Tropical Hotel: Part 2, The Dinner Show

After the conference ended, the original plans were to go to the Tiwa
Resort across the Rio Negro, but due to the conference going over time,
we were invited instead out to the hotel pool where there was an elegant
patio with tables set up and, a little further to the side, a stage area
where they were preparing for the evening's entertainment. Our team
leader was looking a bit exhausted since he had been sitting on stage
for nearly three hours unable to understand most of what was being said
around him (he didn't make Ary translate all night, only his speech),
and apparently he'd brought some work with him, which he was reading and
revising discreetly on stage. So when drinks were served, he ordered a
beer and drank it quickly, somewhat relieved, but 40 minutes and two
drinks later, dinner still had not begun. He and his wife said they were
too tired and they decided to leave before dinner was served or the
night's entertainment began, but Jing and I stayed behind with Ary to
see the show.
Around 10pm they announced the buffet was open and we all took turns
going up and piling our plates high with lots of Brazilian treats, such
as pirarucu fish fillets, red beets, manioc root (which is similar to
white asparagus in appearance), in addition to a selection of other
meats and veggies. During dinner the show began, which turned out to be
a Boi Bumba performance, an Amazonian music and dance parade/festival
that has dancers dressed in Carnival-like costumes. The festival is put
on every June (I had just missed it my previous trip), but this was a
special "mini" performance for the guests. There was nothing "mini"
about the performance to our eyes, though; the grandeur of the costumes
and dancing was stunning. When an 8-foot jaguar model was rolled out
with people dancing around it, our jaws dropped, but Ary told us the
ones used in the festival in June were at least three times that size.
The show was absolutely amazing and we watched in awe as some 30-plus
performers--two teams, one red and one blue--danced with a seemingly
endless amount of energy, spinning, waving their arms, jumping up and
down, some swirling sparklers, others spinning torches, everyone kicking
their legs high up in the air and smiling emphatically. At one point
roman candles were shot into the sky, but one fireball caught the
outside wall of the hotel and a small flame ignited. It smoldered for a
while until someone jumped on the back of the 8-foot jaguar, was wheeled
nearby and extinguished the flames, all during which the music and the
dancers did not miss a beat. At midnight the show came to an end, the
two teams announcing a draw for the night (although the red team had won
this past June), and a massive fireworks display was launched--without
incident. The dancers hung around as the crowd rushed up to them to get
pictures together with the performers, as did Jing and I, before then
calling it a night, bidding Ary goodnight and grabbing a taxi back to
our hotel, giddy and talking about the evening.

Tropical Hotel: River, Zoo and Lounge

On the third weekend after Jing arrived, we attended an event at the
Tropical Hotel along with my team leader and his wife. He was giving a
speech at the environmental law conference there, and luckily the
conference didn't require formal attire. Arriving early, we waited for
our translator Ary to arrive, as well as one of the project organizers
from our Brazilian counterpart. In Brazil, people and events are rarely
on time, so we stood around in the lobby for quite some time, but
eventually they arrived, however, only to tell us that the event itself
was running an hour behind schedule and instead of speaking at 6:45, the
speech would probably be around 8pm.
While our team leader headed into the event, he told the three of us we
should wander around the hotel grounds and look around. The conference
would be entirely in Portuguese, so we could just come in before 8
o'clock and see his speech. I'd been to the hotel in June just to look
around and sit by the Rio Negro one weekend after playing tennis with my
coworkers. The Tropical Hotel is considered the most luxurious hotel in
Manaus and it does have a beautiful view of the waterfront, so I took
the ladies down the path of steps through a small forested area to where
we could see the river. I was surprised at how much the waters had
receded in the past two months, since when I was there in June, the
waters were at their highest (and this year was a record level due to
snow melt in the Andes mountains apparently). There was actually some
beach where we could walk and we took a few pictures as the sun began to
set.
Before dark, we headed up to the hotel courtyard where they had a small
zoo... that is, if you can call a half dozen caged animals a zoo. There
was a bored-looking jaguar in one cage, two sleeping aardvark-looking
things in another, and finally, a large caged in area of woolly monkeys,
which were actually pretty fun to watch as they hopped around seemingly
bemused to entertain their guests by swinging with their tails, feet and
hands along the sides and top of the cage. But soon the sun had set and
we headed inside to the lounge to have a coffee and chat to kill some
time, listening to stories about our team leader and his wife who had
traveled to numerous countries over the years for his business trips.
Sometimes they brought their boys with them, once to Chile and once to
Tanzania, although the boys were apparently too young and claim they
don't remember those adventures, but do seem to have a penchant for
travel of their own, having taken trips overseas for leisure over the
years as adults.
The clock neared 7:30pm, so we went into the conference room. It was a
large room with seating for well over 100, but, as it turned out, there
was a big FIFA game between Brazil and Argentina that evening at 9pm, so
most of the conference attendees had already begun to depart and there
were plenty of empty seats. However, the speech was well received and he
even managed to get a couple laughs from the audience that was there. He
kept his speech rather brief, after which more people departed the room,
and the conference dragged on until 9pm--apparently environmental
attorneys are not big football fans.

