5th February Santarem Today's tour was a nature walk in Bosque Santa Lucia. The bus took us from the harbour and along the Cuiba Highway to reach an elevation of 158 metres, which might be considered the Alps for the Amazon. At Bosque Santa Lucia, our guide took us on a three mile walk through the forest. We saw a small poisonous caterpillar, poisonous bullet ants and a very small toad. At the end some saw a sloth in the tree tops but neither of us could see i...

4th February Parintins To start our tour today, we had to transfer to shore by tender. The boat was a typical local one, which is used to transport bananas, passengers and anything else between islands as there are very few roads. The seating was individual plastic chairs. We were due to go on a City tour by tricycle. Two people sit on a seat under a canopy and a driver propels the tricycle by pedalling furiously behind. There was a convey of at least 20 tri...

Friday 1st and Saturday 2nd On Friday we ventured into Manaus on our own on the shuttle bus. The sights and smells of the city have to be seen to be believed. On every conceivable space at the side of the roads are stalls selling a very diverse selection of goods; mostly food but also electrical gadgets etc. The pavements were crowded and as we made our way through we were stared at as if visiting from Mars! Eventually after getting lost, we found the Cathedral...

Manaus Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st Journey to Gatwick on train was most enjoyable because we had forgotten we had booked first class. So typical of life that we should be sitting next to someone we knew who had lived in Wivey some years ago. Rail Assist was excellent in guiding us through the complexities of Reading station. We checked into The Hilton, Gatwick at 3.00 pm for a very short stay as we had to book in at 9.00 pm for our flight to Manaus. Thanks...