In Transit to Brazil

First stop after our boarder crossing was Boa Vista to catch the night bus to Manaus. The boarder crossing was relatively simple, the Brazilians and Venezuelans happily cross it by car every day to benefit from each others economies. The brazilians travel to Santa Elena to fill their cars with petrol - it costs 50¢ to fill a normal car with petrol in Venezuela, and the Venezuelans use the banks on the Brazilian side to withdraw Reals to sell on the black market as the exchange rate is so much better. Both sides were so laid back we had to go looking for our exit and entry stamps!

So from Boa Vista we got on the night bus which including the journey from the boarder to Boa Vista cost 90,50 Reals - about 25 pounds for 16hours of travel on executive coaches, The coach was great much better than any weve used in the Uk, thew seats fully reclined and english movies were played, so Andy & I settled into our seats for what we thought would be a fantastic 8 hour sleep....If only we werent off roading it the whole way! The road from Boa Vista to Manaus was unpaved in many places meaning the erratic bus driver took driving to a whole new level! pot holes were approached at 60mph and breaks were slammed on at the last minute, we soon missed the oil money of Venezuela and realised we had taken for granted their developed transport links and infastructure.

Luckly we had contacted a hotel before leaving Santa Elena so they were their to pick up a very sleepy pair of travellers and safely take us to our hotel room. The hotel was Dez Rue de Julho and was situated right by the Manaus Opera House in a pretty part of town. We would definately recommend the hotel, they did everything from book flights for us to making sure we got to the cinema to see Harry Potter (we were home sick, it was like being in Manchester again!) safely. We also booked our Amazon Tour through the hotels partners Igunana Tours, which was very convenient. More on that later!