February 29 - Day 15

The morning is once again very overcast and humid and the temperature is already at 30. This was a good morning to do some pool time, catch up on emails and Facebook, and catch up on my diary in which I have been finding it more difficult to record the events of the day before I go to bed. Again Joana outdid herself with the lunch which is the main meal of the day. It was good to see Luana catch up on some of her sleep and then enjoy the lunch with us. It must be difficult for her to attend classes in the evening, work a 4 hour shift at her job at World Study, plus be a hostess for her guests from Canada. This afternoon Luana took us on a tour of one of Manaus's greatest treasures. The Amazon Theatre (in Portuguese: Teatro Amazonas) is an opera house that was built during the Belle Époque at a time when fortunes were made in the rubber boom. The theatre's architectural style is considered typically Renaissance. The roofing tiles were imported from Alsace, the steel walls from England and the carrara marble for the stairs, statues and columns, from Italy. The dome is covered with 36,000 decorated ceramic tiles painted in the colors of the national flag of Brazil. The interior furnishing came from France in the Louis the Fifteenth style. Italian artist Domenico de Angelis painted the panels that decorate the ceilings of the auditorium and of the audience chamber. The curtain, with its painting "Meeting of the Waters", was originally created in Paris by Crispim do Amaral. The theatre's 198 chandeliers were imported from Italy, including 32 of Murano glass. The theatre has tours on the hour and we took one which was in English and we were very impressed with the theatre's grandeur and its beauty. Luana then took us to show us her work place. It wasn't far from the theatre but it seemed to take forever to get there through the rush hour traffic. We picked up Nae and then visited the nearby shopping centre, the Millenium Centre, which is quite impressive. Back home after a "light supper", we watched some Brazilian soccer on TV and visited. Brazilians are passionate about their futbol and I must say it certainly makes for more exciting watching with that passion present! Bedtime at midnight! I found it extremely difficult to write in my diary which I attributed to a combination of tiredness and apathy setting in.