Making the most of Manaus
Use these notes to shape a realistic day ashore, then confirm any time-sensitive information for the date of your call.
Arriving at the port
Ships use Porto Flutuante, the floating docks engineered to rise and fall with the river’s greatly changing level. Town begins directly at the docks.
The main sights can all be walked to from the dock, although the town is hilly.
With 2 million people, Manaus is the Amazon’s largest city and a major ocean-vessel port, despite being 1500km from the ocean.
Carry a printable map.
Once the world centre of rubber production, Manaus became very wealthy, and the riches of the primeval forest are first visible in its architecture. Enriched rubber barons afforded Europe’s greatest luxuries, including Teatro Amazonas, modelled on the Grand Opera de Paris. Other monuments of this period include Mercado Municipal, copied from Paris’s Les Halles market halls, and the Rio Palacio Negro arts centre among compelling Portuguese facades. Manaus is now a foreign trade zone where foreign enterprises pay no import duties, guaranteeing a certain income for the city and…
Teatro Amazonas, or the Opera House, is one of Manaus’s main attractions. Completed in 1896 at the height of the rubber economy that made the city one of the world’s richest, it is spectacular. Construction moved slowly across fifteen years, with stops and restarts from 1885 to 1892. Alsace supplied roofing tiles; Paris supplied Louis XV furniture and furnishings, much from Koch Fréres; Italy supplied Carrarra marble for stairs, statues and columns; and England supplied steel walls. The theatre has 198 chandeliers, 32 in Murano glass. The curtain…
Getting around
Numerous river boats leave Manaus harbour, where the cruise terminal stands, for tours on the Amazon.
The tourist office organises guided tours every day except Sunday, often in English: R$10 for 30 minutes, between 9am and 4pm.
Food and shopping
Next to the pier is a newly built high-end shopping centre.
Manaus public market, excellent for shopping, is around a ten minute walk from the cruise terminal.
Vendor activity centres on Mercado Adolfo Lisboa, Rua Marcilio Dias, Rua Marechal Deodoro and streets around the cathedral. Apart from the Mercado, these are outdoor sites along busy streets, so be ready to bargain.
Money
The currency is the Brazilian Real.
Staying connected
Portuguese is spoken.
The new shopping center has an Internet cafe.
Opening Hours and
Most stores and businesses keep basic hours of 9am to 6pm, with an extended lunch break around noon to 2pm.
Many museums close on monday.
June’s Festival Folclórico do Amazonas includes a broad range of regional folklore performances and rehearsals by the Parintins Boi- Bumbá teams. On June 29, it ends with the St Peter River Procession, as hundreds of riverboats parade on the Rio Negro before Manaus to honour fishers’ patron saint.