Amazon III

The section between Manaus and Santarem takes only 36 hours with a passenger boat. The weather was good on the entire trip. The amazing thing is how big the Amazon has become after all the sideriver that haved joined it on the way. Some times it's 2 km towards both sides and in the front you can only see the horizon. Sometimes you can see riverdolphins next to the boat. There were about 10 Germans on the boat next to the Australiens and me. (Rudelbildung) We played some Janik (israeli card game) and Texas hold em to kill the time. On the scond evening we arrived in the mayham of a local festival. Their were ships all over the river and extremly loud fireworks. It felt a bit surreal.
We ultimatly arrived at 1 o'clock in the morning. But we didn't leave the hammocks until the morning.

Manaus

Manaus has an international seaport in the heart of South America. Oil and container vessels are visible at all times. But the glory has fainted a long time ago as in so many cities and towns all over Latinamerica. After going through the shipterminal the first thing you see are abandoned buildings, that have been taking over by the powerfull nature, that always seems to find a way. Since Brazil is much more expensive than other countries the Australians and me checked in to a run down hostel in the scetchy portdistrict. After checking the news I went to the center. People were working on getting drunk in all the cheap bars. The nice parc in the city center seems like an island of calm in the madness. Prostitution is a big problem. After just one night I decided to go on since there wouldn't be a boat for some time. The costal part of the city was sevearly flooded, but businesses were going on as usual. Fishers got ready to go out to the river while storeing ice in their boats. The enormous market was selling every fruit the vast jungle provides and plenty of fish and meat. The people who don't seem to have a job were getting drunk around 10 o'clock in the morning. I made sure I got into the same boat as the Australians and left Manaus 24 hours after arriving there.

Amazon II

This boat was amazing. Even though it was packed as usual there was free water and a bar with loud music on the top deck. The food was really good and an all you can eat offer included in the 75$ ticket for the four days journey. Fancisco and Freddy were good companians. There were also two separate gringo pairs on board. Susie and Nick from Sydney and Flo and Esther from Zuerich. The Australians offered a nice opportunity to speak some English and the swiss people reminded me of how deteriorated my swiss german has become.
The river was much wider than further west. Severe floodings were visible at all times. Houses that didn't swim were absolutly covered with water. The sunrises and -sets were almost always spectacular. I spend a few hours a day with watching the landscape passing by. The weather changes about four times a day from sunshine to hard rain. Toilets were acceptable and also provided refreshing showers. Days pass pretty fast and you spend about 18 hours a day in your hammock.
When getting closer to Manaus Freddy became increasingly nervous because after two weeks on boats he was about to meet his girl. Before you arrive in Manaus you leave the Amazon river and join the sideriver Rio Negro. The brown water of the Amazon dosen't instantly mix with the black Rio Negro. They flow side by side for several kilometers.

Tabatinga

Tabatinga is a 5 minute boatride from Peru. I met up with a peruvian guy, who also came with the same boat from Iquitos. His name is Freddy. Freddy his 32 years old and single. He's travelling to Manaus to conquer the heart of an brazilian woman (the less romantic version is: He desparatly wants the brazilian documents, that allow him to work in Brazil for a much better salary). In Peru he is a busdriver near Pocucalpa. After I took care of the immigration we coincidentally ate at the same restaurant. Then the beer started to flow for the rest of the day. Brazilian people sadly speek Portuguese - and that is less similar to Spanish than I anticipated.
The next day I checked out the chaotic harbor and ate some awful food. Nearly all waiters seem to be gay. Than I walked with Freddy to Laetita (Colombia). It looked very similar to Tabatinga and thats generally a bad sign. There just seems to be no concept at all and traffic dominates the scene. The sun relentlessly shines on the dusty streets. The river offers some tranquillity and the booze some tranquillizer. On the last day before the departure to Manaus we met Francisco from Santiago. A good guy (yet another guy, there seem to be no female travellers around) who has to rush down to his hometown in 3 weeks. The next day we boarded the truly fantastic ship to Manaus.

Amazon I

The boat was pretty primitiv and conditions on board smelly. The toilet was an adventure on its own. So it payed off to be part of the male population, because we got privileged by nature to pee while standing. So people further down in the boat constantly looked concerned upwards if some water came down. The hammocks are hung up as close to each other as possible and food is being provided three times a day. I spent a lot of time with reading and talking to a girl from Colombia. By now my spanish allows me to talk about almost everything. There were also two Americans on board. He was professor of Pennsilvania and his right hand a student from Penn State. She origins from the western Ukraine. But after the cold war she moved to America, where they lived in the woods before they got on top of things. These nice people try to create better possibilities for local villages. They explain to the local people how they can make money with the products they produce. For example the professor buys all there artesan and then sells them on ebay. The profit flows back to the people.
The boat constantly stoped at little villages and cargo got unloaded. Mainly ice seems to be what these people desparatly need to store there food. And because there are not a lot of boats comming by, all the kids run twoards the ship to see what people live and consume beyond their village.
After 4 days and 3 nights we arrived in Santa Rosa. The peruvian village in the three country triangle.

Iquitos

Just when I arrived the Confederations Cup Final between the Gringos and Brazil was on. Peruvians were clearly on Brazils side, so I didn't collect a lot of goodwill when I couldn't hold back my emotions when the USnA scored 2 early goals. But ultimatly the laws of nature prevailed and things settled. (Peru has the worst team of South America) In my hostel I got to know some local people and Igor from Croatia. He's in Peru for six months to study shamanism in order to write a book about it. The 7th book of his life - none have been published yet. My comment about the placebo effect sparked and a long discussion with plenty beers. In the evening we took a tuktuk to a huge local fiesta where we ate and drank some more. We invited the tuktuk driver to join us and he showed us around a little. There were a lot of transvestites, churchgoers and young drunken people. Some were faster than others - some were lying on the floor at dusk. Eventually we got drunk with the locals and crawled home.
Iquitos is on a remote island and thats why there are almost no cars. TukTuks loudly drive past all the time. There are some nice pizzarias and colonial style houses, but in general this city is living from past glory and struggles in every sence there is. The nice riverfront offers a great view on the river with all the floating houses upon it. That makes them immune against floodings. The harbors are extremly messy and buzzling all the time. Thats where I got another boat - this time a cargo boat - to Santa Rosa on the eastern peruvian boarder.