Iquitos to Manaus: Sailing the Amazon

Iquitos to Tabatinga (Brazil) was achieved in a high speed boat which was so high speed that it broke down after 2 hours and we had to wait on the banks of the Amazon until a replacement arrived from Iquitos. The new boat was slightly smaller than the first, so with typical south american ingenuity some plastic chairs were procured and the luckless seatless souls were given pride of place in the aisles. Causing a somewhat tricky obstacle to be tackled whilst going for a pee.

The supposed 9 hour journey turned into 15 and we arrived in Santa Rosa at 9pm where the Peruvian border guards had pissed off home. So I became an illegal immigrant and took a motor canoe over to Tabatinga in Brazil. Within 10 minutes of arriving I had been offered 90% of all drugs known to man and been propositioned by two elderly prostitutes. Whilst there is nothing wrong per se with these gracious offerings by the locals I was not quite in the mood after a day bouncing down the Amazon.

Along the way we had formed a little group - a Chilean couple and an English couple, so as first world refugees we stuck together and found a hotel. A little on the shabby side, there was a pile of sand and a toilet seat in the reception area, watermelon pips all down the hall, no toilet light and no sheets provided (actually not a problem in the jungle heat).

The next day we dutifully put-putted back to Santa Rosa to get checked out of Peru and hiked the streets of Tabatinga to find the Brazilian immigration. That done, it was time to buy a hammock and a boat ticket for the journey to Manaus. All was successfully acomplished in record time so we jumped in a souped up VW camper van taxi and headed 1km down the road to Leticia, Colombia to complete the breakfast in Peru, Lunch in Brazil and Dinner in Colombia grand slam. Leticia was actually nice, a feck lot more salubrious than Tabatinga at any rate.

The boat was leaving the next day at 5pm, so we arrived around lunch to make sure we were in the queue for the best hammock space. We weren´t the first but had a decent position. Around 3pm ¨boarding¨ commenced which meant that the queue kind of disintegrated as people barged through and women and children were called to the front. But we eventually got on, slung our hammocks and readied ourselves for 4 days on the high seas. Well actually we went upstairs to find the bar which served ice cold Skol.

The 4 days and 3 nights passed quickly, a familiar rhythm developed unconsciously - Wake (normally due to the chap swinging beside me putting on some tunes at 6am), go back to sleep, wake, back to sleep, too hot to sleep, swing in hammock mind refreshingly blank, read, lunch (which was served military style in 15 person sittings from 10.30 to 12.00), doze, read, look forward to dinner, crack open first beer, dinner (strictly 16.30 to 18.00), sunset, more beer... And repeat. The scenery changed little, just a vast expanse of trees bordering the river, the banks becoming further and further apart as we progressed downstream. Every dozen kilometers or so we would pass by a small hamlet, Amazonians doing whatever they do (largely fishing and sitting around doing nothing by the looks of it)

Our little group of 5 was widened with the remaining 5 gringos on the boat. 2 English lads, a Spaniard and two American girls. Time passed slowly like the Amazon, giving us ample time to play every game under the sun - from Shithead to Dominoes, Poker to Checkers. We even threw in a game of eyespy, but the letters A and J just came up far too often. The sunsets were sublime though, a real highlight to every day. The sun going down directly behind the boat, causing the Amazon to turn almost mercurial.

Day 4 came along and the expected ETA of midday was revised to 7pm. So just as the sun was setting we finally got our way and had the barman put on one of our iPods, the English lad sticking on some exquisite house music. So with the sounds of Northern Exposure, the sun going down once again and the fires coming from the Manaus oil refineries raging into the sky we had rather a memorable entry to Manaus.