Got up at 5am yesterday morning in Havana and the streets were in darkness. The hotel doorman managed to get me a Lada taxi (foreigners are not supposed to use them - ooops, no choice) and arrived at the airport to find that the check in lady couldn't find my reservation - aaaaargh, noooooo! All ended up ok though and I made it to Manaus in Brazil by mid-afternoon. Flying in was spectacular. Obviously I have seen the Amazon rainforest on the TV but I had no idea how vast it really is. All I could see for miles around were densely packed green trees - amazing. Luggage made the connection in Panama thank goodness (I only had a 40 minute layover) and I came out to find 2 guys from my hotel waiting for me. They were like Little and Large and a real double act. Within 10 minutes of being in Brazil I felt comfortable - from the immigration lady to the customs guy to the hotel people. Very chatty and not lecherous at all - hurrah!

Tickled me pink that the local mobile network is called "oi" - especially as that's one of my favourite words! Simple things please simple minds I suppose!

Went for a little wander (dug out my money belt thing - forgot how hot and sticky they get within 5 minutes) to stock up on some supplies. I had become dangerously low on toothpaste in Cuba and couldn't buy any so had to ration myself to 2 tiny slithers per day! Anyway, Brazil not much better in the price stakes but at least I can buy stuff. Yeah!

Ventured to pizza place at end of my street (didn't dare go any further as I have no map!) and had the most gassy beer known to man but my little old waiter was great - we had to do lots of miming as he didn't speak English and I don't speak Portuguese. Of course, I keep wanting to respond to everyone in my newfound fluent Spanish which is similar but the Portuguese pronunciation is so hard!

Planning to have a mooch around the town today. I don't think there's much here as it's basically a big international port (even though it's 1000km from the sea - eh?!) and the gateway to the Amazon which is only 20 minutes away. I meet my group tonight so of course I'm checking everyone out that I've seen so far deciding if they're on my tour or not! All I know so far is there is 1 Dutch guy who's already here but I haven't met him yet. More to report later!