DAY 14 - Flying north to the wonders of the AMAZON jungle and the city of Manaus!
 
Glad to be leaving we paid the expensive taxi fare to the airport begrudgingly and to see the favelas and poverty as we left and the 50 women lining up outside the local prison to see their partners was our last vision of Sao Paulo, well at the time we thought and hoped it would be our last vision!!
 
The GOL flight didn't start too good for me as for an hour we had to sit on the plane and on no sleep I wasn't doing too great . I managed to stay on though and even though we had paid over 600 pounds for this flight, it was definitely what you would call budget, lunch was a roll smaller than my fist plus one drink which meant we starved for most of the flight and were glad to get off at the end!
 
The tour company 'Iguana Tours' that we were seeing the Amazon with were there to meet us at the airport. Jose was our driver and when we saw he had come to pick us up in a VW Camper, we were VERY happy, tops!! Unfortunately though it wouldn't start so in the sweltering humidity we got out to give him a push start which was highly hilarious and just added to the adventure. The Amazon was our last big dream to do on our trip and to say we were excited was an understatement!!
 
After helping Jose with his university English homework, we unfortunately got confused over hostels and got dropped at Manaus Hostel but we were actually staying at Hostel Manaus...aaaah!! But after much confusion we finally found it, 2kg of salt and sweat less later! Then problems with bookings etc... and finally we were in our room, a really nice new one with air con, hallelujah, it had been a long 2 days!!
 
As it was Sunday the whole city was so tranquil, a vast contrast to Sao Paulo, it felt so safe too so we instantly had more of a liking for the place. The main square had the biggest Xmas tree ever up with the stunning pink theatre behind and its beautiful multicoloured dome on top, it was good to be here. A slice of yes pizza it was, plus a horrendous downpour later, we crashed to bed ready to hit the Amazon Jungle with avengeance tomorrow!