When I started asking around in Leticia Colombia about getting a boat to Manaus my innocent query was met with concern. Had I somehow run out of funds? "There is an airplane. The boat is dirty and ugly and is not for you". Still I was able to find a boat and it was leaving in two days. Most passengers sling hammocks on the deck and sleep there. It is a four day trip down the Amazon from Tabatinga Brazil to Manaus. I heard stories of the hammock decks onboard. It looked like steerage on a turn of the century cross Atlantic ship. Indeed as I boarded I saw a rush for spots and found that the hammocks were strung so close that you were indeed touching your neighbour. An hour later the second and third layers developed. Literally hammocks and their varied occupants in three tiers. Young and old, whole families a few European backpackers all crushed onto the two decks. I walked by this bedlam and was very glad that I had paid for a cabin. The cabin was two bunks in a tin box but it had the luxury of a private toilet. When I saw the toilet I realized all those people, 400 in total, were sharing 5 or 6 toilets.
The boat left on time and soon I was chugging down the Amazon. On the upper deck there was a small snack shack and about twenty plastic chairs scattered about. The sun was setting on the passing jungle and it was perfect.
We stopped at every place that imitated a town along the river. It is a lot of river. I was amazed to see yet more people boarding at every port.
The first morning we pulled up to a small Amazon town as the sun was rising. The light and mood were brilliant. I love to watch a small place waking up for the day. As a bonus a pod of river dolphins were jumping around the bow. I've always thought of dolphins as the thugs of the sea. They act like a bike gang swimming through an aquatic version of Rebel Without a Cause. Added to this infamy is the Amazon belief that women can become impregnated by river dolphins. Men are pretty gullible and we are able to believe that a wife could become pregnant after being beguiled by a devil dolphin while we are away.
All along the river you pass small villages and single huts set back from the bank. There are no roads along the route. The river is the only transportation route. 500 metres into the jungle I would likely perish within hours. It looks like it will grow in behind your every footstep as you move. I am thankful for the breeze provided by the boats momentum.
After day two a routine develops on board. Food is served in small room aft. You line and wait as the room seats about twenty at a time. While I was prepared for simple fair I was a bit taken aback on the first night. I sat down and looked to see what the procedure was. A woman came from the kitchen with a steel pail. She put the sloshing pail down in the middle of the table. This was dinner. It was a kind of greasy soup/stew. The next day things improved a little. There was rice and beens with chicken. This would prove to be the daily fair. By day three I was looking forward to lunchtime. It was simple but just fine. It was certainly consistent.
Days were spent reading and trying to speed learn some essential Portuguese. There were a lot of kids on board. They ran around and seemed able to keep themselves entertained. One kid had a tarantula in a bottle that he would take out whenever he spotted a potential victim.
On the fourth morning Manaus presented itself on the horizon. It is not exactly the jewel of the Amazon.
River of Doubt
Where the River Runs Black
One River, Wade Davis
Lost City of Z
