The original plan for Tuesday in Manaus was that we would catch the England game on TV, with Adam at one stage even considering flying down to Belo Horizonte to watch it. I imagine he would have gone from there to Rio rather than return to Manaus, but once England were eliminated, the importance of watching the match either on screen or in the flesh went out of the window. With Italy playing Uruguay at the same time, I am uncertain it would have been easy to catch it on a TV anywhere. So we decided to use the day to do the tourist bit, meaning an Amazon boat trip. It meant an early rise as we had to get a taxi to our pick up point, another hotel.

Although we had a fairly conservative taxi driver, credit to the guy, he got us there quickly. I think he took a back route that cut out a fair bit of traffic. Some of the driving in Brazil is an experience to witness. We have certainly been in a few taxis where tailgating is their preferred method, involving some hair raising emergency stops. The willingness to change lanes without a second thought is obviously constantly anticipated by the drivers behind as there would be far more accidents if this style of doing things was tried in the UK. Pricewise, it's all relative. 32 Brazilian real is £10 in terms of what we were able to exchange money for before getting over here and most rides are around the 30-40 real mark. Split three ways it's a far cheaper way of getting around than I had feared ahead of arriving in Brazil. The traffic in Manaus does move, the arrival day farce involving the USA team bus blocking most of the road a one-off. Manaus itself is another huge city, remarkable given there is reputedly no road into the place from outside. As we were to see, the Amazon is huge and some very large cargo boats supply what is needed here. I guess there are some goods flown in as well.

The boat trip was the normal tourist thing, the highlights of which were firstly having a swim in the river in an area where dolphins swim around you, which is a bit strange especially when you seem to be standing on the things, but on a hot day it a real delight to bathe in the cooling - but not cold - water. The other best bit was witnessing the meeting of the waters. Here, two rivers of different colours meet but do not mix, due to their differing properties, making an incredible visual sight. It was a bit odd to have lunch on a floating restaurant and catch a some of the Italy v Uruguay game on the box. We were supposed to be away from all that experiencing a different style of life. We saw brief first half highlights of the England match during the interval. It didn't look like we missed very much. The whole Suarez biting Chiellini thing was something we were not aware of until later as we departed soon after the re-start.

Back at the hotel we got the final results. Costa Rica winning the group meant we would see Uruguay in our final match of the trip on Saturday. We thought Colombia would win their group to provide their opposition and so it proved, although none of us were obsessed about sitting down in front of Colombia v Japan, which was the chosen game on TV here. Greece's progress by beating Ivory Coast shows it is all about results, but I really cannot see them going too much further. Mind you, they can probably grind out a win v Costa Rica to make the last eight. It looked possible that all the African sides might be going home after the group stage which would show how those nations have failed to develop even with the talent at their disposal. Nigeria were to prove me wrong, and at the time of writing, Ghana still have a chance.

During the Colombia game, I made a trip on foot to the conveniently nearby Manaus office of the FIFA ticketing centre to try to shift our remaining spare tickets - three for Switzerland v Honduras, the match here in Manaus the following day. Quite what it is doing all the way out here where our hotel is - trust me, a long way from anywhere - is another question. If anyone is arriving on the day of the game to pick up a ticket, it is a fair old trek to first get here, and then make it to the stadium. It was an interesting experience trying to cross the roads I needed to to reach it. I did see one pedestrian crossing on a (rare, but large and very busy) roundabout, but even that was a take your life in your own hands job and just run for it when there seems to be enough of a gap. I made it to my destination, but only just. It was situated in some kind of Amazon cultural centre and I arrived just as some natives were finishing off a ceremonial dance identical to one I had witnessed earlier during a stop off on the boat trip. The only difference was that here, the venue was obviously artificial and the women were covering up their boobs out of some sense of modesty. Granted, the whole 'encounter the natives' thing is part of the tourist industry that has developed here, but I am uncertain how you could make it genuinely authentic. The reality is that the performers do it to benefit from the money they make through tips and sale of their handicrafts, and are part of the system they are supposedly distinct from as a consequence. A genuinely authentic encounter with those that do live a life untouched by modern development would have to take place a long way into the jungle surrounding the Amazon and they would be unlikely to have much use for Brazilian currency. Whehter or not you would be welcomed with poison darts or spears is not mine to say.

I digress. Back to the area outside the FIFA ticketing centre and I waited around for about ten minutes before I found some Italians willing to buy at face value. It was handy that I spoke a little of the language, although I decided against mentioning the earlier defeat that had eliminated them from the tournament. I was just relieved to get shot of the spares without taking a financial hit. When, initially, we had nine tickets for this match - in a remote part of Brazil - between the three of us, we did think it would be hard work selling the six we did not use. Sanj had found out that the six tickets (for two different matches) he had returned to FIFA had all been sold through their re-sale scheme, as had all those I sent back. There was only one game we were unable to sell - Iran v Bosnia in Salvador, and we gave those to Lillian who took care of our transport to and from the airport there. We had managed to sell all of Adam's spares, although taking a bit of a hit on the six France v Switzerland tickets, due to a mix of lack of planning and over-relying on a guy at the hotel reception in Salvador to find a buyer. Selling the Manaus spares at least means I will not have to stand around trying to flog them before the final game here, and demonstrates that, however unglamourous the match, once people are here they will simply go to watch whatever game is on.

