Oscar was shown instead. I fell asleep during the first break after getting into bed. I didn’t know about the Best Picture problem until this morning.
Two days ago I got a message that my Flora and Fauna tour in Manaus was cancelled because the zoo and park will be closed for Carnaval when we are there. Last night, on the daily schedule for today, we learned that we arrive at Manaus at 10am but most shops will be closing at 1pm and stay closed until March 1.
After breakfast we headed out to go to the Opera House to see if we could get a tour. It started pouring rain as we left the port area. We were soaked by the time we got to the Opera House. The worst part was crossing streets because the gutters were very full and rivers of rain water had to be walked through. We took an opera house tour that took us into the theater and up to rooms on the 2nd floor. The rain stopped before we were done with the tour. Linda and I walked to an art museum but it was closed. We checked with the Tourist Information center and they said that the Opera House was the only museum/attraction that would be open today and tomorrow. We asked about a bus tour and found out there it’s one tomorrow at 9am. We will do that if it isn’t raining like today.
We arrived back at the ship just after noon and went to lunch after changing out of our wet clothes.
Parked behind the ship were ferries that are used to transport people up and down the Amazon. Passengers bring their own hammocks and string them up for sleeping during the trip. Some can also carry cars and trucks in addition to the people.
They had a local folkloric group give one show at 9:30pm last night. They were very good. At the end they were dressed for Carnaval and pulled audience members up to the stage to dance with them.
We learned that produce was delivered yesterday but all the berries were rejected. The rumor mill says that Seattle is having a special delivery sent to Barbados. Hopefully we will have berries for our last 4 days.