Before I tell this story I would like to clarify that this is a real account of what happened and it is impossible to make up a story like this one...there is no fiction that can match reality, at least in this case. I have probably forgotten some of the minor details but believe me when I tell you that we were hoping for some adventure and we got that and more.
And with that disclaimer out of the way here goes the story...
This part of the trip consisted in just taking a boat down the Amazon river from Manaus to Santarem which depending on who you asked to should have taken something like 24-48 hours. Getting a boat wasn't easy but after negotiating with several people along the harbour we found one reasonably priced that would leave the following day and according to them it would take us to Santarem in 24 hours.
But I couldn't start this story without first talking about Graça. Susana's boss had a very good childhood friend called Graça that lives in Manaus. When she found out we were coming she offered to show us around.
The day we came back from the jungle we were all knackered and wanted nothing but having a nice long shower and go to bed but as we were making our way to bed, Graça showed up. Reluctantly, we accepted her offer to go and eat out. Just wanted to sleep, but she was so nice that we simply couldn't say no.
We spent a nice time and she showed us the best parts of Manaus, and the dinner was certainly welcome after several days in the jungle. In the morning before we left the hotel on our way to the boat we found out she had come earlier and had left a small container full of food (mostly fruits, sweets and juices) in reception. Just for us.
Our first impression was to wonder what was it that we were supposed to do with all that food as it was way too much food for only three people... let me tell you... you could feed a regiment with the contents of that container...and thank God for that, as this container became at some point our main way of subsistence...but we'll get to that later...
Anyway, we got our suitcases, our massive food container and made our way to the harbour. Now... I bet when you read the word harbour you pictured a nice 21st century port...or perhaps a 20th century port... well this one was more like a 19th century port... but let the pictures speak by themselves.
When you think about the transportation of goods via the river you probably have images in your head of cranes loading containers into the transport boats... well... not quite... but let me show you how it worked...
First you unload the trucks
Then you move the goods to the boat
Once in the boat you just stick them wherever you can...
When that happened to us we looked around wondering whether someone was going to complain about it... but it looked like a day to day occurrence... nobody even questioned it...
Should something happened to the boat it would certainly go down like a stone... Situations like this always make me be grateful to be able to swim... specially in a boat like this one where apart from the weight excess there were not enough safe jackets for everyone... so swimming was a must.
I think I haven't mentioned the passenger cabins yet... well... not the European ferries I am used to that's for sure... :-)
Let me show you the passenger cabins ...
Yep... just un-roll your own...
We were going to join them but Graça convinced us to get a cabin for ourselves instead of un-rolling our hammocks. The boat had two cabins and by that I mean a small room with a roof and a bed or something resembling one.
Bear in mind that the cabin wasn't a picnic either. I think María and Susana would agree with me if I were to say that without any hesitation that was the worst place we've ever slept on in our entire lives... and we've been in some rough places... A pity we didn't take a picture...
The cabin was quite small, there was a leak on the roof so the floor was wet and you could smell the rotten wood and a random drop from the leak would wake you up every now and then in the middle of the night, the bed wasn't much more appealing though. I felt lucky because I slept on the floor but someone who slept on the bed ended up feeding a kick-ass tick picked up on that bed. Not a 5 star cruise that's for sure.
But truth to be told you don't go to these trips for the luxury and comfort they provide... you go for the adventure and the chance to see things you could never see or experience anywhere else so despite of our initial qualms about the accommodation we endured it with a smile as the good troopers we were. :-)
The boat itself looks like this other one
Basic installations as you would expect
And this is what the harbour looks like once on the move...
A little bit after leaving Manaus a black river and a white river fed into the Amazon and you could see both waters mixing up
And we were ready for anything...
As the night fell upon us, a huge storm broke off and water was falling from the sky in buckets... the captain decided to hand over the boat to a 17-18 year old guy who strained his eyes for as long as he could during the night until 5 in the morning or so when we felt like "a bump on the road".
A few minutes later everyone was running around wearing a safe-jacket (well, not everyone... only the lucky ones that found one). We left the comfort of our luxurious cabin and went to see what was happening... and this is what we found.
Yes... that's an island in the middle of the Amazon river and we just run aground on it. Well, the pilot did... the rain was so heavy that visibility was almost nil so after several hours of straining his eyes... either he fell asleep or he simply didn't see the island in the middle of the freaking river!!!
In any case we were stuck and no way to get out of there... mind you... not for the lack of trying...
I won't bore you with all the different attempts... because there were lots... basically every boat along the river would come and have a go... so I'll just show you the most interesting ones... Second attempt, nothing too remarkable despite of the good effort.
As you can see below, María and Susana were clearly in distress about the whole situation
Suffering in silence...
It made us wonder what would've happened with a different person at the wheel... ;-)
This is one of the reasons why I enjoy travelling with these two... no matter how bad things get, they never panic and always find the funny side of things... you may find this hard to believe but this whole thing with being stranded in the Amazon river was the highlight of our holidays. :-)
We still make jokes about it nowadays... :-)
As we were spending a lot of time there, people were throwing food to the river and eventually this attracted the attention of some river dolphins...
