We departed Cuba for the next country on our itinerary -Brazil! Unfortunately the lack of internet in Cuba and the strict controls on webpages meant we weren't able to be as organized as we would have liked, and when we left Cuba we didnt have a hostel booked to go to in Brazil. We tried to book one on hostelworld.com from Havana but apparently as we were either in "Cuba, North Korea, Afghanistan, Iran or Iraq" the transaction was disallowed! Hmmm American websites! Luckily for us, we were transiting through Panama City on our way to Brazil and remembered there was free wifi at the Subway restaurant in the airport terminal. When our plane landed we ran to Subway and just managed to confirm our booking before running back to board our connecting flight. Not our most organized moment but it worked out alright in the end!

Our plane landed in Manaus, the capital city of the Amazon region in Northern Brazil and stayed at a hostel called Gol Backpackers. Our main aim in visiting this region was to organise a trip to the Amazon jungle. We spent the next day speaking to the different tour agencies and eventually decided on a 4day/3 night trip with a company called Iguana turismo. After this we wandered around Manaus city centre for a while, through the main square and saw the outside of the famous Teatro Amazonas (theatre) My Brazilian friend Natalia, from Australia had put me in contact with her best friend Ana who lives in Manaus. Ana offered to meet us that night and take us out for dinner. She picked us up from our hostel and drove us to a wonderful fish restaurant called Banzeiro. There we let her take control of the ordering and suggest some local fish dishes and an Amazonian fruit drink for me. The food was delicious! We had two different types of Amazonian fish, one served with cheese and plantain and another one served grilled with farofa, black beans and potatoes. We even splashed out and had a caramelised banana/rice pudding dessert. It was a lovely evening and such a good introduction to Brazil. Ana gave us lots of tips for our travels and even taught us some words in Portugese. It made a real difference meeting someone from the country and we couldn't wait to head off on our Amazon trip to experience even more of it.