Chugging up the Amazon

i arrived into Manaus in a hurry, and it was hot. I knew there would be a boat for me to head down the river, but I wasn't sure what time it would go and I needed to buy a hammock and rope and a mosquito net and find the ticket office and the boat and get some money and....! I was stressed. But, then a strange thing happened. A tout who wanted to sell me a jungle tour out of Manaus told me the boat didn't leave until six and it was only 11.30am. Lots of time.

I headed down to the port, bought my ticket(50 US), and got everything I needed. When I boarded the boat it was chalka-full. But, I found a spot for my hammock at the front of all the hammocks port side. There were four Irish girls and an American girl all traveling together on the boat. Otherwise, it was all Brazilians and Colombians. Two hundred hammocks strewn in a fairly tight area. Let's just say getting in and out of your hammock and not touching another person was a challenge. Not much privacy.

The Irish girls, Marie, Anne-Marie, Clare, and Karen had been traveling up the Brazilian coast when they met the American girl, Solana. They were all quite nice and after the 7 days and six nights I got to know them pretty well.

There wasn't much to do on the boat but read, take in the scenery, eat, etc.. But, it was so relaxing and I really enjoyed the whole time. We met so many locals and practised our spanish. And THE FOOD, wow, all you can eat, and it was delicious! All kinds of Amazonas fish and some beef dishes too. The Brazilians put this granola-ish stuff on everything, and so did I, too good. Even the beans(which I normally detest) were grand!

The only bad thing on the boat was the singer. Yeah, they had a bar with a full band and everything. THe band was alright at first. But, they only knew a handful of songs and they seemed to start up earlier and earlier every day. It wore on us in the end. But, all in all it was a fantastic journey!

We arrived in Tabatinga, Brazil and crossed into Leticia, Colombia, and across the river was Santa Rosa, Peru. We had entered the TRI-FRONTIER.