Today will always be known to us as the day from hell. It seemed that everything that could possibly go wrong, did!
Being woken by the military doing a luggage check was the sign of things to come. The saying "things can only get better" was not relevant or even remotely true for today.
We were hauled off the bus and had our bags checked which took us twice as long as everyone else with all the side pockets in our bags. This made our bus two hours late too.
The hellish bus journey lead us to Santa Elena close to the border between Venezuela and Brazil. Having caught a taxi to a local hostel a couple in the lobby offered us a lift across the border.
Having hitchhiked with them and stopping at ever place under the sun for food, milk and even nappies we got to the crossing.
This is where our problems arouse again needing a stamp to enter Brazil. The Venezuelan immigration office was closed leaving us stranded outside for another two hours. Eventually with our stamps we got a taxi to Boa Vista and headed straight to the hostel recommended in the lonely planet book. One way to describe the room was a dump although a lot stronger words came to mind.
Feeling the need to get to Manaus as soon as possible, the airport was our next destination where our day went from bad to worse. We discovered our Caxton cards didn't work and we thought we had no access to any money and that were stranded in Brazil, broke. Thankfully Abigail's credit card worked to pay for a taxi to the bus station where we found we were able to use our cards there.
We paid for another night bus heading to Manaus this time and continued to travel on a day that feels like it is lasting forever. Thankfully the day is almost over and hopefully Manaus will be a lot less stress tomorrow.