Skipping the Opera

The first weekend in September there was a conference for environmental law in Amazonas State being held by the Public Attorneys' Office, SUFRAMA and a few other organizations. Since the conference had a number of sessions closely related to the project we are involved in, our team leader was asked to give a speech on Saturday evening at the Tropical Hotel. However, the night before that, there was an opening being held at the Manaus opera house, the Teatro Amazonas, which was constructed in the late 19th century. It is a beautiful building, reminiscent of the time when Manaus was said to be the Paris of South America and an oasis in the rainforest.
I'd seen the opera house's exterior during my first trip to Manaus in June and was told I would attend the opening Friday evening, where the Governor of Amazonas would be giving a speech, followed by cocktails and hors d'oeuvres. We were told to bring our wives and that it would be a formal event, which is all fine and good except that neither I nor Jing had packed formal attire for such an event, and, as it turned out, neither did the team leader's wife, so we said our wives would not join us, and I arranged to borrow someone's navy blue Polo blazer. However, after repeated inquiry, we were told it wasn't required that we attend and, no, we wouldn't be formally introduced to the Governor, but we should attend and wear black ties and suits. Our team leader decried in private that such events are excruciatingly boring, and if he wanted to see the opera house, he'd do so as a tourist on the weekend wearing casual clothes, so he called the organizers and said he would have to decline the invitation to the opening but would be present to give his speech the following evening.
As it turned out, since I'd told Jing that we wouldn't be going to the opera house, that afternoon she ventured out of the hotel and took a tour herself. She walked about 30 minutes, map in hand, and arrived at Teatro Amazonas just in time for an English guided tour, of which she showed me the pictures afterward. When that was over, she headed over to the Provincial Palace, where I had been in June (see here) and recommended highly to her. It's the old military police headquarters, recently structurally restored and converted into a new museum which opened in May 2009. I knew she'd love the gallery on the first floor showing works by Brazilian painters, mostly from Amazonas, and photographers, as well as the other exhibits. She reported that the tour was wonderful, and the staff there were so friendly. It was the same impression I'd had and I was glad she was able to go and enjoy herself. After her time at the museum, she was directed on how to take a city bus back to the hotel, and, since my attendance at the opening was canceled, I returned to the hotel not much later. Funny that in the end she was the one that went to the opera house, and although she didn't meet the Governor, she did have a good time.

The Proposal

The second week after Jing arrived in Manaus, she still hadn't really
gone out from the hotel during the day. This is mainly due to the fact
that, a) it is extremely hot during the day in Manaus, with temperatures
in the upper 30s (90s), and b) without knowing Portuguese, it is not so
easy to navigate your way around. The weekend before we had gone on the
Amazon boat tour, which was fun, and during the following week we went
out to both Suysei and Gaucho's for dinner with my colleagues, but I
wanted to go somewhere alone together. During one of my trips out to buy
equipment for work, I found that Millennium shopping center, not so far
from our hotel, had a movie theater. Later, I checked online and found
that they had a couple movies playing in English with Portuguese
subtitles. One of them was The Hangover, which Jing had already seen
with her friends, and the other was The Proposal, the summer comedy
starring Sandra Bullock that I'd seen posters for all over town in July
while I was in Chicago. So that Thursday, I got home as early as I could
and we quickly ate a nice dinner that Jing had prepared. Then we jumped
in a taxi and headed over to Millennium to see the movie.
The movie theater is up on the 3rd floor and looks pretty much like any
cinema you'd see in the U.S. We bought our tickets and selected our
seats from a screen, choosing two pretty much in the middle of the
theater. After buying some popcorn and soda, we walked into the theater
about five minutes before starting time and saw only two other people
sitting in there; two guys in their 40s. It was a small theater,
granted, but we were surprised when we realized the seats we had chosen
were exactly next to them. I thought of moving to different seats, but
thought that might be a little rude and decided to wait and see what
empty seats there were once the movie started.
Just before the trailers began, a steady stream of people came in and
took their seats, and although there were still plenty of open spots,
the seats were fairly expansive, and we had the armrest between us
pulled up so we could sit together in a sort-of love seat (and for those
who must know, the two guys next to us did have the armrest between
them). We got comfortable and began chomping on the over-salted, but
not-too-bad popcorn and sipping our sodas as the trailers began.
Although most of the audience, I presume, was reading the sub-titles,
there was laughter during the movie, not least of which was coming from
Jing sitting next to me, although I did my fair share of guffawing,
giggling and chortling.
At the end of the movie, we remained to watch the credits, which I've
grown accustomed to do since moving to Japan, where it is common for
people to remain seated with the house lights off until the very last
credits role past (I've been told this is "out of respect" for all the
people involved in making the movies). However, I was reminded that this
is not customary in other parts of the world when the house lights came
on after seconds and the entire room got up and exited promptly so that
only Jing and I sat there, feeling in the way since the staff were
immediately at the ready to clean up the theater, which was, indeed, a
big mess. We gathered ourselves together and exited the theater, threw
away half the bag of popcorn, washed up and headed back outside to catch
a taxi back to the hotel. A fun little date overall and a nice break
from the work week for me.

