Manaus
Manaus (pronounced with a ‘sh’ sound at the end) was an interesting stop. It’s a huge port city – but 1500 km from the nearest ocean. One million people live in this metropolis – but it’s isolated in the middle of the Amazon rain forest. And, it’s famous for… opera?
More importantly for us, it’s the home of the Amazon Antique Car Club. Our new buddy Alvino’s family has a hotel in the city center and he set us up for our stay. Later, our new buddy Alex came by and we went to his house to fix our major oil leak. After pulling the motor and replacing the main seal, it was still leaking. So, we pulled the engine a second time and did it again. That seemed to do the trick.
An umbrella is useful at all times in this city. You never have to put it down. It’s either pouring rain or scorching hot.
We wandered a bit and got our last acai na tigela. Bode is sad that this may be the end of it.
We tried the local dish, tacaca. It’s soup, but oddly, you eat it with a single stick. It was pretty good, but as usual, I wish they would remove the cascas.
We even got lucky and scored a special outdoor opera one night in front of the famous Teatro Amazonas. Operas are far better when they are free, outside, and viewed from a sidewalk cafe with beer in hand. Trust me.
On our final night, the guys from the club picked us up and took us on a cruise around town to see a few more sights. We drove across the Rio Negro on the Manaus Iranduba Bridge. Apparently, the most expensive bridge (by length) in the world.
We’ve definitely got ‘family’ in Manaus, and it feels pretty good. Thanks for everything, guys!
Love that picture of the bridge cables (at least I think that’s what it is)!! Different subject… any helpful hints learned on main seal replacing? Had similar experience of replacing mine to find it not much better when the job was done.
The opera looks lovely! How do you eat the soup — do you slurp and stab?
Stab the shrimp and green stuff (it makes your lips numb), and slurp the rest right out of the bowl…
Chris – make sure you replace both seals when you’re in there (the big one in the case, and the smaller o-ring in the flywheel.) Use RTV on the big one and cross your fingers before you put it all back in the bus…
glad to see you’re eating shrimp again.
Thanks for the tips! Saw a T shirt at a show over the weekend that made me think of you guys. Had a line drawing of a bay window Westy and the caption “Home Is Where The Bus Is.”
very unusal looking muffler, seems small and would think it would rob some power
Mark – I hate it. But, no other choice.
What about this one:
http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-483711272-escapamento-dimensionado-modpuma-p-fusca-kombi-_JM