Pura Vida, Mañana Mañana and other useful phrases...: We have internet

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It has been so long since we last blogged and so many things have happened in that time. Starting with the basics, Sandra and I are now in Rio and enjoying all of the hedonism that the Carnivale offers (while being perfectly sensible and safe at all times).

We headed out of Isla Margarita and caught a four hour ferry to Puerto La Cruz and headed over to the bus station where we booked seats on a bus to Boa Vista, The city closest to the Brazilian and Venezuelan borders.

Count up until now - 8 hrs.

This was a 24 hour bus which was not that bad. The seats were comfortable and it was a really smooth ride. Super cheap as well and it also served as a nights accommodation. We got to Boa Vista around 3 the next day and checked out the town.

Count up until now - 32 hrs.

We quickly worked out that Boa Vista was not exactly a great place to stay despite the fact that we were tired so we got two more bus tickets to Manaus leaving at 7.

Count up until now - 36 hrs.

We arrived in Manaus at 9 the next morning.

Count up until now - 50 hrs.

This has been the biggest travel time period ever and we survived. Manaus is a river city that is on the Rio Negro, about 10 kms from the meeting of the Salimones and Negro rivers that make the Amazon.

We were lucky to meet up with a tour operator that organised jungle tours that go deep into the Amazonian jungle. We decided to do a 4 day course and headed out to a tributary of the amazon and went to a jungle lodge. When we got there and checked the place out. It was on a clearing near the river and had awesome hammocks. We had a guide called Fransisco who came from an Indian family who lived close to the area. He could speak french, English, Portuguese and Spanish and Sandra and I were really jealous.

The first thing that we did was organise our hammocks and then went Piranha fishing. I was the first to catch one and I also caught the most. Not that it was a competition - much. The fish were really vicious and had big teeth, as you would expect. Fransisco put a leaf in the mouth of the fish and it would chomp instantly, leaving a nice bite size missing from the leaf. They lived for one thing, and that was eating - they were ugly but very cool.

We headed back as the sun went down over the jungle for dinner, the sunset was unlike anything you have ever seen, the whole place was quiet and the sun changed the sky all different colours and the trees grew to be a menacing black landscape that seemed impenetrable. We have some photos and we will upload them later.

We went out again later that night for a bit of alligator spotting - and Sandra caught her first alligator, a huge monster which was at least 3 decimeters - MASSIVE, but to her credit, there was no way i was jumping into the water with all of the spiders in the trees, waiting for foolish persons to get into the water and then kill them with their vicious fangs and deadly poison (all spiders must die).

The next day we went into the jungle and it was a dream come true. It was just as I had hoped, thick, viney and really claustrophobic in a good way. The humidity was unbelievable and the smallest of movements would cause me to sweat buckets. We trekked 3 hrs into the jungle and found our camp. After lunch we went into the jungle some more and saw huge 24hr ants, Macaws, Eagles, Jaguar poo and the biggest Tarantula that you could imagine. It creeped out of its hole in the ground and bared its fangs instantly. He was about 20 to 25 Cm's across with a thick brown body. That freaked me out. We camped that night in hammocks and fell asleep to pumas nearby catching their prey.

I will continue this later as we have to go now. We are heading off to Ipaneama beach tonight and joining in a street parade.

Hope you all are good and everything is well.

By the way, I just found out about Chris Mainwaring - Wow.

I will write tomorrow.