The Airport

My 1st impression of Brazilians is that they like to litter - they all seem very enthusiastic in kicking empty plastic bottles off the coach and leaving rubbish behind.

I arrive in Manaus at 12:30pm, well, I arrive at the "Manaus New Hotel" next to an industrial estate - what no Bus Station? Everyone else seems confused too, but if you check your ticket, it doesn't actually say where in Manaus you get dropped off! I feel like I've just been had by the EasyJet of Brazilian coach services. Luckily a couple of taxis turn up after 10 minutes and I bum a ride to the airport with another woman.

I need to be in Rio in 2 days. From Manaus it's a 4 day boat trip down the Amazon to Belem, then a 52 hour bus ride to Rio. For the sake of Carnival I decide to cheat and fly to Rio - airplane stylie. Please don't hate me!

At the airport there are 2 airlines that fly to Rio. The first, Tam, are all booked up. The second, Gol, only has free flights tomorrow for R$1,200 (~£300) and they don't take Visa. Need cash. Of the 2 cash machines in the airport the HSBC one is visibly broken and the other chats to me in Portuguese and fails to deliver any goods. I talk to Tourist Information and the nearest cash points are in the Amazon Shopping Centre, a cheap bus ride away.

I decide to ditch my luggage in a locker. Now this is a mission in it's self! I lug my stuff to the lockers at one end of the airport - you need a token to operate it. I don't know where you get a token from. All the signs are in Portuguese and the people in the office next door are of no help. I lug my stuff to another set of lockers at the other end of the airport. English signs, I need to buy a token from the "Brazilian Gems" shop upstairs. I lug my gear back upstairs and find the shop in the middle of the airport. I buy a token and lug my stuff downstairs back to the English lockers at the end of the airport. Finally I ditch my bags and head outside to the bus stop. Phew!

40 minutes pass, no bus. I'm aware it's late afternoon and I don't know when the airline ticket office closes. Doh! I'm noticed by the same taxi driver that drove me here. Hallelujah! I use him and get dropped off at the Shopping Centre. I find several flavours of cash points, none of them are HSBC though and they all refuse to speak English and reject my lovely Visa card. Bugger. I ask around and there's no HSBC bank in the Shopping Centre. Double bugger. (Ooer missus!) I step outside and buy a bottle of water. The cap was physically welded to the bottle making it impossible to open. It's not my day. I grab another taxi to explicitly take me to a HSBC bank. He does, it works! But there's a daily limit of R$1000 (~£250). I max it.

On the way back to the airport we stop at some red lights and watch a beggar who comes out to do a juggling routine in the middle of the road with 4 bowling pins. I thought it was very impressive and an excellent way to beg in a non-intrusive manner plus it cheers people up at the same time. As he approaches the taxi for his reward the driver starts swearing, spits at him and speeds off with a dissatisfied grunt. Obviously not as impressed as what I was then!

Back at the airport I buy my ticket with cash - check-in is just after midnight tonight. Shesh! When they say first thing tomorrow, they mean it! And after paying for the 4 long taxi rides I don't have enough cash for a jolly in town by the Amazon river as planned. So I resign myself to killing 7 hours at Manaus airport - it isn't big. Sigh. So, my activities for Valentines Day (thanks for reminding me Jim!) can be summed up with, Internet, emails, beer, junk food burgers and a cold shower from a tap dripping green goo.

Midnight slowly rolled around and I watched a couple check-in a small dog in a pet carrying cage. As it rolled off down the conveyor belt I really didn't fancy its chances for surviving a trip in an airplane hold! It looked pretty distressed and kept trying to chew its way out. I think it knew! My plane was supposed to take off at 02:30, it was delayed by 1/2 hour. I waited, I boarded, I sat down. My seat was just in front of an emergency exit - it didn't recline at all. I closed my eyes and decided it was an imperfect end to an imperfect day. I fell asleep clutching the unopened bottle of water with the welded top that I'd managed to smuggle past airport security.

Posted by Steve Eynon