We got off the Cisne Branco and walked through the port where men were busy loading up other boats for their voyages, and Oh My God it´s hot. So SO hot. When Alex was on facebook chatting to her Aunt she told her that Manaus is sticky. That is exactly right. The walk through the port to the main plaza was agonizingly hot, and once we got to the plaza Alex had to immediately drop her bag and apply suncream. Alex, Maria and I walked in silence to the hostel which was only about 5 blocks away, not knowing which was better: to walk slowly and conserve effort, or walk faster and get it over with. The city was bustling with the pavements jammed with stalls. Everytime we walked past a clothes store we slowed down to make the most of the air conditioning spilling into the street. Luckily the hostel is not only really nice, but has a pool. It´s not big enough to swim in, but definitely big enough to sit in... for most of the afternoon.

Maria, Alex, Yelte (from Holland, who I met at the reception desk as he was checking in fresh off the plane from The Netherlands) and I went in search of dinner and bumped into the Polish couple from the boat on the square by the teatro amazonas. We joined them for dinner - Alex and I shared a sandwich called ´Professor Aloprado´, which was two pizza-sized pieces of flatbread with chicken, ham, cheese, chips, lettuce, tomatoes and a fried egg inside. Quite epic. We then sat out in the square absolutely sweltering and later crossed the square to Bar do Armando, where you basically sit out in the road as the traffic drives around you, and enjoy a lively crowd of locals and local music. It seemed like some kind of ´amigo open mic´ where friends of the main musician would get up and sing a duet or song of their own! The last song we enjoyed was Always Bon Jovi sang by a teenager. I didn´t realise until then that I knew all the words.

Air-conditioned dorm and flat beds.

Day 36 - The sun came up around 6:30 and since my bed is by a window with no curtain, so did I. We then settled down to a complementary breakfast that was quite terrible. Today we had planned to go to the Bosque das Ciencias on the premise that there would be sloths there. Alex, Maria and I set off towards the Praca do Matriz to catch the 519 direct to the Bosque, as instructed in the Lonely Planet. On the way I realised I needed a second breakfast to make up for the inadequacy of the first, so stopped at a snack stall to order a ham bun and some acai. Just as I ordered, Maria came bounding up and asked the snack-man to make some juice from guarana, avocado, peanuts, cashew, granola and much more. In doing so he seemed to get distracted from giving me my food and afterwards started making juice for someone else. Alex Williams actually lost her temper with the snack-man, which is not a common event, and demanded he give me my breakfast. With bun in hand we arrived at the bus stop and by asking the locals were told to get on a bus that was not the 519. The ticket lady on the bus told us it did not, indeed, go to the Bosque and we would have to stay on, go to another terminal and get a second bus. Well, at least we saw some more of Manaus.

So after 2 buses and a short walk we arrived at the Bosque and saw some manatees, a giant otter (like the ones we saw in the Pantanal), some caiman that were much scarier looking than in the Pantanal, and a monkey party. We did not see any sloths.

After catching a direct bus back to Manaus Alex and I went for a tapioca and then drank the most delicious drink in the world (save for the saffron lassi I had in jodhpur)... an avocado vitamina (milkshake). Then we split up - Alex went to get boat snacks and bumped into Andre again, while I retreived our laundry. At 7pm sharp we were dressed in our best dresses to go to a free choir concert at the teatro. It was really good, and they did well-known songs from various operas. Afterwards Yelte, Maria, Alex and I went for some beers at Bar do Armando, this time with an even rowdier crowd of locals and a really good two-piece band playing Brazilian rock music.

Day 37 - Today we boycotted the complementary breakfast and went next door to the vegetarian restaurant (where yesterday Alex had ham) for tapioca, fried banana and decent coffee. Having booked our onward boat to Tabatinga, on the Colombian/Peruvian border, with our hostel, we also got a free transfer to the boat. So the pickup picked us up at 9am and we sat in the bit behind the driving seat that is not a seat but apparantly big enough to fit 3 women in while the pickup drove around the city before arriving at the port. We surely could have walked there in less time, but nevermind, there was no rush. At the dock the porters were trying to take our bags out of the back, and our driver had to fend them off. We arrived at some makeshift tourist stand near the dock and were told to wait while some fat Brazilian took our tickets away and eventually returned with a very bad attitude. We were herded onto a small boat which then took us to our larger boat, which the Brazilian ushered us on to with about as much respect as you´d give livestock, or less. On the boat he ´helped´ us put our hammocks up and here, Alex Williams lost her temper for the second time in two days! Him refraining her from putting the hammock knot into action that she had been practicing in the morning, combined with his rudeness pushed her over the edge and she actually told him to ´stop it´. Once he´d left she took her hammock down and rehung it.