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Published: April 3rd 2016
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I did not stop in Santarem, advice along the road led to Alter do Chao, the Caribbean of the Amazon.
A funny little place where there are sand reefs with with sand in the river, and the locals go out there on boats, about 300 m from the shore to lay on the beach and bask in the rain.
Sometimes I’ll plan and check out weather before I go somewhere.
Remember being In Cairns in Oz moaning about the incessant downpour when one of the locals asked how I thought that a rain forest got it’s name.
No more moaning.
Anyway I had a rather nice fish for lunch and just mooched about waiting for time to pass.
They have some nice chillies here, the size of a pea and yellow, and hot, not habanero hot but they spice things up, the waiter shook his head when I put them in what they call a vinaigrette quite nice but no sting.
Dinner downtown with lots of people about drinking and eating and the usual fire jugglers and sundry other jugglers.
A couple of beers later I hit the sack, I can’t wait to
get to Venezuela and Colombia and being able to speak with people again.
Next day the Amazon river to Manaus, I remember reading a book when I was a kid where some action took place in Manaus, little did I know that I’d goo there half a century later.
Manaus is a big city 2,5 million people so my stay will be brief, a hot shower, a new front tyre and some dollars that I can change on the black market in Venezuela.
I will not be going to any wildlife lodges or jungle tours, so far all I’ve been on in Asia were a rip off.
Anyway I got my luxury cabin and pulled off my sweaty gear and after a while and some extra cargo off north towards Manaus.
The river is quite wide and the boat goes close to the shore to avoid the current, trees go by and the water is muddy, little villages and small farms.
It changes the whole time and yet remains the same, no birds not an animal to seen except for horses and cows.
I’m quite happy that I did not go for the
seven day cruise from Belem.
There are long stretches where there’s no light what so ever at night, but what spills from the boat and it gets very dark and even less to see.
The music blares from large loudspeakers 16 hours a day.
Thank good for E books and my own cabin.
All in all it's bloody boring.
Finally we Get close to Manaus and the river we sailed on mets another one and goes from muddy to very dark, it looks quite strange as we go through the mixing point.
Manaus is not much to write home about so I won't, some nice building from the era when Manaus was the rubber capital of the world. but the rest is high rises with air con units hanging all over.
The must have quite a job to clean up this place for the football thingy and they probably spent a few years budget doing that and since then nothing.
Fortune and good luck smile at me as always on this trip.
After some disconcerting info from a German boy on the ferry to Santarem, that there was no
way to cross the border between Venezuela and Colombia I got Maria to call the embassy in Stockholm to get the latest info.
They didn’t know anything and said that maybe, yes and no, you can't cross the border.
I did not want to risk it so I’m now on the slowest boat in the whole world going up to Porto Velho which will get me out of the Amazon basin and into Peru on dry land.
5 days at 10 km/h is enough to drive me crazy, my Suite as they called it is a very small cabin with an attached bath, no bed linen no pillow and no towel.
So I bought a hammock that doubles as bed linen and hammock, pillow and a pink towel.
At lest there are some foreigners on this boat even a guy on a motorbike so at lest some one to talk with, an English girl and an Argie couple in a camper.
So I’m not left to my own devices.
But the landscape remains the same an never ending row of green, flotsam and jetsam and the odd boat and a couple of birds,
the current remains quite strong due to heavy rains and to put icing on the cake, and there’s something wrong with the engine so we can’t go at full speed.
It’s an all inclusive with an open bar and three meals a day with the best of the Brazilian cuisine, not.
Very sweet coffee and crackers and margarine for breakfast, some kind of mystery
bovine meat and rice with pasta and beans for lunch and they serve the lunch at 10 am
Brutally slaughtered chicken with pasta and rice for dinner.
The shower uses river water, nice and muddy.
The crew is nice and and the passengers as well but the days are long and on board entertainment is nil.
Thank you Amazon for the Kindle.
Moan moan.
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