Flying into the Amazon!

Flying into the Amazon!

Manaus, Brazil, South America

I got up this morning and had a nice breakfast at the apartment with Maria. I got a taxi from the apartment to the airport at around noon and it took just about an hour to get there. The traffic in Salvador wasn’t great, but I’ve seen a lot worse, so I couldn’t complain.

I got to the airport with plenty of time to check in for my flight on Azul airline and the flights went exactly as expected. I had a first flight from Salvador to Sao Paulo, and then a flight to Manaus from there. I got into Manaus airport about ten minutes early, and since it was 11:45pm when we landed, it was incredibly quick getting off the plane and getting my bag. There was supposed to be a driver waiting for me at the airport, but I couldn’t find him. They said he would be there with a sign, but among the crowd of people, I couldn’t see anyone with my name on a paper.

I looked around for about a half hour and then finally called the company I had booked the tour with, Bamba Experience. Even though the company is based in Mexico, of course I got a guy in India on the phone. And, even though this was the emergency number that had been sent to me in their email, the guy had no idea about trips in Brazil and had to call me back about fifteen minutes later. I was pretty annoyed because it was now almost 12:30am and I just wanted to go to bed.

I had asked a couple of other drivers from different companies if they knew the guy from Bamba and if he was here. They knew who he was but hadn’t seen him, but one of the drivers was nice enough to make a call to the Bamba guy directly. I talked to him on the phone and he arranged for me to go with a driver from another company and I wouldn’t have to pay him. It was the quickest way for me to get out of the airport and get to my hotel, so that’s what I did.

It was about a twenty minute drive from the airport into the city to my hotel, Hotel do Largo. I’m at the hotel and absolutely exhausted, so I’m going to crash now and check out the city of Manaus tomorrow. From the drive in from the airport, that shouldn’t take long. It doesn’t appear to be the most impressive city.

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