But let's start from the beginning... I took a plane from Fortaleza to Santarem. It had two stops: in São Luis and Belem. It all went smoothly and quickly. People arriving at the destination were getting off, new people were getting on and 20 minutes later we were taking off. The pilots fly planes as crazy drivers drive buses - accelerating quickly, taking sharp turns, going up and down quickly in the air, landing from a high speed, breaking unexpectedly... ha ha ha....
The Amazon forest looks amazing from the plane, it is so green, and the rivers shape the environment into beautiful landscapes (in the picture).
Right from the airport in Santarem I took a taxi to the port. It was 4 pm and I was told that the next (and the only one) boat was at 1 pm the next day. At first I was upset that I had to wait so long but as I didn't have any choice I decided to buy the ticket, get on the boat and wait (the port was far from the centre of the city). There was only crew and I on the boat. We had a meal and talked for a while and I went to bed.... errrrrr... to a hammock. I didn't have own hammock so a guy from the crew lent me his. At night another guy came to talk to me. After exchanging names he asked me if I use condoms and if I would like to have sex with him ha ha ha... straight to the point. I said "no thank you" as I could have had some problems if this happened. Then all the crew tried some tricks to get a kiss ha ha ha... but my intuition told me that I was completely safe (and I was indeed).
It reminded me a trip I did 16 years ago: I hitch-hiked all the way from Poland to Morocco. In Spain (Cadiz) I spoke to a capitan of a big ship and asked him if I could work on the ship and get to Casablanca for free. Not only didn't I have to work but I got my own first class cabin and own cook, and I was treated like a princess on a ship full of men only (mainly Arabic men).
I was treated in the same way on the boat to Manaus and I even didn't have to pay for the meals. When I wanted to pay for them, the cooks said that the meals (three a day) were a present for me. I think they liked me very much because nobody else talked to them, they were "just" cooks. Nobody but me. My hammock was on the upper (third) deck and few times a day I was coming down to say hallo to them and to have a chat.
So.... the first night I went to bed... errrrr.... hammock and put earplugs in my ears. I decided to wake up at 6 am and go to an apparently beautiful beach which was one hour away from the port. Well... I woke up at 11 am and I couldn't believe my eyes. There were so many people on the board... so many boxes, bags, motorcycles, hammocks, green bananas and other stuff.... the boat was overloaded in my opinion and I understood why they sink so often... Well, the boat finally moved as planned at 1 pm and I was observing both shores. It was absolutely fantastic, the water and the incredibly rich vegetation. The green was so green!! The Amazon river is very large so it seemed to be on a sea rather than on a river. The boat had four stops: in Obidos, Juruti, Parintins and Itacoatiara. Again, people changing were very quick and efficent. I saw many people working very hard, in Poland people think that South Americans are lazy (and in fact many of them are) but there are also many people working very hard, like those in the ports (and majority of my hosts).
I met some people on the boat, well... when you sleep surrounded by other hammocks it is inevitable to meet people as you either keep your head by their head or your head by their feet... Next to my hammock there was a girl called Dioneia and a men listening to the forro' and axe music all the time. I also met Adriano and another guy whose name I don't remember (typical...). We had really deep conversations, for example about Darwin and evolution of the world, history of some words (for example: Adriatic Sea), life in the jungle. Do I have to say that all of around 200 people on the boat did not speak any English? All the conversations I had were in Portugese. Amazing how people can communicate if they want to. I did not understand some words in Portugese so they made a lot of effort to explain them to me in other words... I really appreciated it, it was wonderful. I understood that I made a big mistake of not buying an English - Portugese dictionary and some books for learning the language. But I never thought that I was going to meet so many local people and have so many conversations in Portugese!!!!
The first night I spoke to Adriano for a long time. He told me that many boats sink indeed and it happens because there are a lot of thick tree trunks floating on the river and they hit boats at night. There is why so many boats did sink and people died in the past. Adriano also told me some stories about anacondas and cobras killing people. When everyone went to bed...errrrr... hammock, I stayed in front of the boat, anxiously looking for tree trunks and anacondas (they can swim).
My advanture was amazing. I felt very happy, it was the same feeling I had in Petra in Jordan - unlimited happiness and freedom.
