In Manaus

 We went into Manaus to look for help with our rooftop air conditioner. Since we got a leak fixed in Chile it has been cooling less as though there is another leak, but the problem is no one deals with RVs here in northern Brazil. One guy looked at it very kindly but had no clue. We’ve gone to others but this is a town where technicians go to fixed a/c units in peoples’ home and their shops are empty by day. So we will have to make do with what we’re getting from the unit, a string blower but not a lot of cold air. The result of all this was a drive around town and not in the best neighborhoods. This is Manaus a city with a not great reputation in neighborhoods where tourists don’t go and probably shouldn’t. We started by looking for six quarts of engine oil, 5w20 is not a common weight. They had it but no filters, but I have two left so that’s okay.  Jeep dealers have them as a last expensive resort. 

It looked like red licorice to me but it’s synthetic and at five bucks a quart it’s a deal. I have the oil changed every 5,000 miles and the odometer is at 119,500 miles so we’ll do it in Boa Vista, a smaller more easily managed city 500 miles north. 

Then the a/c and they kindly took a look with no result. 

Carrefour, a French supermarket we also saw in Argentina, is currently Layne’s favorite. 

And Rusty got a walk. 

Nice clean and modern open 24 hours:

Some rather strangely named cheese:

This was Wednesday (the “fourth useful day of the week” in Portuguese, I kid you not) and it was time to go home and we arrived just before dark. We don’t like to be on the streets among night owls. 

Thursday we went out to see if we could get the a/c done. Rusty stayed home and we were back by lunchtime with a roadside roast chicken and no air conditioning success. 

I find drivers polite and patient on the whole with no horn honking. The streets are paved with a form of hard rocky road ice cream. We bounce mercilessly through the ripples and over the lumps; it’s awful. Latin American cities are all cursed with underfunded street maintenance budgets making city driving a literal pain in the ass. But (below) if you want a vaccination there’s a company that will come to your home or workplace and I’ll bet it’s affordable. We are fully vaccinated against everything. Yellow fever can get you in Amazonia so they know the value of a jab around here. 

Not the greatest neighborhood, Cidade Nova (“new town”) and you can see we’ve had some rain. 

Gas is ruinously expensive, about $5:50 a gallon(“gasolina commun” not the 100% ethanol) but 30% of it is ethanol so our mileage isn’t great at the same time. Add to that Brazil is huge and distances especially in the north are endless. We are budgeting $850 a week in this country. 

Lava Jato means car wash. If you speak Spanish you may think you can speak Portuguese but this is a language as spoken that will spank you. I think I know how to say credit card now. “Carton de cray-shee-toe”

Layne got a passing shot of a taxi stand, but we’ve only seen motorcycle taxis, no cars. Apparently they do have Uber in Manaus which is what we would use. I rode a moto taxi in the past and I’m not doing that again. 

The pharmacist used Google translate when we went to get diarrhea medicine for Layne. In these countries you take your symptoms to the pharmacy and if you need a doctor they’ll let you know. Cheap quick and efficient, medicines cost next to nothing here for us.

Layne crossed the street to buy a roast chicken and they turned it into an encounter and walked Layne back through the traffic carrying her lunch for her. As Layne said it’s not the kind of service you’d get in the States, we are privileged. 

Tomorrow we take a formal tour of the city including the opera house but here ended today’s tour with thanks to Layne for many of the photos.