Books

I read a few books while I was in South America and I thought it would be nice to share the list with you. I started with the first two books on the list and when I finished them I traded with another person traveling. I repeated this process as I went along. I really like doing it this way because I always end up reading things I normally never would. Anyway... on with the list.

• Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain*
• Bech is Back by John Updike
• Life on Air by David Attenborough*
• Night Train to Memphis Elizabeth Peters
• Remote Control by Andy McNab
• Dead-eye Dick by Kurt Vonnegut
• Tough Guys Don't Dance by Norman Mailer
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn*

There aren't that many books, especially for a six week trip, but you have to remember that I get VERY motion-sick if I read in a moving car or bus. I did do ok on the boat though, which is where I read the last three on the list.

* Highly recommended books.

More Pictures

I have received several e-mails from people requesting more photos of the boat journey from Manaus to Tabatinga. Here you go...

Leaving Manaus.

Sunset from the top-deck.

A small community on the river's edge.

One of the friends we made.

Silhouetted trees.

Shelda.

Another river community.

Manaus to Tabatinga: Part III

As was mentioned in Part I of the boat journey narrative, the Monteiro was carrying a massive and varied amount of cargo that was destined for a multiple ports on the river. For the first three days of the trip we did not stop at any ports even though we did see several go by. We assume that this is because there are other boats that cover these cities on short return trips.

On the back half of the journey we stopped frequently. When the boats nears a port that it will be stopping at, several long blasts are issued from the airhorn to announce our arrival. As soon as the boat is secured to the small floating dock, the crew of the boat, dock workers from the town, and even passengers earning their passage up the river began unloading cargo. By hand. It was clear that everything on the boat was packed in a specific order so that the goods for the first port of call were on top or closest to the edge of the piles. Offloading proceeds at a furious pace with the ship's accountant keeping tack of everything and double checking all of the counts and figures with people on shore. At each of the stops some cargo is also loaded onto the boat to be taken farther upriver.

As soon as all of the cargo is off of the boat the air horn is sounded again and the boat sets off. It is important to note that this unloading of the cargo takes place at any hour of day. If the boat reaches a port at 2:00 in the morning, all of the guys go to work. Sometimes for 6 or 7 hours straight.

One of the concerns when the boat is in port is the people who get on the boat to sell you things. This is the most dangerous time on the boat, because of the increased likelyhood that something could get stolen. Rebecca and I took turns guarding our stuff and we managed to not have anything taken.

Manaus to Tabatinga: Part II

Presented below is a faithful recording of the events that took place between April 28 and May 4, 2006. Every single incident is true. Nothing has been made up.

April 28

09:00 - Arrived at the Alm Te Monteiro to get our places on the boat.
16:00 - Boat scheduled to depart.
17:20 - Still loading cargo.
17:45 - Departed Manaus.
19:00 - Arrived at what we thought was the first port of call. In fact the boat had broken down, and we were stopped along the bank to fix the engine.
20:34 - Boat fixed and we were back underway.
20:38 - Back along the side of the river. Guess the boat isn't fixed.
20:51 - Underway again.

April 29

05:00 - Tarps along the side of the boat rolled up.
06:00 - Breakfast bell. This is a guy with a large bell who does a lap around the passenger deck banging the shit out of it.
07:45 - Blaring techno starts booming out of the giant speaker on the top deck. It is the bad British popular techno. Cows on the banks of the river were scared by it.
08:30 - Observed a local guy drinking his first beer of the day.
10:25 - Spotted our first pink dolphin.
11:30 - Lunch
17:00 - Dinner... Still full from lunch...
19:50 - Bec gets hit on by a drunk guy on the roof.
19:55 - Same drunk guy moves on to hit on a mother (Muu Muu Mamma) with a three-year old and an eight-month old.
21:00 - Mom puts kids to bed and gets drunk with the guy who was hitting on her.

April 30

05:20 - really loud boat horn blasts twice and we slow down.
05:25 - Horn goes again and two more people get on the boat. As if it wasn't crowded enough already.
05:40 - A really loud radio turned on by an old man. 90% of the boat is still asleep.
06:04 - Breakfast bell... I think that the guy wringing the bell is enjoying the tortured looks on our faces.
06:10 - First appearance by our new best friend Danielle, and eight year old girl. She really likes our dominoes and binoculars.
10:36 - Lunch served. Not hungry... Ate too many cookies.
12:00 - watermelon slices served. Seed spitting fight ensued between Bec and I. It took a while to get a seed out of left ear.
14:30 - Finally asked to show our tickets proving that we paid for the journey.
16:20 - I rushed to the bathroom with my first round of accelerated digestive system.
16:40 - Bec wins best two-out-of-three at dominoes.
16:55 - Dinner.
17:48 - Danielle returned with the dominoes after borrowing them. Three were missing. We were told that they went into the river...
20:10 - Muu Muu Mamma adjusts her hammock closer to and partially above mine.
21:14 - Rebecca shows the first signs of losing it when she suddenly wakes from a snooze in her hammock and says "Did you see the alligator poking its head out of the water?". It was dark and outside and she wasn't even facing the river.

