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.

Rio Napo

In the morning I headed to the port to board the boat that will bring me to Nuevo Rocafuerte - the last village on the ecuadorian side of the Rio Napo. It was already packed with people and I had to scramble for a seat. The chickens beneath me made me feel really cousy. The boat was not to fast, but we were definitly moving. Primary jungle can be viewed at all times. Besides of me there were two other travellers in the boat. A guy from Puerto Rico and Mauricio from Argentina. Every now and then we stopped at some shacks because people were getting of. Even though the landscape is truley amazing the moment when things get boring is bound to come. So I was glad to get out for the lunch break in a unsignificant village. Tasty chicken and way to familiar rice out of plastic cup was the best I could hope for. The puerto rican guy got out of the boat. After a total of 11 hours in the boat the few people that were left arrived in Nuevo Rocafuerte. 20 houses scattered along the river is the pride of the peruvian navy when they captured it some decades ago. The town is dangerously tranquilla and has only two "hostels". Maurico and me quickly found out that there is no boat scheduled to leave towards Iquitos anytime soon. Mauricio who only had 70$ left, because he thought it's going to be a short two day trip got a bit worried. But there were so many different opinions about how to get down the river as people live in the pueblo. So the next day we sat at the port for the whole day asking every passing boat, if they were going to Pandoja.
Mauricio is on a trip to follow the footprints of the famous Che. He likes to make artesan (aka rubish) to sell them in the next major city to extend his trip. He's 21 years old and dosent speak any English. So I had to speak Spanish all the time. He also dosent beleave in hygiene. He smells and he is wearing the same clothes all the time because somebody robbed his clothes in Quito. And sadly he dosent brush his teeth as well. So, all in all a good guy.
When it started to rain in the afternoon our mood turned because we still didn't find a captain. And people kept telling us, that this wouldn't change anytime soon. I checked in to the hostel and Mauricio camped at the harbor to safe some money. In the evening we found somebody, who would take us to Pandoja for 30$. But an hour later he wasn't sure anymore. In the evening we were playing with the local children the guy of the ecuadorian navy told us, that there will be a cargo boat tomorow morning. Yppiee...
This boat turned out to be really cool. We turned into a side river to a finca to get the cargo. It was really silent there and a lot of animals could be seen. Cows, pigs, monkeys, chickens, fish and of course dogs. Then we left for a laidback trip to Pandoja.
After dealing with the immigration (the captain didn't have a passport, but after a 10 minute discussion they allowed him to enter anyway) who told us that there was no cargo boat for the next 8 days, the mood turned once again, because even the swiss guy didn't have enough money for both of us for 8 days. But shortly afterwards some peruvian soldiers told us, that there will maybe be a navy ship in one hour going close to Iquitos. A half an hour later it was alreadly scheduled for the next day. So we spent the misty day at a local house and were also able to spent the night there. At 6 PM we boarded the boat. It was smaller than expected with 20 young soldiers fooling around singing songs of pride and honor. For lunch we got out at an other settlement and the soldiers quickly ran into the woods and came back with yucca, burning wood and bananas. They ignited the fire by burning plastic that was laying around. I talked with the owner of the nearby house, who provided the rice and salt. He was laughing all the time and proudly told me that he has 9 kids. Since I still had some mustard from Coca with me, I gave it to him. I didn't know what it was and insited that I have to eat something of it first. The food was delicious - well lets say ok. Mauricio asked the poor locals for free bananas. He also had some fever and I gave him some medicine.
In the evening we arrived in Puerto Elvira. The people there only drink water out of the river. But the gringo stomache can't take that, so I had to organize some water. After an hour a kind local ran up the hill to a spring to get some water, while I was waiting in the candle lit house with his familiy, who offered me some soup. After he returned he didn't wan't to charge me for water. Mauricio who had a bad headache was happy for some liquid. After eating and fooling around with soldiers for a while we got to sleep on the concrete floor.
The next day was a long, rainy journey with another short stop at a shack to eat some jungle deer, yucca and rice. In the evening we arrived in Santa Clotina. A by comparison major village with all coka cola and soon. The captain of the boat and the boss of the soldiers invited Mauricio and me to a friends place. It was an opulent meal served at the kitchen table, with "cafe con leche", chicken and fish. Afterwards it became increasingly clear that we were going to get drunk - a pleasant surprise. When we were finished Mauricio and me went to the local "discotheca". The poor soldiers were dancing all by themselves - no girls around. They shared their beer with us and I bought them another 4 bottles. Then the boss told them to go back to the house to sleep, that once again was just a concrete floor.
Since there was no gasoline in town, the navy boat would have to go upriver the next morning to look for gasoline. The captain knew that we wouldn't like this thought and paid for a fast boat that left the next morning to a village close to Iquitos. Another TukTuk and a short boattrip brought us to the biggest city in the world without access by road.
Even though I helped Mauricio a thousand times with giving him money (that made it possible for him to get to Iquitos), food, water and medicine, he didn't want to give me 1/3 $ to much back and insisted to change money first.