We woke up for the airport to transfer and unfortunately Fabiana did not book our airport transfer. So it was really early in the morning or late at night to find a cab driver. Luckily, Leo (one of the front desk workers) was able to contact the driver to take us to the airport.
4:00AM
Our driver arrives and quickly rushes to the airport.
4:35AM
We arrive at the airport and then check-in. The TAM staff was really friendly, but took a really long time to try to change our seats so that we didn't have to move around so much.
5:00AM
We go through TSA. The most amazing thing about TSA in Brazil is being able to keep your shoes on! Also you can take water and other fluids through TSA.
5:15AM
Breakfast for the early morning was a prosciutto and queso croissant with cafe com leite. It wasn't warmed up so it wasn't as delicious as I imagined it to be.
6:15AM
Sam and I had seats right next to each other for our first flight to Recife. It was so cold. The air kept on blowing and I did not enjoy the cold air.
One cool thing about TAM, there are outlets in the seats! You can charge your electronics in the airplane while you are flying. Usually my iphone dies because I play games or listen to music...
We stopped in the following cities:
RECIFE
FORTALEZA
BELEM
7-8 hours of flying was not the business.
1:30pm
Arrive in Manaus! There was a 1 hour time difference from Salvador.
2:00PM
Sam and I got our backpacks that were plastic wrapped by the really nice TAM attendant. We walked around looking for information on tourism and amazon tours. A stubby looking man name Maximilium approached us about "Amazon Backpackers."
Sam and I didn't really have a solid plan, so we kind of just trusted our gut and listened to Maximilium's proposal. There was a hostel I found online, which was pretty far away. So he suggested a cheaper one that was closer to the city and all of the tours.
We took the bus back with him to the travel agency, which was conveniently right next to the hostel/hotel that we would stay at.
In retrospect, it probably wasn't the best idea... BUT I wouldn't change it for the world. Meeting Maximulium and being on the same exact tour as the people were with was a blessing in disguise.
3:30PM
We met with Armstrong, this weird looking hammerhead guy. I don't mean to be mean, but he turned out to be kind of a snake. First impressions are key. He made an initial offer for our two tours to the Amazon and then we offered him a counter offer. We met half way and settled on about $65/day for the tours.
5:30PM
Sam and I went to the Bank to get money to pay for our tours, but we exceeded our limit for the day since we got money at the airport.
6:00PM
Armstrong then treated us to some Brahmas. He then began to tell us about his life. It was interesting at first to hear about how he first started, then it got really weird. Professionalism is not really something this tour company has. Long story short, Armstrong got dumped by his then girlfriend. Sam and I didn't want things to get any weirder so we decided to go back to the hostel.
7:00PM
DINNER
Sam and I some more of these heart attack sandwiches called X-Tudos.
9:00PM
I called B and chatted with him for a while until I took a nap and then packed.
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