There is actually a movie called "Bye Bye Brazil" on t.v. right now, and we are leaving Brazil, so naturally I thought this was the most appropriate title. We are currently heading back up the Amazon River and making our way over to Ghana, Africa. The ship was docked in Manaus, Brazil for 4 days. Manaus is the capital of the state of Amazonas and is an industrial city. I would not recommend anyone to come to Manaus unless they are using it as an entry point for the Amazon, which is why most tourists come here.
I spent the first day walking around the city with a couple people from the ship. There was not a whole lot to do except for visiting a popular opera house and people watching.
On the second day, Brian and I went on a Semester At Sea field trip. The trip included several small excursions, one of which was to a rubber museum. Manaus was at the center of the Amazon Region’s rubber boom in the 19th century until Brazil lost its monopoly on the product when the seeds of the rubber tree were smuggled out of the Amazon region. The museum gave a tour of a restored home of a large rubber baron, and showed us how rubber was made and shipped. First, they scratched a deep cut into the tree and attached a small cup to catch the white liquid. Once the liquid was collected, they slowly poured it over high heat and smoke until it turned solid. They then took these solid tubes and sold them abroad. Once a factory got it, they would melt it down again and then shape it into what ever they needed. It was pretty interesting because I had never known that rubber came from trees. Now it is all done in factories and they mostly use synthetic materials.
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