The Boat

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So the boat, 5 days solid along the Amazon to the nearly coastal Belem. Its started fine, as expected its a three tier job with two decks full of hammocks and the third a bar and open space for sitting, contemplating, sketching or mainly laughing at the ridiculous concerts they seem to show on the TV and huge sound system, bascically the boat version of a Vauxall Nova.

After passing the day complaining about how bad we feel, swaying in out hammocks and wondering what the hell we are doing we, we go to bed early. I wake up very soon after and basically spend the rest of the night very awake with the worst side effects of food poisoning ive ever had. It wouldnt have been so bad but chugging along in the middle of the Amazon river in pitch blackness feeling like i did was a top ten worst ive ever felt in my life.

The next day was spent thinking of ways to get off this boat, and luckily where we were stopping to change boats there was an airport and for $50 I could fly and meet the boys a few days later when they finally arrive, luckily it didnt come to this and i decided to keep going as i was sure i was over the worst of it.

The boat we moved onto was alot smaller with only two small decks, the lower with a very noisy engine and the upper with 20ish hammocks, including ours. The sceney and views from the boat were amazing, from children hooking their boats onto the side to catch a lift, to the stars at night everything looked completely unreal. The physically and mental side effects were telling though, eating nothing but the mandatory Brazillian beans, rice and speghetti (all cold) was trying and laying down for 20hrs a day im sure wasnt great for my already shaky health. The fact that we were told arrival at 8am Friday and by 4pm we were still in the jungle also added to the feeling that this was a never ending journey.

My favourite part of this journey were the storms at night. They would come from nowhere and suddenly rain would be whipping against your face and everyone would be up trying to secure the plastic sheets to the side of the rocking boat, the rain was so hard and the winds so strong at times i was thinking we are definately going down tonight (all these storms would happen at night). The lightening was also amazing, the forks id previously seen in the distance were now all around us, lighting up the blue plastic sheets like a strobe, equally scary and beatuful.

Overall it was a great way to travel and basically relax for 5 days while enjoying the scenery, althought getting stared at solid for 3 days by a local women was annoying at times it just added to the feeling that we werent really meant to be there and these days everyone flies into and from Manaus. Cheats.

So at 8pm Friday, 5 days after setting off, we see the New York-esque profile cityscape view of Belem on the horizon, it looked like Dallas to me after seeing nothing but trees for a long time. The locals found it amusing how excited i got at this view but i hadnt been that happy in a long time (see alligator photo in previous blog) and after the hellish 36hrs of the start of the journey it was all the sweeter. We get in a dodgy cab after scrabbling through 3 boats to get to shore and find a hotel with Sky TV and a mini-bar, bring on Paraguay.

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