We arrived at Manaus harbour on Wednesday afternoon about three hours before departure, to find our boat moored at a different pier to the one we'd be taken to. The ticket seller, who was with us, assured us that the boat would soon come over to where we were waiting, which sure enough it did, and below you can see the N/M Santarém on its way to meet us. Lucía, Armando and Maria had been a bit more organised than me, and they'd arranged for their hammocks to be hung up in advance, guaranteeing a good spot on the boat. We found their hammocks on the upper deck near the front of the boat, which was the ideal location, because it was away from both the boat's engine and the toilets. Fortunately there was a spare spot next to their hammocks, so I was able to hang my hammock there.
The hammock area was a bit cosy, as you can see here and here (in the first photo my hammock is the mainly blue one in the centre, and in the second photo it's the one on the right). I didn't bring my tape measure with me, but I reckoned that the hammocks were spaced about 70cm apart, which isn't much wider than a regular-sized person, so you can imagine that once everyone was in their hammock there wasn't a lot of room to move.
We had a few hours to wait until we were due to set off, so I spent a bit of time exploring the boat, although that didn't take very long. The boat had three levels, plus a cargo hold below. The lower level contained hammock space, toilets and showers, as well as the kitchen and a dining room; the middle level had more hammock space, toilets and showers, another dining room, and about ten cabins for those who wanted to travel in a bit of comfort; and the upper level had more cabins and a bar, which blasted out non-stop loud music.
We set off from Manaus about an hour late, and I settled in for the long journey. For security reasons I didn't think it was a good idea to get my laptop out during the journey, so really the only things I had with me to pass the time were a couple of books to read (I'd been running a bit low on books, but luckily I'd managed to find a good book lying on a shelf in the hostel the previous day, and swapped it for one I'd already read). I also soon discovered that the food service wouldn't be starting until the following day, so for dinner it was tuna and biscuits, which I'd brought with me just in case this happened.
I got an early night, and I quickly discovered how difficult it was to sleep in a hammock in those cramped conditions. I really couldn't find a comfortable position to lie in. An added problem was that I'd hung my hammock directly below a light, which had been handy earlier in the evening because it had allowed me to read, but it wasn't so great when I was trying to sleep. As well as shining in my eyes, the light was also attracting insects, and they weren't just little bugs - these were massive winged Amazonian insects, which I could feel landing on my body and face every few minutes. Usually I'm not particularly squeamish about this sort of thing, but these were pretty horrendous creatures, and there was no way I could sleep under that kind of bombardment. My neighbour to my left, a Brazilian man, had the same problem, and at about 2am he managed to find a way to block out the light using torn-up pieces of a political pamphlet that had been handed out earlier in the day. That solved the insect problem, and I did manage to get at least a few hours' sleep that night.
I was pretty tired on Thursday morning, but that was OK because there wasn't a lot to do other than lounge around in my hammock either dozing or reading my book. If I was feeling energetic I could walk up to the top deck to sit in a chair and read my book, but that was pretty much it. There wasn't a lot to see either, because we were sailing straight down the middle of a very wide river, and this was a typical view of the shore.
I tried the food for the first time that day, and it was mostly pretty good. I had fried eggs, ham, bread and coffee for breakfast, and for lunch they served a typical Brazilian 'prato feito' (set meal), which consisted of chicken, pasta, rice and black beans. However, I did have a very long wait for my lunch, because when the food arrived after an initial half-hour wait, everyone else rushed up to help themselves, whereas I sat in my seat and waited, deciding I didn't want to take part in such an undignified scrum. Stupid me, because of course some of the people were greedy gits and piled the food onto their plates, and about ten of us were left with no chicken, so I then had another half-hour wait while more chicken was prepared. Fortunately dinner (pretty similar to lunch, but with beef instead of chicken) was a bit more civilised.
I slept better on Thursday night, probably because I was so tired from the first night. I woke up early though, because at 5.30am on Friday morning we arrived in Santarém, and about half of the passengers on the boat started packing up their things and leaving. The boat was due to be in dock for much of the day, so Lucía, Armando and Maria slept on for another couple of hours, but then they too got ready to leave, so we said our goodbyes and I was on my own again. Suddenly I had a lot of space, although the place was left in a bit of a mess, as you can see below.
The mess was soon cleared up, and the space was soon taken up too, because before long people started boarding for the next part of the journey. An elderly lady installed herself directly next to me - I thought she seemed a bit frail to be sleeping in a hammock, but actually she managed perfectly well. I considered doing a bit of sightseeing in Santarém, but in the end I settled for just taking a short walk in the area immediately around where we'd docked, partly because I didn't want to take the risk of the boat leaving without me, but mainly because I wanted to protect both my belongings and my hammock spot (I thought someone might move my hammock in my absence). We eventually got on our way at 1.30pm, after eight hours docked at Santarém, and it was a pretty boring day until just before dusk, when we arrived at our next stop, Monte Alegre, and we got just a glimpse of life in a small Amazonian town.
Saturday was by far the most interesting day in terms of what we could see from the boat, because for most of the day we were moving down much narrower rivers than before, which meant that we were a lot closer to the shore. Dozens of people in small rowing boats approached us as we went along, and a lot of them were calling to us and waving with a funny two-handed up-and-down wave. It soon became clear that they were hoping for gifts, because some of the passengers on our boat started throwing objects wrapped in plastic bags into the water, and the people in the small boats rowed over to pick them up. I'm not sure what exactly was in the bags, but I think it was mainly food. A number of other people manoeuvred their boats alongside ours and hooked themselves on, at which point they were then able to board our boat and sell their goods (mainly prawns). The three young boys in this boat managed to latch on without using any kind of motor, which I thought was pretty skilful. We also saw some very isolated homes along the way.
On Saturday morning the elderly lady left, and I soon got a new neighbour, Joaquim, a French-Canadian guy who had joined the boat at Santarém, and who moved up to my deck after having had some of his belongings stolen from his bag while he was sleeping on the lower deck the previous night. It was a bit of a relief once again to have someone next to me that I could have a conversation with. That evening we also had probably the best sunset of the journey, which you can see below.
Shortly after sunset we made a quick stop at a small town whose name I don't know, and it was a bit too quick for one man, because he went ashore and then the boat left without him. Lots of people on the boat were shouting at the captain that someone had been left behind, but it was obvious the boat was never going to stop. I don't know if the man ever made it back on board.
On Sunday morning I was woken in the early hours when the boat started to rock from side to side, causing all of the hammocks to swing like crazy. There wasn't much chance of getting any more sleep when we all kept banging into each other, so it was an early start for everyone. We'd entered rough water, but it wasn't clear why, because the weather conditions were good - I guess it was because we were approaching the Atlantic, in which case perhaps that stretch of water is always rough. Fortunately after a few hours we turned into a smaller branch of the river as we approached Belém, and the remainder of the journey was a lot smoother.
Finally at about 10.30am we could see the skyline of Belém in the distance, and we knew that we were almost there. Half an hour later we were docked, and I was very relieved to be able to pack up my hammock and get off that boat for the final time. All in all, even though it was a pretty boring and unpleasant journey at times, it was definitely an interesting experience, but one that I won't be looking to repeat any time soon.
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