Up North

Moving further North towards the great Amazonas. Jumping from town to town with mind mumbingly long bus journeys in between. One night in Fortaleza and then in Sao Luis. Neither town particularly remarkable by Brazilian standards but nice enough for for a well earned rest after so much bus travel.
Looking for somewhere to stay in Sao Luis we stumbled across what has to be one of the grottiest little hotels I have had the displeasure to set eyes on. When looking at the room the landlord took us first behind a busy restaurant then into what looked like a dungeon. Half plastered stone walls that were damper than the mangrove swamp we went to see the next day. You didn’t feel that you wanted to breath the air it was so musty. We have stayed in pretty terrible rooms in our time and I don’t like to bash humble abodes but when the shower bleeds insects and mud when turned on, you know that this is not the room for you. I wouldn’t have minded so much if it were dirt (literally) cheap but it turned out to be a lot more expensive than the other, cleaner hostel we ended up staying in.
The next day we took a trip to a small village called Raposa. It was set just outside a beautiful mangrove swamp that were lined with giant sand dunes. We took a trip by boat, watching the sea eagles and other wildlife fly and scurry about. After a bit of dune jumping we headed home to catch another bus to Belem. We got caught in the biggest thuderstorm on the way to the bus. We were so wet that the taxi driver who took us to the bus station asked us if we'd mind sitting on the floor mats rather than directly on the seats.
We set off on Friday for our 5 day Amazon boat trip where hammocks will be our beds and insect repellent our constant companion!