Young Brazilian women flaunt themselves along the shore while plenty of beer and caipirinha drinks are served.
It could be a street scene anywhere in Rio but this is Manaus, a city in the Amazon jungle. After church, young and old can be found swarming the banks of the giant Ponta Negra river.
While tourists marvel at the opera house and the cathedral, the locals prefer to take a cooling bath in the blue-black waters or down a cold beer.
From September to January, the crowds take a siesta along the sandy beach as the water level recedes. Last year, it was particularly dry any many tributaries of the river and lakes had hardly any water. The water itself is quite clean though.
But only few tourists have discovered this unusual Sunday party in the suburb of the city of 1.5 million inhabitants. The Rio Negro is virtually free of mosquitos because the water carries few nutrients and lots of humin acid. The insects, however, are plentiful in the Rio Solimous river. Both rivers join each other about 10 kilometres downstream from Manaus.
Thanks to the rubber boom of the 19th century, Manaus was once one of the world's wealthiest cities. Seed smugglers eventually killed the monopoly and ended the sumptuous lifestyle. Plantations in south-east Asia soon provided the world with rubber at a much cheaper price.
Today, the opera house built in 1896, and a few colonial buildings bear testimony to the once glorious past.
It takes only a 20-minute walk from the opera to the markets and harbour installations. Hotel ships regularly dock in the port. Only a short distance away, the real Amazonian jungle life begins. The local lancha boats ferry Indian farmers, mothers with their babies and tourists from Berlin to New York.
A trip to the coast in Belem, some 1,800 kilometres away, takes about 60 hours. A ticket in the cool, upper deck costs about 121 dollars. Prices in the lower decks are cheaper.
However, most of the adventure seekers prefer taking a two or three-day boat trip to a jungle village. Three-day tours with simple accommodation aboard in a hammock or a stay with a family including three meals can be negotiated for about 73 dollars.
For more information, check the internet web site: www.braziltour.com
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