Noisy Brazil?

Hey alexanderstephenlange,

Thank you for starting this quite interesting thread. 😉

I would like to see members' responses on that.

Cheers,

Cheryl

Expat.com team

07/15/26 @alexanderstephenlange.  We live in the Centro Histórico of Manaus, and there is music in the air every evening and all weekend, all the time.  I love it ... but we live on the 17th Floor -- 19 stories above the street thanks to topography and the vagaries of the Brazilian floor numbering system -- so that undoubtedly helps. 

One of the few good results of the covid pandemic was that scarlet macaws, who had abandoned this part of the city decades ago, recolonized the Centro Histórico and we now have a breeding population of about eight birds.  They're early risers and very noisy, but it's still wonderful to hear them making their morning rounds -- and to see them pass, if I run to the window fast enough.  Also very noisy but welcome are the flocks of Green Amazons who roost in the trees around sunset, and sound to me for all the world like crowds of first graders who just got released for recess.

Other daily sounds I enjoy:  the street vendors selling things, the "sucateiros" calling out to buy scrap metal, the horns of the riverboats entering and leaving the port.

Daily sounds I could do without:  motorcycles that have proliferated as gasoline prices have risen, especially the seemingly hundreds of them without mufflers of any kind.