Brazil Day 4 - Manaus to Rio

Back in another airport, Manaus this time, waiting for a flight to Rio where I'll be for 2 days then I'm off to Sao Paulo for the England v Uruguay game. All pics in this post with the Sony A7R and either a 50mm Leica lens or 21mm Olympus lens.Now the dust has settled on last night's England v Italy game I've had a chance to think the day through in a bit more detail. Being my first World Cup match it was in at the deep end from as process and procedure perspective. It's just a 90 minute football match, one of many that I've covered, but there's much more to it than that. The pre-kickoff procedure caught me out with the speed of the team setup shot - something that won't happen again. The compressed working conditions were tricky and I need to be more efficient in how I use the space around me. And the comms problems were frustrating and I think I will have to resort to using my tablet PC instead of the laptop for sending files during the match as it's much smaller and I can put it pretty much anywhere.Overall I gave myself a 6/10 could do better. I got most of the key moments, missed the England physio getting carried off due to watching the action on the pitch, got a nice bunch of player emotion pictures and stock as well as the usual action. Now I know what to expect in Sao Paulo I'll be hoping to raise my score a few notches.This morning I repacked everything from "shooting" configuration into "flying" configuration. This involves packing all my main camera gear into the Peli case, and everything else into the Samsonite case to go in the hold. I like to know where everything is and moving stuff around is a real pain as bits and up in the wrong places all the time and I have to spend ages looking for them.Once that was done I headed into Manaus with a couple of England supporters to have a look around. Having been involved at the stadium every day since I'd been here I hadn't had time to go into town. We got the taxi to take us over the Rio Negro, which is so wide it's like an inland sea, and I took a few pics from the other side looking back into Manaus. It was very hot again, 34-35C I reckon (thermometer packed unfortunately) and baking in the sun. Standing about for a while composing beautiful pictures wasn't really on the agenda and the taxi meter was running.Then it was into the old part of Manaus down by the river. I found out that Manaus was founded originally as a rubber town. Literally a town made from rubber, as that's what people came there for originally - to get rubber for car tyres. Ford was a big buyer of rubber, and the town grew to the point where they actually make cars here as well. The things you find out. It's a surprisingly big place, with what I have figured out is typical Brazilian contrasts of stuff falling down next to shiny new buildings, poor shanty-type areas butting up on bigger flashier houses.The old town is quite interesting. There are quite a few knackered buildings that the jungle is gradually taking over right in the middle of town. We had a wander around (not into!) one of them and it was pretty interesting seeing how sold concrete crumbles under the onslaught of tropical vegetation. A little further on is the river itself. It is huge - not like the Thames at all, or possibly like the Thames right out Canvey Island way, but bigger. Manaus is a thriving port - a good job as there are no roads to get there, you need to fly or float. As a result there are loads of ships, ferries and fishing boats coming and going. I hung around a bit in the blazing sun to see a load of fishermen landing their catch and selling it on, and watching ferries come and go.Getting a bit thirsty I found a little store and got a Coke Zero (bizarrely there's no Diet Coke anywhere) and a sort of bread roll thing with jam in which was very nice, and cheap too compared to hotel & FIFA canteen prices, with the Coke being 2 reias which is about 60p and the bread being virtually nothing.It was a really interesting place to explore and we could see a lot of people coming & going from a long, low building at the water's edge. Getting closer it turned out it was a big indoor market, covering a lot of acreage with the stores really packed in tightly. Everything from fruit like you've never seen before, vegetables, chilies of every description, and then a meat area that had loads of stalls selling all sorts of fresh flesh, and the most amazing fish market I've ever seen (The Bocaria in Barcelona included), mainly becuase the fish were just sooo weird.We wandered around there for a bit and I took some pics. Again the people were so friendly and happy to be photographed. I felt I should buy stuff from them but I'm not sure what I'd do with a 6 foot long tiger fish. So, great place, friendly people, and thoroughly different.Then it was back to the hotel for lunch, where you pay for the weight of food that you put on your plate from the buffet. As usual for me, where a buffet is involved I pile it high as you just have to do so, and I ended up spending about 30 reias which is just under a tenner for a pile of food including 3 types of rice, fried chicken, beef, and a paella thing. Tasty but I left half of it - I clearly haven't figured out the "pay by weight" thing yet.As I had already checked out I washed some of the deet/suncream slime off my body in the hotel loo, collected my gear and headed to the airport. This time I decided to be somewhat more mercenary with my hand luggage and simply hid my Peli case from the view of the checkin lady, declaring only my small shoulder bag. I waited until she was dealing with another punter before leaving the counter. Result!Of course, the air conditioning in the departures area wasn't working so everyone was sitting there gently melting into the seating, and the little stores were doing a roaring trade in cold drinks. Turns out that behind me was Phil Neville (or was it Gary - no I'm sure it was Phil - Dan would know) and Danny Murphy. Now Phil has been in the news today after being lambasted for his commentary last night. I didn't hear any of that, but I did think about taking a pic or two of him. But seeing as we were going to be on the same flight, and sitting pretty much next to each other, I elected not to. The right call? I think so personally, though others would say I should have just nailed him up close with a wide angle, but it didn't feel right to me. There were a couple of other sports snappers on the same flight who also respected the situation. Views on a postcard or in the comments please.About 3/4 of the way to Rio (and into my 2nd Breaking Bad episode of the flight) I couldn't remember packing my little UK phone and my small Sony RX100 camera. Last time I saw them was in the hotel safe. I didn't leave them in there did I? I never ever leave anything in hotel rooms, but with so much stuff and repacking everything I simply couldn't remember putting them in my case. Panic ensued and there was nothing I could do about it until my bag was retrieved in Rio airport. I hate not knowing where stuff is!Thankfully both my case arrived and the camera and phone were tucked into another bag of "technical stuff" inside. Thank goodness for that. Phew etc.I got myself a cab into Urca in Rio. Careful not to use my phone, and keeping an eye out for banditos, I arrived without incident at the apartment building which houses Dani and Duda, the couple who's apartment I'm staying in. They are both lovely, and I have so far had the most lovely banana (seriously the bananas here are great!), a glass of Jack Daniels, and some cold water, and got changed. My room is bijou, but with an en-suite which is excellent, and air conditioning. Dani and Duda have a little dog which is cute as anything and 14 years old, and 2 kids, 13 and 4, who I have yet to meet as they are at Gran's.Tomorrow I will await the FIFA schedule email to let me know if there is England open training on, and that will shape my day. I have Monday and Tuesday here before heading for Sao Paulo on Wednesday. No pics from Rio yet as it's dark - you'll have to wait.