Splash Pizzaria

When walking around the Amazon Theater, I saw they had a nice outdoor patio area near some restaurants at the back. One of them was Splash pizza; it was about 3pm on a Sunday and apparently nothing is really open in Manaus at that time.
After checking out some other sights, it got dark so I headed back over to Splash pizza. By then there were plenty of people there, so I sauntered in and had a gander at what they had on offer. I ordered two large slices; one topped with sun-dried tomatoes, and the other is cheese & olive with a cream sauce instead of tomato sauce under the cheese. Both tasted great with the Brahma Extra cerveja.

The Jewel of the Amazon

Teatros Amazonas in Manaus, Brasil

On Sunday I decided to take a taxi down to Teatros Amazonas, one of the star attractions of Manaus. After many years of start-and-stop construction, the theater was completed in 1896. Although it wasn't open to tour, they do have free philharmonic orchestras and operas one can attend:
The theater itself is indeed very beautiful, although I had a hard time finding a good vantage point to get a proper picture of it (not that anyone couldn't find some nicer shots online).
It really is an impressive structure, especially when you consider it was built in the 19th century in the middle of the Amazon jungle. In the 100+ years since then, Manaus has grown to a city of almost 2 million, and there are a few other buildings with the same elegance dotted around town. However, for the most part, Manaus is a city like most others. It remains small, all things considered, due to its remote location. However, this adds to the sense of adventure just being here.
Not to mention the annual film festival held every year since 2004 in Manaus which celebrates action films. The event is held at the Teatros Amazonas--as well as the Tropical hotel, considering almost all the famous people who attend stay there--and brings in plenty of big names from the film industry. Our projects' translator (one of the best in Brasil) has, in fact, translated for Steven Segal; not that grunts are difficult to render in any language, but still ;)

Lunch Buffet

There is a fairly good buffet available for lunch at our offices here in Manaus. Here is a picture of the cafeteria, as well as the selection I made the other day. Also, as you can see in the picture, beets seem to be extremely popular in Brazil; they are available every day as part of the large salad bar. There are also always 2 or 3 rice dishes, a large selection of meats, and 1 or 2 pasta dishes. This meal here cost me about R$9 (or $4.50), which seems pretty reasonable.Yes, I've become a fan of orange Fanta.
There is an interesting system in place to pay for lunch. Upon entering the cafeteria, a lady gives you a piece of paper on which a guy writes the cost of your plate based on weight, plus $R2 for a soda. After finishing your meal, you bring the paper back to the same guy, pay for your meal, and he stamps it "Pago". This is then handed back to the lady at the door as you exit.

Morning oddity

On the morning drive to work, while waiting at a stoplight, I looked ahead of us and noticed "a very tall person". Upon closer inspection, a clown on stilts juggling... at 8am... for no apparent audience other than people waiting in their cars at the red light.

Black River Day

Saturday morning we were picked up at 8:30 am by one of the guys we're working with here to head to the Rio Negro where he had a 20ft. cruiser. A friend of his met us at the dock to steer the boat, and as we waited for them to get the boat in the water, we stocked up on Bohemia and Skol, two of the beers widely available here. Below is a picture of me as we motored past the Tropical, Manaus' star hotel, on our way downstream.
Our first destination was the bridge they are constructing over the Rio Negro, which will greatly help in connecting Manaus--a city of 1.2 million--with the rest of Brazil. The bridge straddles an 8 1/2 kilometer wide section of the river. The project is well underway, as you can see from the picture, and is slotted for completion in June 2010.

After that, we stopped at a little resort called Tiwa Amazonas Ecoresort, located near the far end of this bridge, where they had bungalows, a restaurant, a pool and other services for weekend stays at about R$650 per night. During our short tour, as we crossed a bridge over a small fish pond, we were greeted by "Big Head", the parrot(?) in the picture below. The guide passed bread around and I handed Big Head a piece, which he grabbed with his foot. He then proceeded to hang out on the railing with one foot around the bread, chewing it occastionally as if he was mingling at a picnic party.
Our next stop, as we headed back upriver, was lunch at Restaurante Da Doro, a floating restaurant.