The usual eateries

My coworkers and I have settled into a selection of about three
restaurants around town that we frequent when we go out to eat:

Suysei: An all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant run by an elderly
Japanese couple, and their well-mannered cat Goro. We always get there
before 7:15pm and someone turns on the TV, which is set to the Japanese
channel, NHK, to watch a 15-minute television show about some girl with
a radio show (I don't know the show very well, but the theme song gets
stuck in my head, annoyingly). The food at Suysei is amazing, with a
large selection of sashimi, always some pickled veggies like cucumber
and daikon radish, of course rice and miso soup, often a burdock root
salad, and then a rotating selection of tempura, grilled fish, Chinese
dumplings, and once in a while a Japanese brown curry.

Gaucho's Churrascaria: The Brazilian bbq place of choice, mainly because
it is not too far from our hotel and they have shuttle service. It's
kind of fun getting shuttled in to stuff yourself with fine cuts of
meat, from filet mignon to picanha to cow tongue and more, until you
just can't eat anymore... and then getting shuttled back to your hotel
room and bed. Gaucho's gets most of its customers later around 9pm, but
we get there around 7:30 and order a round of Bohemia beers, then hit
the salad bar for some token veggies. Minutes later we have toasted our
glasses of beer and are inundated by a seemingly endless stream of
waiters out of the kitchen with big cuts of meat on skewers. This place
is also all-you-can-eat and you can select anything you want. They also
get creative with things like sausage wrapped in bacon, chicken chunks
covered in cheese, garlic covered picanha rumpsteak, and grilled
pineapple, not to mention ox tail, bull back hump, and other cuts I
didn't even know exist.

"The fish restaurant": A place just a short walk from the hotel, and one
of the only eateries near the hotel. They always have friendly service,
sitting outside at tables on a patio (well, the sidewalk, really), and
we usually order a tambaqui fillet or their tucunare soup, which comes
with rice, salad and potato fries.

Other than those, you can take a taxi to one of the shopping centers to
get something at their food courts, or down to Manaus Port to a
chopperia (bar&grill) for some draft beer and snacks, maybe pizza. Of
course, you can always get a sandwich from the hotel bar as well, which
really are not half bad.

On packing

Before heading out of Manaus and back to Japan, I had started packing 3
days before, and 24 hours before leaving the hotel, I was fully packed
and ready to go. I realized that it's a lot easier to pack when
returning home rather than going somewhere; no need to think about what
to bring, you just have to fit everything in your suitcase. That gave me
some relief the night before to get some work done and clear my
conscience a bit before finishing this assignment. I ordered some room
service--a burger and a Skol beer from the hotel bar--and got all my
files together, chatted on Skype with a few people, did a last check on
things, and got to bed at a reasonable hour. I usually don't like to
stay inside my last night somewhere, but I had done quite a lot of
sightseeing this time around, so I was content... not to mention that
I'll be back in less than 2 months.

Playing Catch-up

Unfortunately, the blog got put to the wayside between exploring Manaus,
working, eating and having time to relax. I have a ton of things to post
though, and two long flights ahead of me where I'm planning to jot some
things down, so stay tuned.
To work backwards though, I am now in Sao Paulo airport waiting for my
flight to New York and then Tokyo. I had originally booked a mid-day
flight from Manaus to connect here, but that flight was cancelled and I
had to take a 7am flight, which left me with about a 9-hour layover.
I managed to kill a couple hours eating lunch and then finding a wall
socket in the airport to plug in my laptop and write some emails to
people, but after that I was edging to get out of the airport. People
watching is fun sometimes, but people in transit usually have
zombie-like expressions on their faces, and that was creeping me out
after a while (not to mention the fear that my own expression was
looking somewhat undead).
So I had a look on the Internet and found out that, even though the
airport is too far from the city center to really go and have a look
around without fear of missing my flight, I did have the option of
checking out a shopping center about 20 minutes away. I asked at
information and found there was a bus, so I headed outside, found the
bus stop and waited. 30 minutes later I was in the shopping center, but
it looked painfully like any other shopping center in the world, and I
had made the mistake of not putting my carry-on bags in a locker at the
airport.
After entertaining the thought of seeing a movie, I thought better of it
being that there will be movies on the flight (although if The Hangover
had been showing in English and not Portuguese, I may have gone for it
anyway), so instead I wandered around until I found... a bowling ally. I
figured "what the hey" and sauntered on in. I got to my lane, put down
my bags, and slipped on my my rental bowling shoes. It was a good way to
kill 90 minutes and I hadn't been bowling for what seems like a long
time. Didn't do too well score-wise, but at least I hit 145 at one point
over the 5 or 6 games I played.
After that, it was back to find the shuttle bus back to the airport and
check in. So that was my day in Sao Paulo; not nearly as excruciating as
I had feared.