Hammock vs Cabin

Hello Pini 😊

I would take a hammock because it costs so much less. Sleeping in it may take some getting used to, though.

Mel Reply to this

We traveled by boat from Manaus to Santarem and then from Santarem to Belem a couple of days later, not the route you're taking but probably not so different in terms of the travel itself. We used hammocks which were comfortable and gave us what we thought was a fuller experience of Amazon river travel. On both boats the vast majority of people we locals, on the second one we were the only foreigners on our deck. The local people were friendly and helpful, tying our hammocks for us (don't forget to buy the ropes with the hammocks not all boats have hooks), inviting us to play dominoes with them, talking about themselves and asking about us etc. We didn't lock our backpacks or chain them to a post, where is somebody going to hide it if they do steal it ? What we did do was carry our valuables with us in our day packs whenever we went away from the hammocks and made sure we were in our hammocks when the boat called at ports. Reply to this

We went from Belem to Manaus, the journey took 5 complete days (almost to the hour!) and slept in the hammocks. We were 1 of 2 couples on the boat who were foreigners, everyone else was Brasilian! That made for some interesting moments (we often felt like we were in a fish bowl), but the people were so incredibly friendly! They just had a fascination for us and our culture and pretty much everything we did was of interest ("ooh, the gringos are eating now! oh, they're going to the bathroom! oh, they're lying in their hammocks!"). It was kindof funny at times, kindof annoying at others, but definitely an interesting experience!

As for our stuff, we did was hkwoody did, and that was to just keep our valuables on us at all times (passports, money and camera), but other than that, didn't worry much at all. The people are really really friendly. We also made sure that we were by our stuff at the ports as well. If you make a big deal out of locking up your things, it sends two messages: the first is that you have something of value to steal, and the second is that you don't "trust" the locals and might alienate them. They're pretty friendly ... always wanting to "talk" with us, and share food with us and just sortof have a cultural exchange of some sort. Have fun! Reply to this

You are really heading into the wilderness and you will be lucky if you meet a single person who speaks English and in Brazil they speak Portuguese Reply to this

Same for us, we found it really to communicate but did our best with the combination. Sign language worked best!! Reply to this

You don't mention Colombia.I love all of Sth Am but I LOVE Colombia.Maybe think about getting off the boat in Leticia and travelling up to Santa Marta and adding Colombia/Ecuador to your itinary ,can someone tell me how to spell that word please.
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