The three amigos set off early to the USS Midway museum. Here we were able to see some military aircraft on top of the carrier, weapons and machinery that was used in the Vietnam war as well as have an audio tour about America’s version of events. We were even able to meet a former pilot from the Vietnam war who shared his experience of the war with us and explained in great detail how to fly and land the aircraft on the carrier. It was a very worthwhile visit and of course it was great fun stepping in and out of the airplanes and helicopters cockpits!

After the museum we met up with Ahmed’s friend Beth, a lovely lady who was in San Diego for charity work, working on rehabilitation for injured veterans. We grabbed some lunch together and went to a popular gourmet spot afterwards for some unique ice cream flavours. They had every kind of weird and wonderful flavours for everyone to try, some included bone marrow and smoked cherries along with avocado and oaxacan chocolate fudge. We definitely enjoyed trying all these weird but strangely wonderful creations! Luca’s ice cream in Edinburgh definitely has some competition, they were delicious!

In the evening time, we wandered around a sea pier and enjoyed spectating people fishing at the harbour, they were definitely a lot better than we were trying to catch Piranha in the Amazon jungle! Luckily for us, we managed to catch yet another, beautiful sunset for some photos.

After a long day exploring we ended our evening in a nearby Irish pub for a few drinks. Afterwards, we ventured to a busy sports bar where we met another traveller from our hostel, Rupesh, an Indian dance teacher who we enjoyed getting to know and share travel stories with. We ended the night by having a few drinks and having fun playing some great bar games together!

We definitely won’t take a decent shower and some hot running water for granted ever again, especially after only having cold and limited water access in the Amazon rainforest!

First full morning out of the jungle and we were ready to hit the beach and catch some rays. We spent the afternoon on South Beach relaxing and having a swim in the sea before walking around to see what else Miami had to offer.

The beaches in Miami are beautiful, with lots of white sand and clear blue waters (which is great), but there wasn’t many tourist attractions in Miami to visit. We had never intended on stopping by there as we were always planning on going straight up to the west side of the United States, but it was so cheap to fly there with all the Latin Americans residing in Miami, that it turned out to be a nice relaxing rest stop to allow us to recharge and get going again.

After a few hours of working up our tans and doing some sightseeing, we headed off to the airport for our evening flight to San Diego, whilst also catching a connecting flight in Houston.

When we arrived into San Diego we waited about an hour for a bus at the airport until we came to the conclusion that it was never going to show up! We got chatting to a couple other guys from Texas and Canada who were also waiting and decided to split an Uber with them. It was good chatting to them and they recommended a lot of great things for us to do and see in San Diego!

With American accommodation being so expensive, we decided to start trying out more hostels and we didn’t arrive until quite late at night. Cautious of putting on the bedroom light and disturbing others sleeping in the room, we heard someone pipe up and say that the light was broken and doesn’t work. We spoke to reception about it and they managed to turn it on for us, which wasn’t broken after all. The guy in our room was Ahmed (commonly and endearingly referred to as the bitch) and he turned out to become our best friend and travel buddy for the next 3 days, as he was travelling on his own from Jordan in the Middle East. We had a good laugh at Ahmed sitting in the dark for a couple hours when the light was working all along and then were keen to share travel stories with him. Ahmed then pulls out a full itinerary on an A4 page for San Diego and offered to spend the following day with us exploring. Us two, as always, last minute and unprepared, welcomed this idea with open arms. After a lot of chatting and laughter, that bitch wouldn’t shut up, so we got some sleep, ready to go along with what Ahmed had planned for his few days in San Diego.

After arriving into Miami, before we even got to our apartment, we immediately found the nearest shop for some home comforts. Three days of living off fish and rice and being bitten alive resulted in us feeling like we needed a good wash and to eat some food and snacks we were used to!

After spending too much money on sweets and treats, we made our way to our apartment. As a reward (and for our sanity) for surviving the jungle, we treated ourself to a nice luxury room in Miami.

We chilled out and relaxed in the room for a while and caught up with washing our clothes. Later that evening we went out for some pizza and cocktails and a walk along South Beach, before heading home to get a good nights sleep in a comfy bed without worrying about getting bitten by anything from the jungle!

The next morning, Craig woke up to a lizard on his leg, thankfully for Katie, we had survived our 2 nights in the jungle, but unfortunately today was our last day!

We finished our trip off in the Amazon by visiting a local tribe nearby. The tribe still live traditional lifestyles, but are still forced by the Brazilian government from a young age to attend school to learn Portuguese amongst other things. Once we arrived, we were shown around their village and were then greeted with a 10 minute performance of singing and dancing and even got pulled up at the end to join in with the tribe! It was amazing to even be allowed to visit the tribe and learn about their culture, never mind getting up and joining in on their traditions.

