We had a Sunday morning in Manaus and explored the most enormous street market i hve seen with locals out having breakfast on tables set up in the closed off roads. Bought some Amazon flower honey as the honey here tastes of a thousand flowers and sunshine, just hope it doesnt burst during the rest of our travels! Finally the curious mixture of dehydration and cerebral oedema is settling as instead of water we have started to drink more juice and the local equiv...

We are now back in Manaus after 3 days in an eco lodge on a small branch of the Amazon near here and i will never take air conditioning for granted again or a fan for that matter. We had a room in a thatched wooden lodge with a hammock on the verandah outside for resting where it was cooler than the room. There was no electricity and 2 dim lights on a battery and no lights when the battery went flat apart from candles. No fear of burning down the lodge due to the...

Yesterday we went to the brazilian side of the falls. There is a 1km path with increasingly beautiful views of a long series of falls leading to the main falls at The Devil's Throat where the roar is deafening and even from the platform 100m away you get soaked with the spray. The volume and force of the water takes your breath away. In the afternoon we hiked 5km in the rain forest. It was 35C but the trees provided shade. There were gorgeous butterflies everyw...

Took the proper ferry back from Ilha Grande which was a big boat with proper loos and a third the price but less colourful than the small boat we arrived in. We bounced along the coast road in a minibus taking the curves at the customary breakneck speed. It is most scary when the drivers use a mobile phone whilst driving as they hold the phone with one hand and wave the other around. Similarly it is best not to engage him in conversation as this also involves ha...

Ilha Grande is a very laid back and relatively undeveloped back packer sort of island reached by ferry 90 mins from main land. it has 102 beaches and we have tried a couple. The minibus ride from /rio was a roller coaster of a ride weaving along at breakneck speed bouncing up and down at the back and dumped at a rundown pier where we had to jump on a small boat via a large tyre and then just sit and wait til someone came to drive the boat. Not sure it was the off...