ODO: 354,067
Why are we in a major city in the middle of the Amazon jungle? Berne saw it on the map, did some research and found out it’s a very major city that is very difficult to get to. So here we are, recovering from multiple, long days of hard driving. It took us an hour to drive across the city to our hotel, this place is very major.
Our way out of here is a ferry down the Amazon river to Belem, so we need to find a boat. Down at the port, we have no idea what’s going on, or where to find a ticket seller, so we start at the port terminal building. The first person we talk to has a boat for us! But he’s really expensive…Berne negotiates him down, but once we agree on a price, he takes it back. We’ve spent most of our day here, so we’re frustrated. Maybe we try our luck with the street ticket sellers.
Finding a last minute boat to take us all the way to the coast is proving tricky. We find one for a good price, but as we’re about to pay, we learn they wont let us sleep in the truck. The other option is to sleep in a hammock on deck. Hard no. With no good options, we return to the first, expensive ticket seller, and buy a ticket for half the journey. We assume (hope) once we get to Santarem (half way) we can book a second boat the rest of the way to Belem. After negotiating in Portuguese, a language neither of us speak, we’re exhausted. We take a relax at the hotel before heading back out for dinner.
There is a small list of things we want to see before departing Manaus. First up is the National Institute of Amazonian Research. This is advertised as somewhere we can see giant river otters, manatees, and several other animals that live in the Amazon. In reality, it is the saddest zoo we have ever seen. We see the manatees in much too small tanks, followed by a clearly distressed river otter, and decide that’s enough.
Next on our list is the historical district, and the famous Amazonas Theater. Manaus got its start during the rubber boom, and is called the Paris of the Tropics because of its European architecture. The theater, built in 1896, is considered one of the most beautiful theaters in the world, according to its Wikipedia page. We cant say, the inside was closed for an event while we are here. The outside is very decorative, and well kept, unlike the rest of the historical district. The square on one side of the theater is decorated for Christmas. The Palace of Justice on the other side of the theater is also decorated for the holiday.
Already planning our life post mega road trip, we’ve been buying souvenirs, aka decorations! The tourist markets, once frustrating because we didn’t have room for “random stuff”, are now one of our favorite stops because we’ve removed size limits on purchases. The Manaus market yields some good finds, mostly beads made from different seeds and natural dyes. All of this sweating and shopping has made us hungry, so Berne finds us a ramen place. We order sushi, tempura, curry, fried rice, everything except ramen.
Now it’s time to get the truck, grab some groceries and head for the port. Manaus shuts and locks its doors at 8pm, and it feels like we should not be out right now. Bad vibes all around. We arrive at the port around 9pm, like we were told to, and they tell us we cant load until midnight. This is unexpected, we were told we could sleep on the boat tonight to be ready to go in the morning, so no big deal. At midnight, they send us down the ramp towards the boats, but not onto the boat. They send us to the parking lot closer to the boats, and tell us to wait again. It’s 1am…
Now it’s 5am. We’re STILL waiting to load the boat. The workers have been unloading and loading cargo all night. We take turns sleeping uncomfortably in the cab. Our boat is supposed to depart at 9am, but the cargo transfer is chaotic and ongoing, and we’re still on the dock. Until 11am, when the yelling comes for us. Apparently the only volume Portuguese comes in here is yelling. They yell at us to move into position. They yell at us to get out of the way so they can load a late truck. They yell at us to get back into position. They yell at us to back onto the boat. They yell at us while they block us in completely so we cant get out of the truck. We yell at them until the lady in charge of the keys yells at someone else to fix this mess. It’s an ordeal. By 12:15pm we are finally underway. Things calm down on the water, we eat some food and the boat speed cools the temperature. At sunset we finally get the tent open and fully relax for the first time in two days.
Between the stress of loading, being awake for most of 48 hours, the gentle river motion and the diesel lullaby of the boat, it’s easy for us to SLEEP. Today is the river cruise we imagined. There is lots of lazing around the tent, and enjoying the Amazon drift by outside the windows. The ship is small, so it doesn’t take long to explore all three decks. The sleeping options are either small cabins with bunk beds, or hammocks on top of hammocks in the open decks. The bathroom stalls are all combination shower toilets.
We stop at several towns along the way, and it’s madness each time. Vendors wait on shore with meals to sell to people staying on the boat. Before the boat has finished docking, the vendors extend a long pole onto the boat to collect money. Once paid, they literally throw bags of food to the people on deck. When the boat docks, vendors swarm on to sell more things to people farther in the boat. There is pure chaos between the people trying to get off, things trying to be loaded and vendors trying to sell food. The vendors have until the boat blasts it’s horn to do their business. It’s impressive and terrifying to watch.
At one stop a bunch of cops get on and start searching the luggage of every person getting off, and then move onto the second floor of the boat looking for, we don’t know who or what. They hold us hostage for a couple hours and leave with nothing. But we do get to see some dolphins in the harbor while they’re searching the boat. Back underway, it’s smooth sailing the rest of the way. The original schedule was to arrive in Santarem by 3pm, we make it at 10:45pm. It’s late, and we don’t know what we need to do tomorrow to get on another boat, so we sleep in the ferry parking lot.
The first thing we notice in the morning are the ticket offices for boats! What good luck! This ticket buying experience is the complete opposite of the first one, quick, easy, and cheap. This boat is scheduled for 6pm, so we do some laundry and pick up a few more groceries. Back at the port, we start the waiting again. As the sun sets, the bats come out to eat the bugs. So many bats. At 9:30pm we are loaded and the boat is blowing its departure horn. This loading experience was also the full opposite: nice, calm communication, organized systems for loading cargo, cars and people. They park us with loads of room on all sides, this is everything we wanted from a loading and crew experience. We have a charcuterie date night as we start the second half of our river journey.
Day 1 on the new boat, the Amazonia IV, is fantastically calm. There are fewer people on this boat, so it is much less hectic. We wander around to get the lay of the land. The upper two decks are for sleeping, and the top deck in an outdoor seating area and viewing deck. The few stops we make are all very calm and organized. There is no service down this section of the river, and we decide to leave Starlink off. At once point, we find crickets on the boat, which seems odd because we’re really far from land. We have a wine night because we recently discovered all of our good Mendoza wine is turning to vinegar, and we don’t want it to go to waste.