May 1

06:15 - That breakfast bell again.
06:20 - Another round of the breakfast bell.
06:40 - Muu Muu Mamma restrings her hammock to its original position after a night of no doubt a few knees in the back. Apparently hanging your hammock 20 cm above a 6'3" guy is a bad idea.
06:51 - A crew member is wandering around the boat with a plastic horn and blowing it at people who are still sleeping.
08:40 - Danielle appears and apologizes for the lost dominoes. She asks to borrow the binoculars. Priviledges denied. She is ok with that.
09:30 - Canoe pulls up along side of the boat selling fish for 5 reis per kg... Meanwhile Bec gets caught eating the powdered drinking chocolate out of the can.
09:45 - Saw another dolphin.
10:15 - Saw macaques playing in the trees on the bank.
17:00 - Dinner.
17:45 - Arrived in Fonte Boa. Muu Muu Mamma and her kids disembark
18:45 - Met Jaime, a guy who lives in Tabatinga. We helped him out with good morning, good afternoon, and good evening in English.
19:14 - Left Fonte Boa.
21:47 - Bec gets walking in on while squatting over the toilet.
21:49 - disoriented, Bec nearly climbs into a hammock with an old Brazilian man.
22:17 - New neighbors - Romeo (age 19) and Juliet (age 29) - start having sex in their hammock.
22:27 - Sex finishes. No cuddling. Condom thrown over the side of the boat. I faked like I was asleep.

May 2

06:20 - Breakfast bell. The boat stopped once in the night and took on more passengers.
06:30 - Boat arrived t Jutai.
07:07 - Romeo brings Juliet breakfast in bed.
10:15 - Boat departs from Jutai.
10:50 - shots of cachaca being consumed. A 15 year old kid is pouring.
11:00 - James Blunt's "You're Beautiful" blared from a boombox amongst the hammocks.
11:30 - Lunch.
12:11 - "You're Beautiful" again.
12:38 - Large group of monkeys spotted on the bank.
12:39 - More monkeys.
12:51 - Another monkey.
16:00 - A very drunk man staggered by looking for his hammock. He sat down in the wrong one, but other passengers helped him to the correct one. I think he had too much cachaca earlier.
16:41 - Blaring Brazilian pop music being played in the middle of all the hammocks.
16:50 - "You're Beautiful" again. This song started to get very old.
22:30 - Arrived at Tonantins.

May 3

00:30 - Departed from Tonantins. Lots of cargo was unloaded.
02:30 - Arrived at Santo Antonio.
05:40 - departed Santo Antonio. Even more cargo unloaded along with a few passengers.
06:40 - Breakfast bell.
10:20 - Arrived at Amatura.
10:40 - I sprinted up to the top of the hill in town to buy ice cream for the two of us. It was a fabulous treat.
10:55 - Bec's red hair scares a small child on the dock so badly that he hides under the table.
11:05 - Departed Amatura
12:46 - "You're Beautiful" again. They don't even understand the lyrics.
16:00 - First can of peaches devoured in under 60 seconds.
18:20 - Dinner, leftover rice and chicken in a soup.
18:30 - Arrived Sao Paulo.
23:00 - Left Sao Paulo. More cargo off-loaded. While we were in port a stowaway was discovered and arrested by the local police.

May 4

06:55 - That god damn breakfast bell again. What if I don't want breakfast? It is just a hotdog bun with a bit of cheese in it anyway.
07:15 - We skipped breakfast and had muesli that we brought with us.
08:35 - Arrived at a tiny settlement called Palmares. It is a federal police station where the search boats going downriver for drugs. We just had to check in as a formality.
08:40 - departed Palmares.
11:50 - Lunch, fish with rice.
15:25 - Watermelon seed fight round two.
17:40 - Arrived at Benjamin Constant. This is a town right across the river from Tabatinga.
17:50 - We disembarked the Alm Te Monteiro to catch a speed boat to Tabatinga.
18:15 - We got back on the boat because we missed the last speed boat across the river that night.
23:00 - Departed Benjamin Constant.
23:45 - Arrived Tabatinga.
23:50 - Disembarked the Alm Te Monteiro. Finally. We promptly went to the nicest hotel in town for hot showers with clear water and flat beds.

