Iguazu Bird Park

This post has been written in December last year.

The attraction number one of Iguazu is, of course, Iguazu Falls. And number two is the other half of the Falls located in the neighbouring country. But besides the Falls there are other interesting attractions here as well.

The greatest Bird Park in South America or Parque Das Aves, was opened in 1994 and is located on the side of Brazil, about 200 meters from the entrance to Iguazu Falls.



There are a great many smaller cages and three hangar - sized birdhouses here where it is possible to walk inside.

50% of the birds are either confiscated from the smugglers or transferred from other rehabilitation centers. 43 % of the inhabitants were born in the park. The endangered species have their own area. Read more on the website : www.parquedasaves.com

Natal das Cataratas

Day 1040,
115 895 km since the beginning of the journey,
Foz do Iguacu, Brazil.


Also here's a big, 18-meter-high Christmas tree in the middle of the city.

Transamazonica, Day 5 and 6

29.10.2013, The Fifth Day on the Road of Transamazonica.
Day's journey - 410 km,
110,281 km since the beginning of the journey.

The temperature at night was normal, everywhere was complete silence, and in the morning all around was in gray fog.

Transamazonica, Day 3 and 4

27.10.2013
Route: Medicilandia – Uruara – Placas – Ruropolis –  Divinopolis (316 km).

In the morning, the sky is clear, light blue, and not a cloud in sight. And most important - the ground is dry again.

Transamazonica, Day 1 and 2

25.10.2013
Route: Maraba - Novo Repartimento (191 km).

The story began in the previous post - Legendary Roads 

Ahead was waiting nearly 2,000 kilometers of road, the current condition of which was mostly unknown. 
The Google search results confirmed that the road was generally passable during dry seasons.

But Googling photos and Youtube search about Transamazonica and the road BR-230 gave such results that one should immediately turn the car around and better not try to drive along this way by this white bus.


In fact, the situation was much better because although it was very hot outside, more important was that the road was dry. And mostly dusty. Very dusty indeed. So dusty that one could create a special word to describe it. I mean – a decent word.

Legendary Roads

South American legendary roads you can be categorized in several ways, first, for example, those that are known better and you will have to use them as the only inland road to enjoy some beautiful place.


The first example –to visit the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina, a visitor must drive along Ruta 40. The total length of the road is over 5,000 kilometers from the Bolivian border to Terra de Fuego.

Belem

24.10.2013.

Belem a large city of Brazil with the population of two million inhabitants, and the city has an area of over 1,000 km2. The city's history begins since the year of 1616, when the fort was built here, and the status of a city was given to Belem already in 1655.

Cruise on the Amazon

21.10.2013 - 23.10.2013
The Journey: Macapa - Belem (by ferry- 502 km).

Oiapoque Bidge

18.10-2013 – 20.10.2013,
108 109 km since the beginning of the journey,
Route: Cayenne - St.Georges - Oiapoque - Calcoen - Macapa (849 km).

Welcome to Guyana!

23.09.2013 - 25.09.2013
105,397 km since the beginning of the journey,
Route: Manaus - Boa Vista - Bomfim - Lethem (934 km).

Upwards from Manaus there are also rain forests and the landscape is a bit more hilly. And the road is more decent. In the long I even remembered that there was the fifth gear also available in the bus.

Next to the road is the Iracema Falls and to visit it one has to drive along side roads and then follow a shadowy walking path up to the waterfalls.

Manaus

15.09.2013 – 22.09.2013

Manaus, the city is characterized well by its not official names through the ages: Heart of the Amazon, the City of the Forest, Paris of the Jungle.


The historic Custom House of Manaus - Alfândega. It is not open to visitors.

Teatro Amazonas

Manaus is a large city with a population of 2.2 million in the middle of the Amazon area. The town was founded in the year of 1669, but the best time of the town was at the end of the 19 th century and in the beginning of the early 20 th century, during the time of the Rubber Boom. Briefly : Hevea brasiliensis rubber- tree grew during this time only in the Amazon region and local Indians picked and used the raw rubber for a long time to turn their clothes and shoes more waterproof.



The purchasers and dealers of the raw rubber became super-rich at that time and as they wanted to get here a real Italian opera,so the Manaus Opera House was built mostly from expensive materials brought here mainly from Europe.

Such as roof tiles were brought from France, marble from Italy, chairs from England. The roof cupola consists of 36,000 ceramic details and the colors correspond to the Brazilian flag :/ / en.wikipedia.org / wiki / Teatro_Amazonashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teatro_Amazonas

BR-319 Map and Waypoints

Here are map and waypoints

Humaita-Manaus, BR-319, Day 6, Manaus

14.09.2013,
Day 939,
104,223 km since the beginning of the journey,
Daily Route 253 km,


In the morning a winged one is in the shower room, and even stays in place until I come back with the camera.

Humaita-Manaus, BR-319, Day 5

13.09.2013,
Day 938
103 970 km since the beginning of tfe journey
Journey of the Day - 0 km, ie, just the day off.
Tupana Igapó-Açu


After breakfast the day is going quite smoothly over to a car - free day, because the place is perfectly ok, you can swim in the river, and behind the house one can have a shower.

And you can get cold drinks from the counter of the bar. In the shadow there are hammocks. And an opportunity to get acquainted with how the everyday life of the village is going.

Bridges, BR-319, Day 4

12.09.2013,
Day 937,
103 970 km since the beginning of the journey,
Day's journey 70 km,




Another morning in the parking lot of the „Hotel Embratel". The fourth day on this legendary highway begins.

The night was generally quiet, except for the voices heard from the rain forest. Frogs croak, and in the meantime from the side of the dark forest could be heard the breakage of some large branches. No one, of course, is in sight.

Humaita-Manaus, BR-319, Day 3

11.09.2013,
Day 936,
103 900 km since the beginning of the journey,
Day itineary 107 km,




The caption of the picture could be simple and short : Completely drivable road through the rain forest on a less-rainy-season or something similar. The fact is that the road was drivable, but no talking about the speed.

Humaita-Manaus, BR-319, Day 2

10.09.2013,
Day 935,
103 793 km since the beginning of the journey
Day's journey 100 km, 48 bridges.


Morning at the gate of the tower of Embratel. It is 7 o'clock and in the shade the temperature is perfectly bearable, not a single cloud in the sky.

Humaita-Manaus, BR-319, Day 1

09.09.2013,
Day 934,
103 693 km from the beginning of the journey
Daily Route 136 km,

At 7 o'clock in the morning the sky is cloudy. And the last few days have been such half-dry ones, so there is no sense to postpone the journey.

Rodovia Fantasma

08.09.2013
The Route: Porto Velho – Humaita (244 km)

"Where to ?"
"Manaus"
"It can be reached by ferry from the port of Porto Velho"
"No, we will go along the BR-319 highway,"
"Do you want to go along this road to Manaus ?  By That Road! ? ?"

And so on, and so on, this was the main reaction, when talking about the onward journey : Porto Velho - Humaita - Manaus.

Just that road - the part of 640 km - from  Humaita - Manaus. Because to Manaus it usually reached either by ferry or by plane, but along the road? In fact, one can also get there by land - as at the beginning of the 1970s a roadway, BR–319, was built by the army through dense rainforest, but the road was officially declared impassable already in 1988.

For clarity, the map, the BR -319 is the thicker red line between Manaus and Humaita.