Down the Rio Amazonas
We had purchased two hammocks in Peru and were now ready to use them. We made our way to the harbour and secured a spot on a cargo/passenger ship heading to Manaus. We bought tickets to Tefe ("Two days, maybe three days - perhaps two and a half") - about 700 km down the Amazon river and about 2/3 of the way to Manaus. We could only afford hammock space but a very friendly American couple (on their way to South Africa!) held the bulk of our baggage for us in their cabin. Besides that Johan did the usual antics to secure our small bags to a pole - so much so that we struggled to access our stuff! Just before the boat was about to leave about 120 locals streamed in and hung their hammocks alongside ours - a very colourful and unforgettable 2.5 days followed.
We spent most of our time in conversation with the other travellers on board - an American couple, a Malaysian couple, two British guys and a Colombian. The conversation as well as a few cans of beer made the trip quite bearable - even enjoyable! The food was mostly edible and the scenery was beautiful. Nights were lightning shows. Snaking down this giant river for so long gives one such a tangible appreciation for the sheer enormity of the legendary Amazon jungle. Every now and then we would stop at some port and load/unload all sorts of wares and passengers.
No one could know for sure at any given time exactly when we would arrive at Tefe. It was only a small handful of us that were heading for this port and someone in Peru had mentioned something about needing a further connection to get there. At about 11 pm we arrived somewhere. We are still not sure where, but thanks to our Colombian friend, Luis, who could speak a bit of Portuguese we managed to figure out in the nick of time that this is where we should get off. Our new friends bid us a worried farewell as we literally had to jump off the edge of the boat onto the patio of some ill-lit floating house along with about 8 other passengers (one of them a dwarf). A friendly local dentist called Silvano informed us that it would not be possible to catch the connection that night, but only the next morning. We walked the empty streets, giant and bizarre insects swarming everywhere, and before we knew it we were booked into a cheap hotel along with the dentist and his friend.
Janine had been craving maize porridge of all things. Silvano took us to the market this morning where Janine was delighted to find none other than maize porridge - excellent! After the breakfast we had to travel 6kms by bike to a beach where boats departed for the last 15 minute stretch to Tefe. The breakfast, all the new insects, and then the high-speed motorbike ride through the early morning jungle was all it took to delight Janine. When we arrived in Tefe Johan was equally thrilled to move into our cheap hotel with aircon! So both of us are well and happy and were very well received by our jungle lodge representatives. We head into the jungle tomorrow...
We spent most of our time in conversation with the other travellers on board - an American couple, a Malaysian couple, two British guys and a Colombian. The conversation as well as a few cans of beer made the trip quite bearable - even enjoyable! The food was mostly edible and the scenery was beautiful. Nights were lightning shows. Snaking down this giant river for so long gives one such a tangible appreciation for the sheer enormity of the legendary Amazon jungle. Every now and then we would stop at some port and load/unload all sorts of wares and passengers.
No one could know for sure at any given time exactly when we would arrive at Tefe. It was only a small handful of us that were heading for this port and someone in Peru had mentioned something about needing a further connection to get there. At about 11 pm we arrived somewhere. We are still not sure where, but thanks to our Colombian friend, Luis, who could speak a bit of Portuguese we managed to figure out in the nick of time that this is where we should get off. Our new friends bid us a worried farewell as we literally had to jump off the edge of the boat onto the patio of some ill-lit floating house along with about 8 other passengers (one of them a dwarf). A friendly local dentist called Silvano informed us that it would not be possible to catch the connection that night, but only the next morning. We walked the empty streets, giant and bizarre insects swarming everywhere, and before we knew it we were booked into a cheap hotel along with the dentist and his friend.
Janine had been craving maize porridge of all things. Silvano took us to the market this morning where Janine was delighted to find none other than maize porridge - excellent! After the breakfast we had to travel 6kms by bike to a beach where boats departed for the last 15 minute stretch to Tefe. The breakfast, all the new insects, and then the high-speed motorbike ride through the early morning jungle was all it took to delight Janine. When we arrived in Tefe Johan was equally thrilled to move into our cheap hotel with aircon! So both of us are well and happy and were very well received by our jungle lodge representatives. We head into the jungle tomorrow...
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