Dream fulfilled - but not in Peru

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My boyhood dream of traveling down the Rio Amazonas or Amazon River to you and me, has come to and end as it has now been fullfilled (although the Peruvians would have something to say about that which I'll explain later!). We are now in Manaus which lies just 10 km west of where the Rio Negro and Rio Solimoes meet to form the Amazon. The Rio Negro is black; hence the name and the Rio Solimoes is brown and the waters don't mix for several miles downstream. It was a bizzare sight! The trip was everything I didn't expect and more; from marriage proposals to Louise AND myself, to full mobile reception in probably the remotest place I have ever been! We set off early in the morning to pitch our hammocks in a good spot, to return later with all our belongings. We thought that the top deck, away from the toilets on the deck below, but on the same deck as the bar (we always have to relatively close to a source of alcohol), but far enough back to avoid the noise of heavily intoxicated Brazilian men singing badly, would be a good idea. We should have taken notice that all the locals were not pitching their hammocks there. After setting off a few hours late from Belem we chugged and spluttered our way down the Rio something or other (I can't remember now). Not the Amazon anyway; we didn't join that mighty river until later. It turns out our perfect hammock pitch was right next to the boat exhaust which produced a magnificently loud, but increadibly ugly sound. We were surrounded by other hammocks. You couldn't move for knocking into the next hammock. They really rammed us in. We endured it for a full 5 nights and 6 days. We were not quite the only gringos on board. A really nice Australian couple called Natasha and Pete who were staying in the same hostel as us in Belem were also on our boat, but apart from that, it was completely Brazilian, save 1 Argentinian. The first night was not a good one. Even though we had comsumed a large quantity of vodka we were not use to the beautiful sound of the exhaust and we were still under the influence of the Atlantic Ocean so the boat was swaying a lot along with our hammocks. To be perfectly honest I'm not 100% sure when we actually joined the Amazon proper. The end is so much like a delta that it's hard to know for sure. When we awoke after a poor nights sleep Louise and I had a minor fall out with each other about the river and the rainforest. I was sure that we were neither on the Amazon and that the forest we could see on both shores, though spectacular and grand, was not virgin rainforest. On this rare occasion I was right! It paid dividends that I actually listened to my Geography tutor at school (Dim Jim as we called him affectionaly) when he was banging on about the Amazon. That is where my love for this place started. Anyway at some point we did actually join the muddy brown Amazon River, though it was probably at some ungodly hour when we were both heavily under the influence and trying to chat up a Brazilian of the opposite sex! Or being chatted up by in Louises case! I won't describe how awe inspiring that truly massive river itself is or the ''green like you have never seen green before" rainforest that surrounds it. You have all seen pictures of it or Richard Attenborough has already taken you up it in a much more interesting and beautiful way than I can ever do, but I will mention that much of it has been heartbreakingly destroyed for cattle ranches or roads and the locals do not seem to be educated into how ecologically fragile it is; all rubbish was tossed off the side of the boat even though most of it will take about 20 million years to decompose. I don't mean that in a self-righteous way, it's just that they have simply not been educated about it and who is to blame for that is a matter of opinion. Eventually the swaying receded, but the comfort that brought was soon destroyed by the mosquitos and the ugliest, biggest insects you have ever seen. Every night as soon as the sun dissapeared over the horizon, they appeared in force and our hammocks, being right under the light, were a real tropical island for them. Louise woke on the second morning with a huge beetle on her chest! Along the shoreside, every few miles, a family lived in a wooden hut. I couldn't imagine what their life was like. Just a hut, no roads behind them, just dense, inpenitrable jungle. The river was their road. No schools, no pubs. I pitied them in a way and thought about all that they must miss out on, but they're probably lucky to miss out on most of the dire shit that Brazilians in the towns and cities have to endure every day. They would often wait on the river for a big boat like ours to appear and they would paddle furiously to attach themselves to the side. It looked like a suicide mission to me at first, but they have got it down to a fine art and jumped on board to sell prawns or these wierd banana crisp things or beg. They were so young. No more than 7 or 8 some. This was their way of making a living; either begging or flogging horrible food. We stopped in several small shoreside villages along the way to restock or let the odd passanger off. In one of the larger towns called Santarem our Oz friends jumped off and it left just Louise and me as the only gringos. Here a real test of our portuguese would begin (Natasha's dad is Brazilian and she had a fair grasp of the language to help us get by), but now we were real travelling; consuming miles down the greatest river in the world (apart from the Ribble of course) with the mightiest of all the forests in the world flanking us on both sides and with the one thing I have not mentioned properly yet; the friendliest, funniest, most welcoming people you could possibly ever want to meet. I think the Brazilians on that boat were the lovliest strangers I have ever met and they treated us like life long friends. At last, away from all the westerners. I don't mean that in a rude way because we have made some great friends who I would like to think Ì'll keep in touch with forever, but there we were, the only white faces in a sea of Africans. We chatted, drank, danced, joked, sang (badly) and admired our surroundings for thousands of kilometers, together. Some of the chidren looked at us like we were aliens at first, but soon they warmed to us and played cards with us and couldn't understand why we didn't always understand them, then you would see them talk to their parents and clarity would fall on their faces. As always I think I have banged on enough and if you're still reading I am very grateful! To mention quickly, we saw a giant alligator, but you may be suprised that we actaully saw very little wildlife. You have to venture on foot deep into the rainforest to see that and even that is no guarentee. We saw the most stunning sunrise and sunsets I have ever had the privilage of seeing. We both got lucky with the locals! Brazil has been very good to us both on the pulling front! Enormous thunderstorms although always quite a way off and to my real suprise, it very rarely rained which considering we were in the ranforest is rather odd. I got the shits, chronically on the last day! The food was the same everyday and I had some serious questions about the cleanliness (which my diarrhea confirmed), but we had no other choice, or to starve. The toilets stank to high heaven of urine and we had to shower in them. They were about 1 meter wide, 2 meters deep and 5 feet tall! Charles Dickens's tortured soul; David Copperfield was my other companion and I tried not to cry in front of all the locals everytime his good nature was abused! I know to you all in England, much of this sounds like torture, but it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It was nothing liked I had dreamed about at school, but it definately surpassed it. Guess what? Tomorrow we depart for Tabatinga on the Brazil - Peru border, on boat, in hammock, for seven more days, down the Rio Solimoes where we rejoin the Rio Amazones, according to the Peruvians which the Brazilians disagree on (re: first sentence)!!! Just before I go, Manaus which is the city we are staying in is vast. Nestled in the centre of the jungle, it's as poor as every other Northern Brazilian city and has the same beautiful Portuguese colonial architecture we have seen everywhere else. The Amazon Theatre is particularly beautiful. To finish, I met up with the Brazilian girl I was on the bus with from Salvador to Belem as she lives here in Manaus and she was looking at my photos on my camera, but as she doesn't understand a word of English, she didn't realise she was pressing the "delete all" button and so I have lost every single photo from Rio de Janeiro to here. I am absolutely gutted. I had some cracking photos, but there is no point losing sleep over it as there is nothing I can do about it and she was absolutely devastated and genuinely sorry about doing it. Update again soon. Dave. X

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