Sailing the Amazon River

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Sailing up or down the amazon river has always been a life ambition of mine. I've watched countless documentaries about the river, the jungle, the wildlife (including the incredibly pink river dolphin) and people that live there - and I knew from a very early age I just had to see it myself. With my own eyes.

While planning our loose itinerary Tomas and I decided that we would sail up the Amazon River from Manaus in Brazil to Iquitos in Peru. This involved almost 1,3000 kilometres, crossing the invisible three way border where Brazil, Colombia & Peru meet and allot of patients.

I envisaged hours of bird watching, dolphin spotting and hearing the cries of monkeys for miles but that couldn't have been further from the truth. The wildlife is virtually nonexistent and the river is polluted beyond belief. Sadly, the boat companies and their local passengers don't appreciate the beauty of their region and home nor understand the importants of protecting it. The river acts as an extrmemly important transort route for Brazil and Peru as it links them to the Atlantic for import and export shipments.

Perhaps I was nieve to think that I would be sailing Agatha Cristy style up this river. Of course I'd looked into what this stretch of our journey involved but nothing prepared me for it. We spent hours simply staring at the brown water waiting for a manati or a dolphin to appear and watching the locals & crew tipping rubbish (coke cans and plastic etc.) into the water. That aside I do not regret going and would strongly strongly recommend anyone to go - it's the Amazon River after all.

Our ship was the Rey Davi. We had been forewarned to avoid the food on this particular boat because many tourists leave unwell. So we packed snacks like fruit, crackers, tins of tuna, sweet corn and peas. I was already feeling unwell so we opted to take a cabin rather than hammock because it included a private bathroom...!

We were travelling from Manaus to a town called Tefé where we had booked to stay in a floating jungle lodge called Uakari Lodge. The lodge is in the Mamirauá reserve which is the largest protected flooded forest located in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon. Check out my specific blog about our stay at the Uakari Lodge. While in Tefé we stayed at the Multicultural hostal which we would highly recommend. They can help you with boat tickets and the stay at the Uakari Lodge.

After the jungle lodge stay we took a fast boat from Tefé to the tri border Brazilian town called Tabatinga. We had to take the fast boat because slow boats up to the border to not stop in Tefé becauze it is on a different river branch. There isn't much to see or do in this town so we got our Brazilian exit stamp at the police station (extremely important) and took a taxi across the border to Leticia, Colombia. The taxi cost us 10 Brazilian Reals.

Leticia is a much prettier town than Tabatinga with a nice plaza, restaurants and hotels - there's enough to keep tourists entertained for a few days. It's also a very popular place to organise a jungle tour and stay. Having just done our jungle at Uakari lodge we stayed in Leticia for just two nights. The town is reasonbly small so you can easily see it over 1 or 2 days. We spent allot of our time in the plaza. Just before sunset hundreds of screeching parots arrive back to the plaza where they spend the night. Its very nice to see while enjoying an ice cream and freshky squeezed OJ.

To continue our journey up the river we had to cross to Peru through the invisable border in the middle of the river. We took a small boat across the river to the Peruvian town of Santa Rosa. Santa Rosa was a real eye opener. Its a very small and ugly town. The only reason any traveler finds themself there is to begin or end their Peruvian stretch of the amazon river. The accommodation was hell for me. I wouldn't say I'm a travel snob but sleepig in a bed which hasn't been cleaned forrrrrr weeks possibly months and has chewing gum & hair on it and having to share your space with a family of 7 cockroaches is my idea of hell. And before you ask 'why didnt you complain and switch rooms' there was absolutely no point. If you saw the hostel and employees you would totally understand. Besides, I'm sure every room was exactly the same. I am a hugeeeee dog lover and all the streets dogs in this town were furless and their skin was really scabby by far the worse we'd seen on our travels. We had decided to take a fast boat for this next leg of the river and man am I pleased we did. The slow boats looked incredibly unsafe - I honestly couldn't imagine myself on one for 2-3 nights. Our boat was leaving at 3am and to avoid spending any time in the hostel we went for a walk around the port. We saw an older local lady dissecting a turtle s

he'd just caught - although shocking this didn't really affect me because I knew this was her dinner for a several days. We met up with some travelers and had some beers in a bar over looking the river. It turned out to be a pretty good evening after all. At 2.30am our alarm went off and I've honestly never been so happy to get up at that time of the day before. I can't say I'd had much sleep as there had been a power cut so our fan stopped working and it was seriously hot and humid. We bordered the boat, which can only be described as a tube crammed full of people, found some seats and set in for our 14hr journey.

Buying boat tickets is reasonably easy and there's generally an option of a slow or fast boat;

In Manaus the ticket offices are at the main port in town and the employees only speak Portuguese so I would suggest looking up some key words or sentences to be sure you are understood. Whether you travel by cabin or hammock you can board the ship the night before and sleep there. Prices when we travelled were 500 Brazilian Reals for a cabin for 2 people and 150 Brazilian Reals for a hammock space (you need to take your own hammock) from Manaus to Tefé. Food is included within both ticket options. The fast boat leaves every day accept Sundays and takes 12hrs to Tefé. The port itself is a very ugly place so any female solo travellers take care! The slow boats leave around 5am or 6am on certain days.

In Tefé the port you arrive into is not where you take the boat onward to the Tabatinga. From this arrival port you walk right (with the river behind you) and walk through the market. On the other side of the market you will see a bright orange platform in the water, that is where you buy your fast boat tickets. Our fast boat tickets from Tefé to Tabatinga cost 400 Brazilian Reals each. Additionally, from Tefè you can only take a fast boat to Tabatinga as the slow boat does not stop here (our slow boat terminated in Tefé). If you want to take a slow boat you need to try and convince one of the local taxi boats to take you to the slow boat at it sails nearby. We witnessed this from another town while we were on our slow boat - it looks like allot of fun!

For the last leg, Santa Rosa to Iquitos you can either buy your tickets in Letecia or in Santa Rosa. The fast boat cost USD89 per person and takes 12-13hrs. Food is included within your ticket cost but always take your own supply. I don't have the slow boat cost but it's safe to assume it will at least be half the fast boat.

If you've loved your Amazon River experience the fun doesn't need to end in Iquitos. There is a boat company called Henry which fun a fleet of boats from and to Pucallpa, Peru. This should take 5-6 days but it's very common for these boats to be delayed and break down. Also, it's worth me mentioning that these boats are the worst of all the slow boats - consider your options carefully.

I hope this blog helps you plan your Amazon adventure. Good luck.

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