Impressive, wasn't it? :-)
And then the people... and that was like a pirate assault...
Everyone wanted to get a good spot for their hammock so people were jumping all over the place, trying to get to the other boat before everybody else... civilised carnage! as nobody died or fell in the water... that I know of... ;-)
You would be forgiven for thinking that risking your life for a good hammock place is just plain silly but not so much if you are planning on sleeping some. Have a look and imagine yourself finding a place where to hang yours.
Finally, we said good bye to the stuck boat...
At this point there was no more food as we were supposed to have reached our destination by now... and this is when Graça's container came in handy... Thanks to that container, we still had plenty of food to live off for a while... and we did used it all... that food was a Godsend, I can tell you that it tasted like the best food in the world... funny how going hungry makes you appreciate more the food you have. :-)
You would think the story ends here... but not... it goes on...
A few hours later as we were approaching the port of Parintins the engine died and there we were stranded again... luckily, this time we were nearby a port so they called it in and another boat came to tow us all the way to town... So in summary... a rescue boat came to rescue the rescue boat.
I think it's worth talking about some of the other passengers in our luxurious Amazonian cruise as some of the characters will become relevant as I continue the bizarre account of our trip through the Amazon river...
One of these characters was someone we nicknamed "the priest", for the simple reason that he was always walking around with a bible in his hand and as we left Manaus he was trying to convinced everyone to pray with him, us included of course... although pretending not to understand Portuguese helped quite a lot... he managed to bully/convince a few other fellow passengers to pray with him nontheless and as we run aground in the island his prayer groups became a bit more established...
As we reached Parintins the atmosphere in the boat was a bit tense... people were hungry. Some people though had to get to work or meet some other commitments, others had children, after all we were all a day late in our trip... so patience was running thin with some passengers...
As soon as we reached port, the crew had a look at the engine to try and repair it while a passenger mob organised outside of the engine room waiting... The guy trying to fix the engine didn't have good news and said we would have to wait for a few hours as he needed to order some part that needed replacing ... some insults were exchanged and next thing you know "the priest" punched the crew member in the face and then... hell broke loose... when everything calmed down...the police was called to the scene and a manhunt for "the priest" was quickly organised...
We had a few hours to spare so as the police was looking for "the priest" we went for a walk in the village of Paritins
Finally, with the boat fully repaired we left port again...
Half of the people lost faith on the crew to take us to our destination so they jumped boat (literally) and made arrangements with some other boat to take them to wherever place they wanted to go to. We thought it would be almost impossible for anything else to go wrong so decided to stick with the original crew...
Still in good spirits and enjoying the sunset
Until in the middle of the night 1-2 in the morning the boat stopped at some tiny village called Candiru for an inspection (I doubt you'll find this place in a map!)
We were asked to show our passports so I was carefully selected by finger pointing to present my passport, Susana's and María's to the port authority (I suppose my T-Shirt from the Czech Republic didn't help my case) so I got off the boat with the passports and as I approached the policeman he switched on some powerful light as I handed over our passports and out of the blue all the insects in the Amazon decided to meet me under the light. There were so many that I could barely see anything as I had to cover my face with my hands to avoid breathing or eating some extra proteins...
Just to test my tolerance to flying and crawling creatures of all types and sizes, the policeman decided to take his sweet time as he asked me where we were coming from, where we were going to etc, etc... at the same time he was carefully flicking every page in each passport. Did you know there are 32 pages in a European passport? I learnt that that day!
I just wanted to run and dive into the water to get rid of all the insects... but no... he had more questions... and he had to inspect every single page of every passport... while insects were crawling through my clothes...flying all around me and they were so many that they looked like a a mist. The longer I spent under the light, the more insects joined the party.
As he finally handed the passports back to me I smiled (without opening my mouth just in case and still with both my hands covering my eyes), thanked him and slowly turned around pretending that I wasn't affected at all by the insect infestation... as soon as he switched the light off I picked up the pace and by the time I reached the boat I was running and slapping myself everywhere trying to get rid of all the little crawlers still left on my body...
And then they talk about waterboarding ... I suppose this was some kind of new tecnique they were trying... "insectboarding"..
Anyway, again once everyone was on board we left for our final destination... I went back to sleep (still slapping myself every now and then for good measure) and suddenly at 4-5 in the morning I woke up... something was going on... I went outside just to see that we got trapped in some kind of sandbank ... we could see the lights of Santarem (our final destination) in the distance.
So close and so far at the same time... Fortunately, after some manoeuvring (half an hour or so) the captain managed to free the boat from the sandbank and we continued our never-ending journey.
We finally managed to reach the port at 6 in the morning or so... only 24 hours later than expected. :-)
Our plan was to spend the day in Santarem but now, we just stopped the first taxi we saw and headed directly for the airport as our flight to Fernando de Noronha was about to leave without us!!!
Luckily at that time in the morning there wasn't much traffic so we managed to get to the airport still on time. Ready for the next part of the trip... but that's another story for another day... ;-)
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