Manaus: 10th - 13th January 2026
10th January – Saturday
It was quite a relief to finally find ourselves docking in Manaus. Alan and Luis were gagging for a drink so the first thing we did was look for a bar. We walked quite a way and found a market, but all the stalls were closed. We asked around and several people directed us to go to the top of the hill where we found an open stall selling beers. The stall owner had tables and chairs so we dropped our bags and sat down and had a large bottle of beer each. OMG, it was so good, cold and refreshing – just what the doctor ordered. We then got a taxi and I got dropped off at the end of the road my hostel was on. It was a good ten minute walk but I was very merry and did it happily. The walk led me past the square where the Amazonas Theatre is and there was a free concert going on. My hotel was literally 3 minutes further up the road so I dropped my bags and off to the concert I went. I found a French couple sitting on the stairs of the Monumento a Abertura dos Portos as Nacoes Amigas, which is in the middle of the square, whom I recognised
from the boat and got chatting with them. It was good to have some company as I was not keen on the music and didn’t have the energy for walking around. They informed me that the boat for Belem leaves twice a week and they were booked on the next one which is on Wednesday. This is also my last booked day in Manaus so I think I will also get the same boat.
11th January – Sunday
I must stop spending the morning in bed and start going out earlier, even if it is raining like today. This morning I spent far too long deciding on my next destination, which will be Belem by boat and then a flight to Salvador. I went out at about midday and was upset to find that there had been a morning market 5 minutes walk from here which was in the process of packing up. I hope it is on tomorrow. I will go out early and see, I also need to go to the port to buy my boat ticket, and there are a lot of historical and architecturally beautiful Portuguese buildings here which I want to see.
At the top of the road, just before the market there was a street food stall which was just setting up for the afternoon, so I had food there. I’m not really sure what a lot of what I had was, obviously I recognised the beef, salt fish, pasta, rice and beans but there was a lot of salad type pasta stuff in white and pink sauce. It tasted ok, but some of it had the consistency of baby food! Anyway, it was cheap and filling and not chicken, which was fantastic.
After my food I headed down the hill and found myself near the port and where we had a drink last night after getting off the boat. It was quite an eerie walk as literally every shop was closed and there were hardly any people around, just a few drunks and drug addicts, so I didn’t hang around for long. I will go and check it all out properly tomorrow, hopefully the shops will be open and there will be more people around. On my way back up I took a couple of photos of the opera house, which is where the free concert was last night. It is such a beautiful building and the tiles on floor of the square are black and white and wavy, which is a little trippy. Unfortunately it was still raining so I got a bit wet taking the photos and it wasn’t long before I was back in my room.
This afternoon I got an Uber to a smoke shop, about 5 miles away, in the hope that they sold vapes or vape juice, they didn’t. They sold all the paraphernalia you need to smoke, but not to vape. I checked on G maps and couldn’t find any other shops that are open today, and from my experience of walking around the town earlier, I knew it was not worth looking around. So I will have to take it easy on my vape and hope it lasts until tomorrow.
Although it is really dead out there, I may go for a little walk as I have developed a headache and the rain
has finally stopped. However, I have read that Manaus is not as safe as most of the other towns I have visited and muggings are common. So perhaps just a walk down to the opera house and back will suffice, it is all main road and lit up so it should be relatively safe. I’ll leave my phone here and just carry a little bit of cash, enough for a beer and something to eat. I’m also wondering if the lady with the street food is still out as she had some interesting looking deep fried ball things, which I think are acaraje, which I read are a back-eyed pea ball filled with prawns and typically found in north Brazil. She also had some very delicious looking cakes, after all of the sweet coffee on the boat I could eat a sweet piece of cake right now. However, It is now 8pm, I expect she is at home preparing food for tomorrow!
A Little Later: I am so glad I went for that walk. Life has picked up around the square with many of the shops and bars open and people out enjoying their Sunday evening. There was even a clown to entertain the children. I should have taken my phone with me to take some photos, that’s the last time I get paranoid and leave it behind. Not only was my street food lady still out and very busy, there were 3 other stalls in the same vicinity, all busy with customers. I bought an acaraje as well as a caramel looking dessert with plantain on top. The acaraje was ok, but I found the prawns to be too salty and the vatapa filling, which is a crab, shrimp, cashew and coconut milk paste, not so delicious, again it had a baby food consistency and was quite bland all things considering. However, the desert thing was awesome, it was like a light caramel with a drizzle of caramel sauce topped with sweetened plantain, I had a mouthful to try, thought I’d save it for breakfast but ended up demolishing it. My belly is now overfull and any weight I lost from the food on the boat was just put back on in one sitting. I don’t think I’ll be having the acaraje again but I will definitely be up for another serving of that desert, but not tonight!
12th January – Monday
I am writing this on the 27th February, the day I am actually adding Manaus to this website. I cannot find my diary entries for this day or the 13th, which I am very upset about. It could even be that I didn’t write them, but I am sure I did.
In the morning I met up with Tilman and we went for breakfast. He took me to a fast food restaurant where mainly local people eat. I was spoilt for choice with all of the ‘snack’ foods available and settle for a cheese and ham slice and a triangle ball, both were delicious, and I have eaten many since then. After that we went for a walk with two missions in mind, finding a vape and buting my boat ticket.
It actually turned out that Manaus was not a big as we thought it was and we soon found ourselves down at the port. On route we passed the Municipal Clack of Manaus which was built in the early 20th century and is a key piece of European influenced architecture from the rubber boom era . We also saw quite a few other beautiful Portuguese colonial buildings and it was actually a delight to the eyes to see architecture that wasn’t influenced by Spain.
Buying my boat ticket was a breeze but locating a vape was impossible. We tried so many smoke and tobacco shops but they are just not available in Manaus and I didn’t see anyone vaping to ask them. Vaping is actually illegal in Brazil, so that is probably why. I have since seen a few places that sell them but mainly in the more affluent southern towns, however I now given up the vaping so the hunt for them is no longer an issue.
Once we had given up on the vape hunt we went for a beer back at the same market stall! I ordered a large beer thinking Tilman would join me but he does not drink alcohol. He told me he has a nervous condition of the face and due to this he cannot drink. He has a really bad squint, his tongue seems to doe it’s own thing and he is sensitive to loud noises, which explains why he didn’t like the music on the boat.
Tilman wanted to buy some T-shirts for two girls he looks after so after the drink we went T-shirt hunting. Unfortunately it started to pour down with rain and the roads quickly became flooded. It was amazing how fast it all happened. Not long after this we parted company.
In the evening Alan and Luis contacted me and I met them for a drink. They were leaving for Sao Paulo and thought it would be nice to say a last farewell.
13th January – Tuesday
I met up with Tilman again today. I can’t really remember what we did bar hang out by his hostel which is in the red light area and where all the night clubs are. I know we did have a walk around and at one point stopped for a drink in a cafe that was playing really loud music. Tilman asked the lady to turn it down, the look on her face was priceless. She turned it down for all of 5 seconds and then turned it back up again. I am not sure why Tilman decided we should drink in such a loud place considering his ear sensitivity. I kept telling him we could leave but he insisted on staying and trying to converse over the music, which wound me up a bit. In the evening we went for a beer, well I drank beer and he drank coke. I do remember buying some very delicious meat sticks from a street vendor who had set up across the road from the bar we were at. And really that is all I can recall so it couldn’t have been a very exciting or interesting day, but then not every day can be.