Our host had called ahead to order the 12-kg char-grilled fish, which was ready for us when we got there. The thick, meaty white fish came with slices of lime and a mildly spicy orange sauce which tasted great. My colleagues and I stuffed ourselves until the fish was almost completely consumed, washing it down with our last bottles of Bohemia.

After lunch, since we'd been out for four hours by this point, we headed back to port. It was a fun day, with beautiful weather and sights to see.

Laundry Before Language

I successfully did a load of laundry at the laundromat located just down the street from our hotel. It actually was not a "coin laundry" per se since there was an operator who turned the machines on from behind a counter. The operator was a nice woman though who, although at first looked a little panicked when I told her I didn't speak Portuguese (in English), helped me out with gestures. I did manage to ask "Quando tempo?", which I think/hope means "how much time?" and she answered "Quatro minutos" or something like that.
I took a walk around town, heading over to a drug store first where I bought a toothbrush and shaving cream. I brought the items to the counter and the woman used a computer to ring up the items. She must have punched in about two dozen numbers (the UPC numbers?) and then proceeded to hit a series of keys which included the F2 and F4 keys, before she eventually told me the total. I handed her a R$50, which is what I found solves the problem of not understanding when they tell you the total. I made sure to say "Abrigado" before leaving at least.
I then strode back past the laundromat again, but still had a good 20 minutes, so took a right at the corner and found an ice cream shop. The tubs of ice cream weren't labeled and I wasn't really sure how to order, but eventually saw they had "Milk Shake" on the menu board, so I went up to the cashier and said that. She rang me up for R$6 and gave me the receipt. I walked over to the guy behind the ice cream cases and handed him my receipt, to which he responded by asking me something--probably "what flavor", so I pointed to vanilla. Five minutes later I was headed back to the laundromat sipping on one of the best vanilla milk shakes I've ever had.
When I got back to the laundromat, my clothes were ready for the dryer so I transferred them and motioned to the operator, but she waved me over, gave me a little token, which I then put in the dryer slot. The LED screen lit up with a 25 so I sat down and read my book.
Overall, it took about 2 hours, but it was a nice way to spend the late afternoon, and I got some reading done, not to mention some time to explore the neighborhood.

Brazilian Barbecue

Last night we went to Gauchos Churrascaria, a Brazilian steak house where they serve up fresh cuts of meat right off the spit. Waiters walk around with glistening meats and a knife and you either nod your head, liking your lips or... well, one look and there is no other option, really:Almost as soon as we were seated, they brought us tiny, stemmed shot glasses and filled them with caipirinha, a Brazilian liquor made from sugar cane. After a toast, we were offered a tour of the kitchen. We walked back through the kitchen doors and took a gander at the huge wood-burning oven where they had dozens of spits slow-cooking sirloin (picanha), sausage (lingüiça) prime rib (alcatra) and so much more. They passed me a spit of meat to pose with, and that's another consultant here giving me moral support: Churrascaria steak houses also always feature a buffet. It would be a disservice to call it a salad bar because it is filled not only with veggies and fruit of every kind, but they also have different rice dishes, pasta and sushi. Nevertheless, I only made it over there once to fill up my plate, which you can see below, since I was simply enjoying the meat and beer!We wobbled out of there a couple hours later feeling like we ate (and possibly did eat) a whole cow and all of the 3 little pigs. A good steak dinner is one thing, but it's entirely different to have fresh, juicy cuts of meat served continuously until you just can't take it anymore. I actually think there may have been some sort of time limit, but there was never a minute there are not 5 or 6 guys walking around the restaurant with spits of meat, and for however long we were there, I ate pretty much constantly.
At the end of the night, as a sort of denouement, we clamored into a Gauchos van--with pictures of meat emblazzoned on the side--to take advantage of their shuttle service back to our hotel.