January 9th - The End of An Amazing Adventure on the Amazon

We slept in today! Our ship started its return to Manaus around 4AM and after our late breakfast we all took time to pack our bags and get ready for our disembarkation. Unbeknownst to everyone Tom and Wayne had planned one last surprise and as we neared Manaus we suddenly made a course change and headed up yet another tributary of the Rio Negro. We were instructed to transfer to the canoe and were taken to the dock of an historic rubber estate. There we wandered the grounds of this mid 1840 beautifully restored estate and enjoyed a very good narration of the lifestyle and rubber industry of the times. Two hours later we were back on the boat, back at the beach in front of the Hotel Tropical, and saying goodbye to the crew and our new friend, Wayne. As is the custom of Leopard Trax, VERY generous tips were given to the staff and our guide as we hugged and said goodbye to an amazing adventure on the river.

Back at the hotel we had about an hour to relax, change money, and catch up on some email before meeting our day tour driver. The small private van and driver took us into the city of Manaus. It being Sunday and amazingly hot, over 104 degrees, the air conditioning had a tough time keeping up. We visited the waterfront and historic downtown. We got out for a short visit to the world famous opera house in the middle of the jungle and the nearby cathedral. Up the street was a synagogue that some of us actually had a change to enter...their first one so far on our entire trip that allowed visitors.

Following our two hour city drive we were dropped off at a local shopping center for some afternoon shopping. We were expecting this center to be a tourist mall of sorts. What we found was an ultramodern shopping mall right out of upscale America complete with Cartier and the like and an assortment of high end and middle shops, department stores, movie theaters, and food courts. We had lunch and wandered around the air-conditioned mall for several hours. Later that afternoon we settled into one of the courts and enjoyed conversation and drinks before having dinner at one of the many restaurants in the mall. At 8:30 PM our drive promptly met us for our return to the hotel were we gathered our checked luggage and met our transfer to the Manaus airport for our midnight flight.