Back at the hotel, we relaxed by the swimming pool as the daytime temperature subsided and I enjoyed a beer until the mosquitos started appearing with nightfall. In the evening we returned to the El Dorado square for a drink where we had been on Sunday evening. It was a far less populated with the roads not closed off. No dancing going on to witness the sublime movement of female hips, but nevertheless, live music, a balmy atmosphere and a good spot to relax and have a beer and a bite to eat. A pleasant way to spend our final evening in Manaus.

Wednesday morning saw us check out of our hotel and take a taxi to the Mercure Hotel where we had stayed the first two nights. We had persuaded them to look after our luggage while we were at the match, so as to make the trip from the match to the airport a lot quicker, and minimise the risk of missing the flight to Rio, our last internal flight of the trip. We watched the Argentina v Nigeria match in a nearby bar, and I have to say, wonderful as Lionel Messi is, I just cannot see the Argentinians winning the trophy with their defence. Messi is trying to do what Maradona used to, and single-handedly drag his team-mates to victory, although Maradona benefitted from a more solid back-line in my view. Still, with the 3-2 victory, it means they have won all of their matches so far, although there is certainly an argument that they have not faced top quality opposition yet.

We had considered walking to the ground for the Switzerland match, as I thought I had worked out the route. However, slightly confused, I decided we would take a cab instead. It was just as well, as I seriously underestimated the distance. I doubt we would have made kick off, even if we didn't get lost on the way, which we almost certainly would have. The walk to the stadium once the cab could go no further took us through a grid of three storey blocks, many of which had iron bar grills protecting even the top floor windows from interlopers. Looking at the degree of difficulty involved in accessing them, my guess is that the cat burglars in these parts have the powers of Spiderman. It was certainly not an area I would choose to spend time even in daylight when there wasn't a World Cup match on.

Approaching the entrance, we spotted Gareth Southgate, mercifully no longer a pundit on ITV, although Adam informed me he has succeeded Stuart Pearce as the England under-21 manager. Given that, quite what he was doing entering as a member of the paying public was beyond me. Maybe he got his tickets gratis, but I would have expected him to use the VIP entrance if that was the case. Maybe he is just having a busman's holiday.

Despite being cloudy, it was another humid afternoon, this game kicking off an hour earlier than the previous one we had attended. Adam relayed that at half time the stadium had run out of non-alcoholic drinks to buy, which given the conditions seemed incredible. There was still plenty of beer though! As for the game, it was not as one-sided as the 3-0 scoreline to Switzerland suggests. Honduras certainly posed danger, but poor finishing did for them. Philippe Senderos was demoted to the bench for this game with Johann Djourou starting in his place. A draw between France and Ecuador put the Swiss through to the last 16, although when the match finished, they had to wait until the French match completed before they could celebrate properly.

It was the last game Manaus would stage in this tournament, and amazingly, it was a near sell-out. There were a large number of families there, and I would guess the male to female ratio amongst the attendees was approximately 3 to 2, which is unheard of in my experience. One nice by-product of this was a large number of attractive Brazilian laydeez in the crowd to gawp at, but let's not go there. The numbers attending demonstrates that people will pay to attend a World Cup finals match irrelevant of who is playing, although I doubt this will work so well in the 2020 Euros when those matches - now between 32 countries remember, meaning 63 games in total - are spread over venues in different countries. Slovenia v Denmark in Cardiff anyone? Even France 2016 might struggle to sell out all the matches, although if fans are travelling to the country and ticket prices are reasonable, they might be ok if there is enough local enthusiasm to buy tickets.

As for the Arena da Amazonias. it will now officially become a white elephant. There is appartently a local team but they are not going to get anywhere near a 40,000 plus crowd. It is a shame as it is a fine venue. We were in the ninth row back in the lower tier and cannot complain about the view we had of the game. We pondered why new grounds in England, situated where there is no reason for a height restriction, couldn't have been designed in this way, such as St Marys, Pride Park and the Riverside.

Sepp Blatter was in attendance to support the Swiss and there was a good moment in the second half when his face appeared on the large video screens in the stadium, followed by some vigorous booing. Even the people that have bought tickets know a villain when they see one. No wonder there was no speech from the FIFA president at the opening ceremony.

After the game, we returned to the hotel where we had left our luggage. Kevin Kilbane came in and booked a boat trip on the Amazon from the reception for the morning after. I imagine he was at the game working for BBC Radio 5Live, although if there was live commentary on one of their stations or online, I can't imagine too many in the UK would have chosen that over the France v Ecuador match. We made the airport in time for our flight to Rio very comfortably. While waiting for the plane to board, I worked out the possible quarter finals and semi-finals, on the basis that Germany and Belgium will win their groups on the last day of the group phase. The winners of Brazil v Uruguay would meet the winners of France v Germany in one semi. On the other half of the draw, the winners of Holland v Costa Rica would meet the winners of Argentina v Belgium. Of course, it won't quite work out like that, but I just wanted to get some idea of who was in which half of the draw. Have to say that Argentina and Holland have an easier route to the semis than those in the other half of the draw.

Our flight to Rio was a 10pm take off, arriving at 3am. As Manaus is an hour behind, it meant a four hour flight. Although I enjoyed Manaus, it will be a relief to leave the humidity behind.