Advertisement
Published: February 13th 2008
Sunrise
That´s a rare one for us!!!!!! One of our favourite pictures though.It was a lovely morning in Santarem. We could even have gone to the beach if we hadn’t been leaving! Typical eh!! Instead we checked out of the hotel and moved onto our boat, the
Principe do Amazonas where the captain had agreed to lend us hammocks for the journey to save us buying them. They even tied them up for us.
We spent the morning getting used to lying in hammocks as well as watching the vultures flying around. They are the equivalent of seagulls here and come very close at times. We also speculated about the lime green water at the shore. It is surely pollution but it almost glows, so maybe it’s radioactive too!!
The boat did something quite rare, it left early! So early in fact that a small boat came chasing after it with a late passenger on board!! Leaving Santarem we first came to another “meeting of the waters” where the supposedly turquoise waters meet the murky brown waters of the Amazon. It’s not quite as turquoise as we had imagined.
The journey to Monte Alegre took around 5 hours. We spent most of it gently swaying in our hammocks. The problem
is that the hammock area gets very crowded with hardly a spare hook anywhere. That means as you sway you soon become accustomed to feeling a foot, and arm or an elbow digging into your body somewhere! We spent the last hour or so at them bar chatting in very basic Portuguese to the guy who had been in the hammock next to Russ. Chatting is a very loose description of the disjointed conversation that was going on!!!!
On arrival in Monte Alegre we were surprised by the modern buildings making up the port area. The town is split in two with a lower town around the port and an upper town, well, uphill from the lower town! We decided to stay in the upper town in a hotel with a gorgeous view over the surrounding area. The
Panaroma II proved to be very comfortable and at breakfast it seems that we were the only guests. That might explained why they dropped the price without me even having to barter!
There’s not a tremendous amount to do in Monte Alegre. Our plan was to spend a couple of days relaxing and take a boat trip out on the
flooded surroundings hoping to see some wildlife. These plans were soon scuppered when we discovered that there are no boats to Belem on a Saturday! Our choice was to leave after only one night or go crazy waiting for Sunday to arrive. We chose to leave on the first boat which proved to be a good choice.
Having bought our tickets we tried to use the Internet. Don’t bother! After managing to read 1 email in 15 minutes we gave up. They didn’t even charge us!! We relaxed for the rest of the morning sitting out on the hotel balcony and willing our washing to dry before we had to pack! With a bit of a breeze we managed to dry everything and made our way down to the port. There we ate a wonderful and cheap
rodizio for lunch. Basically they keep brining meat to your table until you say no more.
Our boat from Monte Alegre was like neither of the other two. It was a huge catamaran and more akin to an ocean cruiser than an uncomfortable ride down the Amazon. On boarding we realised that we had probably been oversold our tickets from Manaus.
Our cabin here was what we expected, just 2 bunk beds and an air conditioning unit! On the first boat we had a suite so I guess we were sold the most expensive accommodation without realising it. Still, our bunk bed cabin was more than enough for us.
This leg of the journey took a little short of two days. Once again we were surprised by the quality of the food. The guide books all warn how bad it is so maybe we have acquired very low standards!!! The scenery at first was painfully similar to almost everything we have seen already. It’s funny how the tropical and exotic banks of the River Amazon can become monotonous and boring!
As we got closer to the Amazon delta where the river empties into the Atlantic Ocean, the scenery got more and more interesting. We passed many logging stations where the deforestation of the Amazon is clear to see. It may be picturesque but we all know the damage it is really doing.
We also passed a number of small communities. As we sailed by small boats would paddle out to meet us. People were throwing food and clothes
wrapped in plastic bags into the river. I guess it’s a form of charity and it seemed a common thing to do. Then everyone watched as the small boats raced to pick up the offerings.
At 8am on Sunday morning the boat moored at Belem ending our Amazon adventure. We had spent almost 80 hours on boats from Manaus to Belem covering about 1500 miles. It was a great experience but rough waters on the final morning made us pleased we were on a twin hulled catamaran and not on smaller wooden boat!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.111s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 7; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0722s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
KST
non-member comment
Monte Alegre
There are rock paintings just outside Monte Alegre that may be more than 10,000 years old. Those paintings along with other evidence of early human habitation are contributing to a revision of theories on when the Amazon was settled. You were fortuate to get into the upper Panorama II. It was full when my wife and I got there and we found that our reservations were actually in the lower Panorama -- a miserable little cabin with leaky roof, a yardfull of rosters that crowed most of the night, no screens and many mosquitos and an air conditioner that kept flipping the circuit breaker. We put up with it for two nights then moved to a really basic hotel by the dock, as the upper Panorama was still full. Good thing we did as the boat we'd booked (and paid for) in Santarem showed up about six hours earlier than expected and we had to pack and move really fast to catch it. KST