Manaus to Tabatinga: Part I

The narrative of our journey on the Alm Te Monteiro from Manaus to Tabatinga is going to be presented in at least two parts. This, the first part, is a presentation of background information including a description of the vessel, its cargo, and the living conditions. I am writing this to hopefully paint an accurate portrait of what life is like aboard one of these vessels so that you will have an imaginative world within which to set Part II, which will be an actual chronological accounting of the events of the journey.

The Monteiro is one of four vessels owned by the Monteiro family and it exclusively runs return trips from Manaus to Tabatinga. It is the oldest boat in the family's fleet and is the last all wooden boat on the Amazon River to do the Manaus-Tabatinga run. It should be noted that the Brazilian government has recently passed a law banning all wooden boats from doing the longer runs such as this, but there is a grace period before compliance is mandatory.

As you can see in the picture, the Monteiro is a three decked ship. The hold is exclusively for cargo. One portion of the hold is refridgerated and the other is for dry goods. The bottom deck is principally for cargo, but also contains a bathroom, two small cabins for crew, and the kitchen at the stern. There are also several rooms towards the bow, but we never figured out what they were for. Several members of the crew sleep in hammocks in what little extra space there is on this deck. You can also see the top of the engine which is enclosed in a giant locked cage.

Ships like the Monteiro are pretty much the only way that most of the small towns along the rivers of the Amazon Basin get anything. Because of this, the cargo hold and the bottom deck are packed to the ceiling with goods. This includes EVERYTHING that people need to get along in their daily lives. I have included pictures of assorted dry goods, longtail boat propellers, toilets, and thousands and thousands and thousands of eggs. If it weren't for the chickens that we saw with our own eyes, Bec and I would have sworn that there were no chickens in the Amazon Basin. There is a small pathway that runs around the edge of the deck next to the rail that is less than a shoulderwidth.

























The middle deck is the passenger deck,which by the way is not tall enough to allow me to stand up straight. This is where all of the people live while they are on the boat. There are four bathrooms, a suite cabin with a double bed, and three cabins with bunk beds. The bathrooms have a toilet and a shower. The shower is simply a PVC pipe with a valve on it, which when turned allows river water to fall on you. The water splashes all over everything including the toilet seats. The water then runs through a hole at the base of the wall into the next bathroom towards the bow of the ship. All of the water then drains out of the boat through a hole in the floor in the bathroom closest to the bow. This of course means that if you are in the bow-most bathroom and three other people are taking showers, their dirty water (and everything it picked up off the floor) flows around your feet. The wheelhouse is located at the bow of this deck. Sitting on the floor right in front of the wheel house was one of the nice hidden spots to get away from it all.


There is also a small kitchen at the stern port corner of the this deck. There is a small hole leading down to the kitchen below so that food can be passed up without getting in the way of the regular business of the boat. Meals are served at the stern of the boat at a large table. People eat in rotation with about 10-12 people eating at any one time

The best way to describe the livings conditions on the passenger deck is sardines in a can. Or more accurately sardines wrapped in blankets in a can due to the hammocks. There were approximately 45 hammocks on this deck, some of which had two people in them. There is literally someone you do not know 6 inches away from you. Murphy's Law of course dictates that this person will be a complete pain in the ass, but more on that in Part II.

The passengers represent a complete cross-section of life. There are elderly men who can barely climb into their hammocks, 22 year-old mothers with three small children, 22 year old couple entrapped in deep infatuation, as well as regular aged adults simply traveling to see family or take care of business. We were not able to tell if it was generally considered to be highly inappropriate or not, but the general pattern of behavior seemed to be: Do whatever you want and who cares if it is disturbing other people. This means that someone might open up their new boom-box and play loud music at 6 am. The funny thing is that VERY rarely does anyone ever say anything to the person who is making the noise. I only saw it occur once or twice on the entire trip and it sometimes felt like there was constantly someone blaring incredibly loud music.

The top deck has four more cabins with bunks, a bathroom, and a bar with snack and drinks. Lightweight cargo like empty barrels were also stored on the top of the boat. When there wasn't blaring techno music being played on this deck, it was the nicest place to be on the boat. You could sit back and watch the jungle go by and see monkeys playing in the trees, pink dolphins jumping in the water, and big blue macaws flying overhead.

Manaus and a One Day Tour

On the evening of April 25th Rebecca and I flew from Fortaleza to Manaus. We arrived at about 11:30 at night and went straight to the hotel. Manaus is actually located on the Rio Negro, which is not surprisingly named for its black water. According to the Brazilians the Amazon River begins where the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimoes meet, which is about 10 miles from Manaus. This means that it was in fact the Rio Solimoes that Rebecca and I would be journeying up by slow boat.

