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Published: July 13th 2006
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Hammocks!!!!!!
Was a really cool sight in the morning....but Jems storys of bugs and the cold made us glad we had a cabin!!! Flew into Manaus over the Amazon river!! Was awesome the whole thing is huge just cutting its way through miles of dense jungle, you could clearly see the meeting of the two different waters, one a cold tea clear brown and the other a murcky sandy brown, they meet but due to th temperature changes don´t mix??. On arriving at the airport we had to find help because muppet me left my swiss army knife in my day bag and customs pulled me up and it had to be checked in on its own!! so i now had the mission of tracking it down, a guide at the airport found us after overhearing our attempt at portuguese (still very ropey!!), in the end got my knife and the guide happened to be a tourist info worker who was also studying English and was happy to talk just to improve his pronuntiation, so we took full advantage of this and had him go through everything he had on the area and places to stay including making all our phone calls to local hostels to get prices etc!!!...
Found a hostal pretty easy and quite close to Manaus centre which is basicly a
The Mighty Amazon!!!
Flew in at around midday, the view was awesome!!!!! 10 miles wide in places.. network of 4 high streets. First real difference for us was the people, they had Western Samoan look about them and this area (Manaus) was much better of in terms of economy mainly due to massive tax break (0%) to imports and exports meaning lots of foriegn companies employing for production line factories...
The mission was to book a boat for our trip down the amazon!!! Only 2 per week so no messing jumped straight into cab and down to the port... Found the boat which left in 2 days (inc today), look nice enough and after seeing the cabins we decided to take one rather than the hammock option (see pics), massive price difference but for the 7 day trip incl all food and water still worked out cheaper than the daily budget...
So with a day to kill we headed back to the tour company at our hostel to see what we could get upto!!!! Plugging the we are poor line (mass economical), our guide already quids in with his boat commision was quite happy to point us in the direction and also tell us how to get to see and swim with the pink
Manuas....
Even with the wealth of the place you still cant get away from the poor housing conditions... some of these places had tv dishes!!! dolphin of our own back (saving about 60pounds)... So next morning headed out at 6am for our bus that left at 6:30!!!! Wrong!!!! left at 6!!!! so we had to catch a speedboat to head it off at the ferry crossing...All ok!!.. So after the 5 hour journey we arrived at "Nova Aria", which was a tiny little place with just locals and NO english, but we found the floating restaurant (cafe!!) in the end!!!
The day was fantastic!!! after a quick bite to eat we headed out to the back of the cafe where a small local girl (daughter of the cafe owner and obviously related to the little white kid out of flipper!!!) splashed around in the water of the cafe jetty and with a couple of minutes we saw our first dolphin... We had a total of 4 at any one time and they Really!!!! are pink!!! we were a little nervous about swimming as the girl had left and it was just us and the dolphins for the afternoon? but a local guy appeared with a beer in hand a showed us the way!!! in that he practicly fell in!!! so we followed suite and jumped
Pink Dolphins!!!
They were really gentle to feed, we got 2 plates of fish from the resturant to feed them with... in....Was an amazing experience they were so playful and to touch they felt like set jelly???? i expected a more sharky type shin feel!!!... we stayed for about 2 hours more before we had to catch the bus back... A truely wonderful day!!!!!
So onto the Amazon, was so looking forward to settling down a bit, the last few weeks had been 2 days here 3 days there!! pack!! unpack!! pack!!! and the thought of NO desicions not even what to eat was lovely..... The boat was gonna have 200 passengers and as only 2 per week i was expecting maybe 40% tourist!!!!! So to create a nice evening atmosphere of drink chat and the odd game of cards!!!! I was wrong there was 3 of us!!!! me Kay and Jem (jeremy) who insidently was from Daventry and we both knew same guys from Mereway??!!!?? mainly from 6th form school fights (not me i was in Scotland!! Jem went to Duston)... We and a Brazilian girl Jem hooked up with all became good friends and the fact we were the only Omigos meant we built a great rapour with the captain and crew.. was a cool trip....
The most
Pink Dolphins
They were a really special... When you tried to get out they went all cute and practicly begged for you to get back in... amazing bits were the sunrises, sunsets and star filled nights, spectacular and you could see shooting stars every night if you had the patients.... Check out the hammock picture!!! this was how they all slept!!! the bottom of the vessel was filled cargo which the guys would unload along the way, everything from wine to motorbikes!!! those guys worked so hard all day every day and for 35pounds a week!!! Food was communial with about 16 at a setting first come bases and was good (unlike some of the blogs id read before hand)... If i do another big boat trip with go for the hammock option as although cold looked like fun...
When we reached Tabatinga (on the brazil/peru boarder) we were offered an extra night on the boat for free!!! so we actcepted and went out for the evening wrth our new friends and some of the crew to a Forjor night!! Traditional brazilian dancing and let your hair down thing, im not usually famed for my dancing but i think i actually pulled it off!!!! i was born in the wrong country!!!!! it was a small town and the locals were really cool....
Next Stop
View From The Jetty!!!
This was the view from the cafe jetty!! so as you can see there is no element of captivity here, the only thing that keeps them in the area is FREE FISH!!!! Peru....
Ok bit for the travelers- Boat trip R$800 for the cabin (400 each and for this you get tv,air con, fridge and shower. Take plenty of wine and juices as none on boat) and R$300 for hammock, meals on Manaus about R$5 in the day and 12-15 at night.. Hostal $R50 between us... and do the dolpin trip of your own back for about $25US.... Lots of dodgy mossies and a little fly in the shape of a small black perfect triangle (Kill At First Sight!!), dont get many insects untill you start docking to drop stuff off then they come aboard and stay till all killed!!!!
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bobbie
non-member comment
looks wicked... i don't fancy all those bugs though... think you both are so brave!!