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Published: September 17th 2008
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I miss Irn-Bru. I miss Fish N Chips. I miss coffee and croissants on a Sunday morning with the paper and a nice warm comfy bed. I miss Lasagna, Wine, Chorizo, and Crisps. I miss Home.
Being 8 and a bit months in and swinging in a hammock on a journey seemingly without end, things start to hit home (ah home ´Where everybody knows your name'). On the 14th of September we will have only 100 days left of this Uber voyage of discovery and mosquito bites. That means we have spent almost 257 days away from home (I say almost because there is a weird recurring dream I have about a wedding and a hot tub). And right now we have plenty of time to think about it.
Our boat journeys down the Amazon will total barely a week, but when you have nowhere to go and the nearest body is but six inches away you have a lot of time to think.nTo plan and scheme. To add and remove. To refine the journey ahead and reflect on times past. Remember the time the bus was 6 hours late and then wouldn´t let us on. Remember the time
The Amazon
It all pretty much looks like this we got lost in the back alleyways for almost 3 hours and then realised we´d been going round in circles past what we had been looking for all that time. Remember Paraglyding, Mountain Biking, Caving, Surfing, Camel Riding and of course the 100m Death-Defying Zip wires with only a bit of old bike tyre between you and a very large tree. Ah memories.
So why are we sitting on a boat for 4 days when we could be out there doing more crazy stuff and breaking the terms and conditions of the insurance policy just one more time. Well the answer is simple - it was just too damn expensive to fly.
Perhaps it´s a touch more complicated than that (Nope at 350 quid pp we´re damn well taking the boat). A romantic notion of a time gone by. Gently drifting down the most exciting river in the world swinging in a hammocks and taking in the view. A quite, civilised and downright British way to travel. No airport queues or customs men, no heaving backpacks from hostel to hostel. This would be a comfortable, relaxing and golly pleasurable way to spend a week.
Only this. It´s
ruddy boring.
Having spent the last 8 ish months with each other 24/7 we thought that conversation would have dried up long ago and we´ll both admit there are times when our chat has perhaps plumbed new depths of triviality (The Potato Blog for one). But we have managed to keep up good pretence and there is always somewhere new to move on to, something new to see, or perhaps a new friend to meet with whom we can share our stories and ignore one another at the expense of. But on the boat there is none of this. There is simply the boat. And the river. The long, brown, windingly boring river.
Life used to be fun, exciting. Where have those times gone. Have I always lived on the boat, eating my rice and beans. Secretly giddy when the porridge man comes round with breakfast (No rice at breakfast). Where is this boat going anyway.
I miss Home and I´m Bored.
Still, over the last week or so we have managed to cram in a small day trip to Columbia (as one does). Just enough time to sample the local beers and pick up enough
The Opera House of the Amazon
How much opera the locals want is anyone guess, but it is pretty coffee to keep everyone hyper for the forseeable future. Learn that Portuguese is nothing like Spanish and not one Brazillian speaks the latter. Strange when you think half of them in Tabatinga comute into Columbia (Spanish speaking) on a daily basis. And I thought we were poor at languages.
We´ve also both enjoyed being almost strip searched twice by Brazilian drugs police (they stopped searching the packs when they reached the dirty pants - very wise). And delightfully we both appear to have caught dysentry from the unhygenic cooking on board. Hope no-one was having dinner.
P.S. (I know these are becoming too frequent but ...) It appears that our blog is attracting international attention with its recent publication in the New Zealand Herald. Although un accredited (We´ve had words) you can clearly see it´s one of ours - Copy and Paste this link.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/article.cfm?c_id=7&objectid=10531206
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