We arrived just after dawn in Porto Velho. I took bus 301, destination “President Roosevelt”, from outside the Hotel Pontes for 35 Cruzados. It took me to the main shopping street where I checked into the Avenida Sete de Setembro, 1103 and got a double room for 600 Cruzados.
The reason that I was here was to get a boat along the Amazon to Manaus. Manaus is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It is is located at the east centre of the state in the centre of the world's largest rainforest, near the confluence of the Negro and Solimões rivers.
The city was founded in 1669 as the Fort of São José do Rio Negro. It was elevated to a town in 1832 with the name of "Manaus", an altered spelling of the indigenous Manaós peoples, and legally transformed into a city on October 24, 1848, with the name of Cidade da Barra do Rio Negro, Portuguese for "The City of the Margins of the Black River". On September 4, 1856, it returned to its original name.
It is famous for The Amazonas Opera House, inaugurated in 1896, which has 700 seats and was constructed with bricks brought from Europe, French glass, and Italian marble. More than 120 years old, it represents the city's heyday during the rubber boom. It was chosen by the magazine Vogue as one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world.
While I was in Manaus the Opera House was closed to the public as it was under renovation and covered by tarpaulins and scaffolding.
The girl on the Information Desk at the rodoviária de Porto Velho told me that the boat “Dois de Junho” left from Porto do Cai N´Água on Saturday at 18:00 hrs. and would cost 4,800 Cruzados for a hammock on the four-day trip.
I walked down Avenida 7 de Setembro to the river where the railway station was, decked out with white-washed brickwork and steam engines, like something from the Indian Raj. I found the two-storey boat “2 de Juhno” further down the river and learned that tickets went on sale at 09:00 hrs. tomorrow.
I walked back through the street market stalls in the tropical heat. Music blared from the many shops selling flip-flops, Bermuda shorts, vests and felt hats. Stalls displayed leather goods, nylon bags and digital watches. I bought some postcards and wrote them at the hotel.
For dinner I found a splendid restaurant, the Lindacap Restaurante, on the Rua Joaquim Nabuco, just along from it’s junction with the Avenida 7 de Setembro. Here you got as much as you could eat from a fine array for 300 Cruzados, called the Executive Lunch.
I posted my cards and walked up and down the lively Avenida 7 de Setembro with it’s noise and bustle and street traders. A lorry with a huge bank of speakers drove up and down blasting out music and, presumably, advertisements. Vinyl record stalls added to the noise.
I changed a travellers cheque in Guaportetur at 925 Avenida 7 de Setembro after waiting with a nervous young assistant for his boss to return. I also bought a sleeveless T-shirt and a capacious money belt. Female Police Officers patrolled the streets and I sipped a Coke and watched a traffic cop who blasted his whistle and almost danced through his traffic-directing routine.
At 16:30 hrs. I went to the flicks (cinema) to see “No Way Out”, a good, atmospheric suspense thriller set in the Pentagon. A coverup and witch hunt occur after a politician accidentally kills his mistress. “No Way Out” is a 1987 American neo-noir political action thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson and starring Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman, Will Patton and Sean Young. The film is based on the 1946 novel The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing.
When I came out it was dark but it seemed to have got hotter. Crickets chirruped and people roamed the street in summer wear. I like Porto Velho. It has a nice atmosphere. Cracked, irregular pavements and a pleasant musky scent in the air, and sometimes the smell of alcohol on the breeze.
After a cold shower to cool down I went out for a huge tuna pizza and a couple of Coca Colas. The streets were finally quiet when I walked back to the hotel for an early night at 20:30 hrs.
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