Blogs from Santarém, Pará, Brazil, South America

En route to Santarem, Brazil, our port of call on Thursday, March 2, 2023, we spent two days cruising the Amazon River. Well, to be perfectly honest, I’m not sure of EXACTLY what river we were cruising because Belém, our last port of call, is on the banks of the Pará River. Wikipedia says Belém is “part of the greater Amazon River system” and is “the gateway to the Amazon River” but is technically not ON the Amazon River. The “Amazon basin” is that part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about 2.4 million square miles, or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent, and is located in portions of eight countries – Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. ... read more

unsere platzwahl an deck des massenfassenden schiffs war fast perfekt. fast. leider geht die ganze nacht das grelle neonlicht genau über uns nicht aus. und die laut krächzende durchsagebox direkt an unseren köpfen verkündet alle nächtlichen anlaufhafen. immer eine halbe stunde und kurz bevor wir die stops erreichen. nach einer zeit protestieren dann auch unsere lächerlich verwöhnten europäischen körper gegen die durchhängende liegeposition. immer, wenn eine halbwegs angenehme stellung gefunden ist, boxt der nachbar einem fuß, ellenbogen oder kopf in die seite. markus, der verräter, gesteht mir des morgens, dass er abends noch einmal aufgestanden ist, sich zwei bier und eine schlaftablette gegönnt hat. jetzt wundert es mich nicht mehr, dass ausnahmsweise ich ein schlafproblem hatte… die nacht ist also eher durchwachsen und so ist das erwachen durch umtriebiges geplapper der einheimischen... read more

I’m currently sitting on a boat in the tiny port of Santarem, a town in the state of Para on the banks of the Amazon River, halfway through a 6 day boat journey that is taking me nearly 2000kms from Belem on the coast of Brazil to Manaus in the midst of the jungle. It’s an epic voyage which has challenged every sense I possess … the noise of the constant forrá music blaring out of the distorted speakers for 15 hours a day, the smell of the blocked toilets and full septic tanks, the taste of the daily repetitive meal of chicken, rice, pasta and potatoes – all in one dish.(its carbs all the way to the toilet), the touch of other people as they bang into you lying in your hammock like an anthropoidal ... read more

When I said before that we had found a good position on the boat to Santerem I was actually incorrect. We arrived to the ship around 2 hours before it was due to leave port. We were greeted by the sight of around 250 hammocks with ours smack bang in the middle. I had read in the book that they get very busy but I didn´t realise they would have a hammock in every concievable spot so that there is no room to walk around. Anne had a women who didn´t look well and was about 90 years old. Basically you are sleeping on top of each other. Once the boat had left port we decided to walk around and found two English speaking people. They were both from Lithuania and live in Dublin, Valiukas and ... read more

Apres avoir achete nos tickets, nous avons ete au bateau pour attacher nos hamacs le plus tot possible. On a reussi a installer nos hamacs dans un endroit qui nous semblait plutot calme, juste quelques hamacs autour de nous. On est revenu quelques heures plus tard pour embarquer, c´etait un enchevetrement de hamacs, plus de 200 hamacs dans un espace plutot reduit!! On a quand meme reussi a dormir, mais fallait pas etre claustrophobe! L´ambiance sur le bateau etait plutot bonne, mais faut aimer la techno bresilienne car on a eu le meme CD non stop qui hurlait la meme musique pendant les 3 jours.. ... read more