Each native family had their own little stalls of hand crafted goods also, there were some blow darts, jewellery and ornaments etc all made from whatever material the natives have access to in the jungle. The money they earn is used for school bags etc for the kids as they still live with everything they find and create. Katie was even given a gift from the leader of the tribes son, who is currently in training to take over the tribe when his father passes. We were informed it takes over 20 years of training for this in which the ‘chosen one’ has to go through extensive trials and training in order to prove his worth to lead the rest of the tribe.

After spending the morning with the local tribe, unfortunately our time in the jungle had come to an end, so we said our goodbyes to Fabio and headed for the airport. We had more slumming about to do in the airport as we had to wait around for a few hours, before our 5am flight to Miami, USA and for what would seem like being back into civilisation.

A night of what Katie called hell, we woke up with over twenty mosquito bites each on our bodies! Even with our mosquito repellent on, it must have worn off overnight but it all adds to the experience and thankfully it didn’t affect us too much. Paranoid that we would have now caught malaria, we knew we wouldn’t have felt any affects of malaria for at least seven days. It would be anxious seven day wait to see if we were going to die or not, but decided to just put it to the back of our minds in the meantime!

We started off the day with a 6 hour hike through the jungle where Fabio told us all about the wildlife, the different plants/trees and how the local people live and survive with what’s around them. We learned about the surrounding nature nearby and all the medicinal plants and trees which are still used today by the natives. We even got to see some Iguanas whilst exploring through the rainforest.

By the end of the hike, we headed back to the accommodation for a late lunch before setting off again on another boat trip. This time the boat trip was similar to our morning hike, but this time we learned about the different animals and insects of the Amazon jungle. Whilst weaving through the mangrove, we managed to see lots of different wildlife such as monkeys, caiman, iguanas, exotic birds, sloths etc, all in their natural habitat and it was just a surreal experience. We would also randomly hear and see iguanas falling from the tree tops into the water around us and then trying to hide, thinking we were hunting them. Katie definitely jumped a few times with the ones landing closer to the boat!

It had started to get dark again by this point, so we went to see the beautiful sunset again before having a second go at finding some caiman.

This time we (okay Fabio) were more successful at finding and catching a caiman for us all to see this time. Fabio managed to catch it by shining the torch at the caiman’s eyes to temporarily blind and stun them from moving. He was then able to grab it with his bare hands in the pitch black (whilst trying not to lose a hand in the process) and bring it on to the boat for us to see up close. Craig took a turn at holding it as it struggled to escape, whilst Katie was shaking trying to take a quick photo. Again, for anyone concerned reading this, the caiman was let free back in to the water after five minutes or so and it even gave us a wee wave as it swam away to say “thanks for a good time guys”.

As we got back it was dinner time where we had more fresh fish and food and some drinks with the rest of the group and also one of the local dogs on the island who Craig grew fond of. The dogs were there to deter any caiman or other species trying to settle on the island!

After dinner, Fabio also managed to catch a baby caiman next to our accommodation in the back yard, to surprise and show Katie who was too scared to hold the bigger one. This time Katie was brave enough to hold it, whilst also shiteing herself, but it didn’t last long before the caiman moved slightly and she asked Fabio to take it back off her and let it free, as you can tell by the look on her face!

That night before we went to sleep, we decided to put on a few extra layers of clothes (even though it was roasting hot), in the hopes we wouldn’t get bitten by anything else and also limit our chances of catching malaria!

We got picked up quite early (actually 45 minutes earlier than we were told), so there was a lot of colourful language in the morning rushing to get ready as we had just woken up. We then set off on a one hour drive and then a 45 minute boat journey to get us to our accommodation in the Amazon jungle. We were in a group of around 8 people, so met some interesting characters along the way, one of which who was also a fellow Scottish guy, so it was good to hear a familiar accent on our trip!

On the boat trip to get to our accommodation, our guide Fabio mentioned that the climate of the Amazon jungle has two seasons, wet and dry, and that between the seasons the water can rise or fall by 12 metres depending on the time of year. Thankfully we arrived in the dry season and the water had started to evaporate, with the water level already beginning to reduce, but was still quite high. High enough that the boat we were on was driving through the tops of some trees which would normally be visible in other times of the year. It was also interesting to see some of the locals houses and huts submerged in water, that are abandoned for 6 months during the wet season!

When we arrived at our accommodation, it was on an island and had its own swimming pool, hammocks, cable tv, WiFi etc. We initially thought we would be slumming it for a few days but turns out we were given some pretty decent accommodation. We each had our own wee cabin but as we were about to enter ours, we were greeted by a massive tarantula on the cabin entrance. Katie was already starting to think the worst of what we would experience!

After lunch, our first activity of the day in the rainforest was a boat trip through the mangrove and then stopping to try some Piranha fishing. As the water level was still pretty high, we were told the chances of us catching any Piranha would be made even more difficult. We started to get into the rhythm of fishing but unfortunately for us, neither of us managed to catch any, even though we did get a few nibbles on our rod with the Piranha teasing us! Luckily, two people in the group managed to catch some so it was good to witness that! Afterwards, the Piranha were let back into the water by Fabio, for those concerned reading this.

