Friday, July 18

Location: Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil

Today's weather: 31░C, Sunny

Well, today I made it to Amaz⌠nia. I had to get up at 5:30am so that I could get to the airport at 6:45am (the final reporting time for my flight). Getting up was extremely difficult because Susi had kept me out until 2am. I then had to re-pack my bags and get my things organised – which took until about 3:30am.

We skipped breakfast. After coffee and a shower to wake me up, Susi drove me out to the airport. Here I checked in my luggage and got my boarding pass for the flights to Manaus. Susi and I sat down and chatted for a while. This would be the last time that I'd see Susi for a quite a while – Susi is moving to Portugal where she now has work. Portugal is for Brazil, what the UK is for kiwis. It was the former colonial master, and still has close links to its former colonies. Susi and I both felt very sad, hugged, and kissed in the traditional Rio Grande do Sul manner. The locals kiss once on the right cheek, once on the left cheek, then again on the right cheek. The third kiss has special meaning – I was told that "it is to get married", but I kissed a many people in this way and I doubt if it would be possible for me to marry them all.

I was served breakfast on my flight to Sπo Paulo, then lunch on the three-hour flight to Manaus. The food onboard Varig is usually very good – certainly better than the meals served onboard Air New Zealand (I much prefer Ansett NZ). I arrived at 1:30pm local time (which is one hour behind Porto Alegre). Manaus is much hotter than Porto Alegre or Sπo Paulo. My first thought was that I was walking into a clothes dryer – the weather was hot, humid, and very sticky. It was the kind of weather which makes you sweat a lot whenever you try to do anything physical, like walk or carry a backpack. However, only the tourists sweat – the people who live here are acclimatised to the hot weather so that it doesn't trouble them so much. I caught a local bus into the centre of town, then walked to the Hotel Monaco and the office of Aria· Towers Jungle Lodge. Although the walk wasn't very far, the hot weather and the enormous size of my backpack made it very exhausting.

I was a little nervous about my arrangements to stay at the Hotel Monaco and Aria· Towers. I had previously made some special arrangements with one of the hotel managers. But, because he had now left the hotel, I wasn't sure if anyone else knew that I was coming. I had tried contacting the hotel – but getting confirmation had been difficult. To make things worse, the stifling hot weather, lack of sleep, and travel had all left me a little dazed. But, fortunately, the hotel did know of my arrival. They greeted me warmly and helped make all sorts of arrangements for my week in and around Manaus.

I made my way up to the hotel room, had a quick shower to refresh myself, and a change of the clothes. Most of the showers in Amaz⌠nia, and other places in Latin America, only have cold water. This isn't as bad as it sounds because cool showers in hot weather are very refreshing – much like having a swim. But the hotel room shower had a special adapter on the shower head which could be used to heat the water if I'd really wanted it hot. I then went for a walk around Manaus.

The city of Manaus is very interesting. It was quite easy for me to walk around the city because I'd been here before. I looked through some shops, and the many stalls along the footpath where there are people selling a wide variety of goods. Because the weather was so hot, I stopped at an ice-cream parlour (Sorveteria) where I ordered a huge ice-cream sundae. It was delicious, but melted very quickly in the hot weather. Later in the evening I visited the Manaus Opera House. At 8pm I returned to the hotel. I very quickly fell asleep because I was tired from all the travelling.