Manaus

We arrived into Manaus yesterday and checked into our hostel. It is a great hostel, definitely better than the dreary prison style lodging we had in Brasilia, and packed with travelers. I always miss the hostel lifestyle when we stay somewhere else, sitting out in the evenings meeting the other travelers and hearing their crazy travel stories. Last night we met a Japanese girl Aya who has been traveling for 11 months and has traveled from Cairo to Capetown over 5 1/2 months using only public transport. That put a little perspective on my trip :) She had even gone through Zimbabwe and had great stories of having to change money every morning on the black market, because each day the inflation was so high that she wouldn't have enough money again. Definitely check out the picture of the 100 Billion dollar note she had with her.

It looks like at this point that the fearless expedition is going to part ways for a little while. Sean and Clive are wimping out on the 7 day boat ride to Tabatinga from Manaus and are instead going to fly to Lima on Sunday and then I will meet them in Cusco. They need to meet Jeff on the 13th and they didn't want to suffer through the 7 days on a hammock on the boat :) I've found some other travelers going to do the same boat ride, so I am going to join up with them and leave on Saturday. Before that we are going to do some jungle tours that were recommended to us by some people at the hostel.

I have uploaded some new pictures.