After our trip, it was beginning to get dark, so Fabio took us to the open and we all watched the beautiful sunset whilst floating in the middle of the water. It was a surreal moment being sat out in the middle of the water with no light pollution around us, just watching the sun set below the water!

After the sun had set, it was now pitch black and only Fabio’s head torch to guide us, as we set off for some caiman spotting, whilst venturing slowly and quietly through the mangrove in the midst of darkness in the boat. Another downside with the high water level was that the caiman were harder to find as they had more water to hide in. After an hour of unsuccessful searching in the pitch black, we called it a night and headed back for some dinner.

We enjoyed some fresh tambaqui fish (native to the Amazon) and other food for dinner, which Katie even enjoyed despite her hating seafood. After dinner we had a few drinks with the rest of the group, before deciding to call it a night, ready to get up early the next again day for more activities.

With our last day in Rio de Janeiro before catching a flight to Manaus later in the afternoon, we decided to spend the morning and early afternoon relaxing on Copacabana beach. Whilst Katie sat catching enjoying some rest and drinking cocktails, Craig decided to go in sea and experience some of the biggest waves he had ever been in. There were a few times a wave came which sent him tumbling underwater. As fun as it was, there were definitely a couple too big to stay in so he decided to join Katie for some drinks and relaxation!

From originally having the fear of Brazil in general before arriving, Katie left Rio saying it was one of the best places she had ever visited and could have easily stayed for longer. Now though, we were heading to Manaus, deep inside the Amazon jungle to experience a completely different environment and experience of Brazil!

After getting into Manuas quite late, we didn’t do much other than find our hotel and get some sleep as we were getting picked up sharp the following morning.

We had read online of a spot called Pedra de Telégrafo, which is a large hill just outside Rio de Janeiro, which is a famous spot where people can take a hike up it and at the top they can get the “perfect Instagram” photo taken, so we decided to go there in the morning to see what all the fuss was about! Basically, it creates the illusion that you’re hanging off a cliff, when in reality there is a small bit of land to stand on underneath! It’s good fun to visit and it’s amazing seeing what the lengths some people will go to to get that “perfect” photo. Teenage to late-20’s women are definitely the worst. They would spend ages trying to get the perfect shot multiple times with different poses, whilst pissing everyone off in the queue in the meantime waiting for them to finish! They eventually started hurrying up as Craig started to boo them and everyone else in the queue stared to follow suit!

Later that afternoon we took the cable car up to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain. We enjoyed a few drinks here while we waited for the sun to set to get some different types of photographs. We got some of the best views here of the city and then when the sun had set, the view of the city all lit up was amazing and definitely gave New York’s skyline a run for its money! At the top, we even managed to FaceTime Craig’s Mum and Dad to share the experience with them.

Later that night, we went to an Irish bar for food and drinks and also had a few games of pool. A great night to end a perfect day before heading off to the Amazon jungle the next day!

The following day we grabbed some breakfast in the morning and then took a trip up to see Christ the Redeemer, of course it was flooded with tourists but we still managed to get some good photos and videos. As we were up there, there were even paraglider’s that were just casually passing close by and waving to everyone.

There were a lot of wild little monkeys roaming about too, so we bought some bananas and fed one of them to see them up close. Katie wanted her photo of the monkey so kept feeding them and before you know it a whole pack of them started turning up looking for food!

After getting back down to the city centre, we wandered around taking in some more of the sights. Later that evening we decided to chill out and relax on Ipanema Beach since it was only a couple streets away from our apartment.

In the morning we decided to walk around and do some general sightseeing on our way towards Santa Teresa, the home of Escadaria Selarón, also known as the ‘Selaron Steps’, a set of world-famous steps in Rio de Janeiro. They were the work of Chilean-born artist Jorge Selarón who claimed it as a “tribute to the Brazilian people”. He originally began renovating dilapidated steps that ran along the front of his house in 1990, collecting tiles from various construction sites and urban waste. As the popularity grew in later years, most of the tiles were donated by visitors from all around the world. There are 215 steps measuring 125m long and comprise of over 2000 tiles from over 60 different countries. Of course this is a massive tourist attraction and was very busy but we managed to get a few good photos during different waves of tourists!

After that, we enjoyed a few drinks and lunch nearby before we set off to climb yet more steps to reach Cultural Centre Parque das Ruínas. The house of a big Maecenas of Belle Époque carioca, known as the “Marechala da Elegância”. The palace is one of the most beautiful winning projects of the architect Ernani Freire and houses experimental works of art. We wandered around the ruins and had a good laugh to ourselves watching the lengths some people will go to for that ‘perfect’ photo! One group of friends even had their own spotlights with them for better lighting! Whilst up there, you got a good view of all the favelas that were located close by!

After a day of wandering around in the sun we enjoyed some Caipirinhas, the national drink of Brazil (which were quite tasty) and also dinner at a local quirky bar before heading home for the night.