Advertisement
Published: October 22nd 2008
Edit Blog Post
2 weeks later, just the time for us to get an insight of the Amazon river & jungle and to reach Peru.
End of Belem, Pará:
We did not like this city as it was too hot, big, and expensive.
However, we managed to spot a few interesting things and live a funny experience at the post office. We wanted to get stamps. The salesman thought we were stamp collectors so he started showing us his catalogue. A few phonecalls + questions from other people later, we finally got our stamps (the ugliest ones of course). Total duration of the purchase: 30min for 10 stamps (all of the same kind)... but with precious air conditioning !
We also visited a park where some animal species present in the Amazon jungle. A good idea indeed as we realized afterwards that it was much easier to observe these animals in a cage rather than in their natural environment.
We had to get ready for our 5-day trip on the Amazon river from Belem to Manaus: hammock + ropes (= hamac + cordes en francais), fruits, biscuits and... vodka to help us to sleep (recommended by other travellers... but not
in the guidebook).
Boat from Belem to Manaus, Amazonas: a truly unforgettable experience
You have to picture it. 250 people on a 40-meter long boat sleeping in hammocks next to each other. As we were told, you loose all sense of privacy. We had to queue for 4 hours before the boat leaves in order to get a good spot on the top deck where the bar and the music are (but also the air so you can breathe a little more). Let us explain to you step by step
- Music (Brazilian foro, undescribable) starts loudly at 7am and stops about 10pm... later if there is a party onboard (which did happen...).
- Heat is unbearable from 10am to 4pm and everybody sweats... Yummi !
- Hygiene, well... there is no words to describe the smell of the toilet + shower upstairs (where some people still manage to take a shower). We decided to go for the outdoor ones on the top deck (it worked only once though...)
- People: many good and funny ones ! We left Belem at 6pm, apero/drinking time, same in Brazil. So we quickly met a lot of people, mainly Brazilians: the
Hammocks labyrinth
Look at the 17th and 18th hammocks from the front. This is where we slept! Seleçao was born (cf. pictures). To make it clear, it was not the national Brazilian football team, it was the boat drinking team. Nevertheless, the Seleçao did not last longer than 2 days as some of the members (not us) were drinking cachaça from 6am in the morning... Difficult to survive a 40%-alcohol drink with this heat for 5 days.
We also met very kind and helpful sober people. Augusto was one of them: graduate in electricity, painting, army, security... anything that could help him to work and make a living for his family. Manoel, a Colombian working in Brazil was a very fun guy. Not only did he help us to get some of our things sorted, he was the one with us to throw THE party on the boat one night.
All started from a song: "Beber, Cair, y Llevantar" (Drink, Fall, and Get up). It did not take long for the Seleçao to join and then the whole top deck started to dance around the hammocks until 2am. That made us famous on the boat for the rest of the trip. As soon as we came closer to the bar, people were asking us when the next
Selecao lifting the feet (= envoyer les yeps)
A distinctive sign we have decided to ask people to do when we take pictures together. party will start. Our privacy was definitely over after this. That is why we were quite happy to leave the boat after 5 days.
A dark spot though: one night (not the same one), a thief tried to steal Jeremie´s handbag. We were quietly sleeping but our Brazilian loyal friends managed to catch the robber before he jumped down to the second deck. So nothing lost, and no fear as we were not awake.
Manaus, Amazonas: jungle trip
On the boat, we met 3 backpackers: Roberto, a 53-year old Chilean, Attila, Quebecois, 46, and Dale, British, 22. We all went together on a jungle trip with our guide, Antonio.
We went piranha fishing (Jeremie 2 - Tim 1 in the fishing contest... not too good for Marseille people, we have to say) and slept 2 nights in the jungle (the jungle noise is quite strong indeed, but not as much as Roberto´s snore !).
Then comes the fire story: while the guide was setting the camp, we decided to help by trying to light the fire with wet wood and leaves. 45 min and 2 boxes of matches later, Antonio was laughing at us. So we thought we
could learn a lot from his experience.Guess what the trick was: he dropped some petrol on the wet wood and 1 second later, the fire was alive. A bit disappointed we were...
Walking in the jungle is a great experience if you manage to forget about the 20 mosquitoes that fly around you ready to bite. Add sweat, low light, and humidity and you have the full picture.
We saw spiders, caimans, sloaths (= paresseux en Francais => ils meritent vraiment bien leur nom), birds, etc... but never from too close. Antonio managed to catch some of them (cf. pictures). He also showed us a few jungle tricks: medicinal plants against malaria, turista + a very interesting mosquito repellent (ants ! = fourmis). Just get a few hundreds on your hand and smash them on your skin. The scent is surprisingly good !
To tell you the truth, we were a bit disappointed by this experience as we did not see as many animals as we hoped + the actvities were a bit too slow for us.
Transit: Manaus to Peru
We had to fly from Manaus to Porto Velho as no rivers nor roads were practicable. Another
unexpected spending in expensive Brazil... Then, it took us 2 days to get to Peru where we are now. So yesterday was the break. But today, we are back on the road again. 15h for 400km in a 4*4 bus to Cuzco. We hope to be rewarded...
Next article will be about the lost Inca city, the famous Machu Picchu.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.143s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 8; qc: 58; dbt: 0.0925s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Aurel
non-member comment
Merci Joao!!! J'ai bloque quand j'ai vu la distance que vous avez deja parcourue! Un jour l'Amerique du Sud tout entiere enverra la yep! Faites bien passer le message c'est tres bon! Attention aux migales et bon vent les potos!