Hi again folks. Firstly just wanted to let you know that I have uploaded some Brazil (and Cuba actually) pics on my blogsite and the rest are at: www.picasaweb.google.com/lindylou73 - you can now also access my picasa site via facebook. How techy have I suddenly become?! We've just spent the last 2 nights in the Pantanal which is roughly in the middle of Brazil and, according to the LP, offers a density of exotic wildlife found nowhere else in South America. A...

Had a fun and interesting morning on Monday. A few of us went for breakfast and I was harping on about desperately needing a pedicure (sound familiar Phil and Young?!) and as we had the whole day to kill in a one-horse town, it seemed the perfect place to do it. Anne and I asked the lady next to us if she knew anywhere and she said she would take us (at least we think that's what she was saying as she was speaking in Portuguese but she didn't seem to mind that we...

On the morning of the 19th we went down to the docks in Manaus at about 10am to get set up on the boat. The only transport we had was a van with no seats so there were around 12 of us crammed inside on the floor, no aircon and couldn´t see out of the windows. I felt like a refugee trying to escape across the border! Anyway, back to the boat. We all had hammocks in the 1st class area (only difference from 2nd class is that its further away from the engine noise a...

15th Jan Met my tour group in the evening and we went to the opera house as there was a free concert. I had a repeat performance of ¨Closer¨or the ¨Monologues and¨was laughing uncontrollably along with Anne next to me. All very well but we were 3 rows from the front right slap bang in the middle. I had tears streaming down my cheeks. The reason? The guy who came on stage to sing was wearing cords and a see through black lacey shirt. When he opened his mouth ...

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 ...