Manaus grew during the mid to late 19th century as part of the rubber boom. Colonial architecture is scattered throughout the city and this includes the famous Opera House. There are several buildings that were manufactured in Europe and then shipped to Brazil and assembled.

The morning of our first day we began the business of sorting out jungle tours and onward boats. After talking with several tour operators about potential options for jungle excursions we made our way down to the floating port on the Rio Negro. The main port of Manaus was designed to be floating because the water level of the Rio Negro varies as much as 15m (50 ft) over the course of the year. It is a continuously busy place with a constant stream of people and products.

After looking at the timetables for boats upriver we realized that we would only be able to spend one more day in Manaus, and would have to leave by boat on Friday the 28th of April. We booked passage on the Alm Te Monteiro, a medium sized passenger and cargo ship.

Having taken care of the most important task we needed to in Manaus we began to explore the waterfront area of the city. We meandered our way through the central market, which had a few arts and crafts, and the distribution market which is the hub for all of the food products that are used by everyday people. It has piles of any type of produce you can think of as well as several types of fruits that you have never seen before. The market also contains the typical section of animal parts splayed out on tile counters.

The waterfront district of Manaus is a giant commercial center with almost every street front of building and sidewalk space taken up by commercial shops and stalls and stands. Manaus is the hub for the entire Amazon basin and it is very common for people to come to the city from smaller towns to stock up on everything they need for the next several months. This principally consists of household items, clothes, and the like. Manaus also serves as Brazil center for appliance manufacture and so things like TVs and DVD players are very cheap so lots of Brazilians fly to Manaus to buy them.

Along the way we made preparations for our journey up the river. This included purchasing cookies, powdered drink mix, hot chocolate powder, toilet paper, fruit, bread rolls, packets of tuna fish, water, and various vegetables. We also bought hammocks, which we would be sleeping in for the next week.


That afternoon we booked a tour for the next day to go to the Meeting of the Waters and the Parque Ecologico Janauary. The Meeting of the Waters is where the Rio Solimoes and the Rio Negro come together. Because the two rivers are different temperatures, moving at different speeds, and have different nutrient contents they take more than 20 km to start mixing. As a result there is a very distinct line between the two.

Here are a few photos from the ecological park.

Giant lilypads up to 6 feet across that can hold 40 pounds.

The bottom of the lilypads are covered with spikes.

A caiman takes a peek at the tourists.

Fortaleza

From the outset of the trip I had a hunch that Rebecca and I would not move as fast as we needed to to to make it all of the way from Rio to Iquitos overland. It turns out that this hunch was right. Between the originally unplanned trip to Lencois, the five extra days in Pipa, and several extra days in other places we discovered that we were going to need to fly to make up the time.

After three trips to the travel agent in Pipa we booked onto a flight from Fortaleza to Manaus. This meant that there were two bus rides to make. One from Pipa to Natal: a mere 3.5 hour journey. The second was aboard a super nice double decker bus from Natal to Fortaleza that took about 9 hours. We were in Fortaleza the 24-25th of April.


Fortaleza is the capital of Ceara, one of the states with Brazil. This is of course SUPER cool because my little sister's name is Ceara.

Because "winter" was starting in Brazil, the touristy areas of Fortaleza were completely empty. Rebecca and I were the only tourists. The hotels were empty and the beach was deserted for the most part. It was sort of like a ghost town.

We did go and explore the big central market on the first afternoon that we were there. There was all of the usual stuff like clothes, hammocks, and cheesy touristy stuff for sale, but the coolest thing about the markets were the twisty ramps that ran across the middle of the building from one level to the next.

Our second day in Fortaleza we checked out of the hotel, stored our bags there and then walked down the waterfront to Madeira Beach. A few photos from the afternoon are included below.

Sunglasses salesman convention.

Goofin' around.

Lifeguard Stand

Still Alive

Greeting from Peru! We made it to Iquitos this afternoon from Leticia, Columbia/Tabatinga, Brazil/Santa Rosa, Peru.

We have survived the six day boat trip from Manaus to Tabatinga as well as a three day adventure into the Columbian jungle. There are tons of great stories to tell, but internet access has been spotty at best and so I have not been able to post due to bad connections and/or old computers. I promise that there will be lots of great posts with lots of pictures when I get back to Honolulu, which is mid-day on the 13th of May (This Saturday).

For a few teasers... Brazilians are scared of silence, it is acceptable to have sex in a hammock on a boat with 50 other people right next to you, and taking a long-tail outboard motor boat down the amazon river for 70 km after dark is one hell of an adventure.... Did you know that entire trees float down the river during the high water period? Also, have you ever spent five days in a country illegally? I have.