After a quite quick stamping on the Brazil side, off we went again to a small cafe on the side of the road where it seemed taxis on the Brazil side picked up tourists to go into Brazil proper and the Venezuelan taxi drivers stopped here. After changing up my remaining Bolivars for Reals and discovering that Spanish just wasn't going to work anymore, I negotiated a taxi to the airport with the friendly Venezuelan taxi driver and a Brazilian one. Unfortunately the two other guys were going to Manaus via Boa Vista and the airport was quite a way out of the way from the terminal where they were heading so I got a separate taxi and we said our goodbyes. Shame because in hindsight this was wrong decision but I was determined to get my flight back to Rio form Boa Vista as I had always planned even despite being told by numerous people that I should go to Manaus to get the flight as they were cheaper and more frequent from there.
So off to Boa Vista I went, similar to my entry to Venezuela, I was in the middle in the back seat of the car but this time between two rather elderly Brazilian people chatting away in Portuguese so I had no clue what was being said except for the occasional word which was similar to Spanish.
After one stop at a little side of the road cafe where the driver got an empanada and we all watched a little of the Paraguay v Italy game (just in time to see Italy equalise), we finally arrived at Boa Vista where one by one we dropped the other passengers off at their various houses and I was the last stop as the airport was a little bit further out of town. It had been a nice drive for the most part with some nice blue skies driving through miles of green hills and fields although it wasn't quite what I expected as I thought it was going to be thick Amazon jungle but I guess that was further south towards Manaus.
I didn't realise that it would take so long either but 2 hours in a comfy taxi certainly wasn't quite so bad compared to other jourenys I'd been on so far in these travels!
The airport was surprisingly small! I knew it wouldn't be the largest airport but this was ridiculous, it had 2 fast food places which I got to and spent nearly all my remaining reals at the cheaper of the two and absolutely no shops or anywhere to even buy a drink or magazine! On arrival at around 5pm, the first priority even before eating and I was starving was to get me a plane ticket outta here! I found of the two yes only two desks where they sold plane tickets (Gol and Tam) only Gol were open and they were the more expesnive airline! I had a bad feeling about this especially due to the fact that I didn't speak a word of Portuguese! After waiting in a queue which just didn't seem to get shorter for quite a while, I finally got to the desk to find that surprise surprise the guy didn't speak a word of English or Spanish (well he understood a bit of Spanish) so with a combiniation of Spanish and hand signals and pointing I eventually worked out that I couldn't buy a plane ticket until 10pm so I'd have to wait 5 hours and even then I wasn't guaranteed a ticket! Then came the question I dared not ask! Cuanto cuesta (or what is the quite literal damage going to be to my none existant bank account)?! When he told me the unworldly extortionate fee of 1,400 reals (about 700 euros) even he said muito caro (very expensive!). This enraged me that the stupid ejits at edreams (well one woman in particular who always had her out of office on even though she always replied) hadn't been able to sort my flight out for just 200 euros! Despite my compliance (including scanning and emailing my passport and card through) and having a plenty sufficient limit on the card I was using to pay for it. Anyway so I couldn't do it, I just didn't have the cash! I had no alternative though! I could go to Manaus and get a flight from there but I didn't even have money for that although I could go to the bank. Having waited around for a while I discovered that there was a bus at 8.30 and another at 10.15 (the last). After a while deliberating whether to catch the 15 hour bus down to Manaus and get a plane from there or whether to pay an extortionate fee for the plane, I decided I'd get the bus as I just couldn't justify paying the pricefor the flight. Stupidly I was still going by Venezuela time and so I realised I had missed the 8.30 bus (I had already been at the airport for over 3 and half hours!).
So I decided I'd get the 10.15 one instead. After a couple more boring hours waiting around and trying but faiiing to upload photos to facebook, I went in a taxi (with no money) to the bus station only to find it was nearly 100 reals for the bus (and about 20 for the taxi) and I had no money and I couldn't see anywhere open to actually buy the bus ticket! I asked the taxi driver to take me to a cash machine so off we went, the first had no buttons to make selections and then another which didn't accept my debit card! Luckily it accepted my credit card but only gave me 50 reals which was only going to cover the taxi and not the bus! My situation was going from bad to worse, I was in a dilemma, what do I do now?? I was stuck quite literally in Boa Vista unable to get money and unable to get out of the place! On return to the taxi he told me that there were no more buses so I had no choice, that made up my mind, I'd have to return to the airport and get this flight or alternatively wait til about 7am until the first bus to Manaus and try again to get money to pay for the taxi there and the bus.
This really was a bad time for me and to make things worse I had a big argument online with Vanessa who really made me feel even worse than I was already feeling if that was possible! Here I was stuck in the north of Brazil with no money and no idea what people were saying or how to speak to them and I just needed to get out of there as soon as possible! On return to the airport, obviously I had to pay the return fare to the taxi driver which I only just had enough for with the little money I had withdrawn from the bank so it had proven to be a totally wasted journey! I remembered however that I had seen numerous cash machines at the airport (aboout 6 different bank ATMs) and so I decided to get some money out there. having tried all 6 machines with all 3 of my cards (2 credit cards), I was shocked to find that none of them would accept my cards or give me money! I really had no choice now, depite the gastronomical price, I would have to book this flight and I noticed that the GOL office had once again opened. I was just praying that I had the funds in my account and that I would be able to get this flight now as I had run out of alternatives! I really should have just gone to Manaus with the guys I met at the border but it was no use saying I should have done this and that, I got myself inot this mess and now I had to deal with it!
At the GOL desk, the man recognised me and asked me to come round to his computer and we communicated via a translator tool on his computer which I found quite funny really. Eventually I got the flight paid for on 2 cards and I was so relieved that I finally had a way out of there! IT meant stopping at Manaus and changing which rubbed it in that yes I definitely should have gone there since even the plane was stopping there but I just didn't care anyomre! The flight was at 2.15 so I had another lengthy wait as it was only 11.30 but I had been waiting around there since 5pm so another few hours weren't going to make too much difference! I decided to be proactive and book my accomodation for Rio or try and find a couch to sleep on using couchsurfing. I ended up just booking the highest rated hostel on hostelbookers as it was fairly reasonably priced at 30 reals a night (or 60 for your own room) and was in an area called Humaita which was nicely located in the centre of town not too far from the beaches or the city centre. I just booked one night so I could perhaps crash on someones couch for the other couple but I'd need to find someone first.
After a fairly short but cold flight to Manaus I got off and changed to my connecting flight to Rio. This was rather a lengthy flight (totally makes you aware as to the size of the country of Brazil as it was about 5 hours from here to Rio making the total flight time around 7 hours (you can probably fly across the whole of Europe and some of Asia in this time!). It was again cold and so I just tried to sleep as I was very tired and stressed from the whole affair and just couldn't wait to get to Rio! Usually I'd be excited at the thought of flying over the Amazon jungle and river basin but it was dark and I was tired and just wasn't in the mood to even think about where I was, just as long as I got safely to Rio. Finally we landed and I was pleased to see the sun was shining and the place looked just as beautifully picturesque as I remembered last time I had been there back in January at the start of my amazing travelling experience.
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