23rd – 29th February
We had decided that our next destination would be Cusco in Peru, which acts as a launching pad for Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. The only question was how to get there. If we flew we’d need to go from Manaus to Sao Paolo, Sao Paolo to Lima and finally Lima to Cusco. Potentially a very expensive trip. The alternative was a 6 or 7 day ‘cruise’ up the Amazon to Tabatinga on a combined cargo/passenger vessel followed by a ‘speedboat’ ride to Iquitos and a flight to Cusco, via Lima. A much longer journey; possibly not that much cheaper but certainly much more of an adventure, so that’s what we elected to do.
The old adage of ‘beware of Greeks bearing gifts’ (no offence to anyone from Greece who may read this), was something I should have paid attention to when it came to purchasing the tickets for the boat ride. Our hotel also housed a travel agency which we used to go into the jungle. As we’d had a great time on that trip I was happy to get a quote for the journey up the Amazon. To get a comparison we ventured down to the docks in Manaus and ended up meeting with an agent who introduced us to the Captain of the boat we would be travelling on, the ‘Monteiro’.
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They showed us around and provided a quote which was the same as the one we’d received. The only difference was that the hotel agent had said we’d be in a ‘Special Suite’ with an additional bed as the ‘Normal’ cabin only had a double bed which would only be fine for Lorraine and the girls. The Captain had suggested I bring a hammock with me.
We went with the hotel agent and the upshot was that we arrived on board to find just the double bed and no sign of the agent. I guess the learning is if you can get close to the actual supplier, in this case the Captain, it’s probably worth doing business direct with them.
To say I wasn’t best pleased would be an understatement particularly as I had just carried our supply of water and beer through the sweltering streets of Manaus to the boat. We had been advised by Dino, a Canadian we met in the hotel lobby who had made this journey to bring our own water for drinking and ablutions as it’s usual for the boat crew to use river water whenever possible. So there I was carrying 18 two litre bottles of water with two cases of 20 cans of beer, (it was a tough call as I nearly had to ditch the water). In hindsight I’m not sure how I managed it but I was ringing wet, once again, by the time I got on board.
Having freshened up with a quick shower, (water pumped from the river) and the girls settled in, I went in search of new shipmates, which didn’t take long as the cabin directly opposite us was occupied by Clare and Jason, a couple from Bristol, England who were, and still are on a two year trip around the world. You can catch up with their adventures at www.werehereyournot.co.uk . Each of the cabins has a small balcony and I found Clare and Jason chatting to Ryan, a Canadian touring around South America who introduced us all to ‘The Wobble’, (moving your head vigorously from side to side while someone takes your photo. Great fun. This is us on the first night:
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With the ice broken we spent the rest of the night sharing beers and travellers stories and the challenges of earlier on became a thing of the past.
The Monteiro had three main decks. The bottom deck had mainly goods on it which ranged from motorcycles to melons, eggs to exercise bikes, toilet roll to televisions and paint to pasta, and what appeared to be a never ending supply of beer and sodas. The middle deck was the main accommodation deck with a number of cabins that were actually used for storage, and the hammock area which housed around 250 – 300 of all shapes and sizes. Ryan had arrived the night before our departure and secured prime position on one of the ends farthest away from the toilet. Smart move. It also meant that it minimized the chance of others putting their hammocks above and around his. The kitchen and dining room were also on the middle deck so queuing up for meals was next to the hammocks and to be fair it always seemed to be a calm and relaxed environment.
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The upper deck had further cabins including ours; the shop which supplied most things you needed for the journey, and plenty of open space for the adults to relax and the children to run around. As Hannah and Abbey were the only foreign children on board they attracted quite a bit of attention from the others particularly early on in the journey.
Our days tended to form pretty much a similar pattern. Wake up and check the colour sequence; brown (river) – green (jungle) – blue (sky) for a nice day or brown – green – grey for not so good. We gave the ships breakfast a miss and settled for crackers, water or juice and melon which you could buy on board. The rest of the day was usually spent wandering around exploring the ship or watching the river bank for any signs of life. Most days we would make at least one stop off at a village or town to drop off cargo. In the evenings we’d usually get together with C, J & R to put the world to rights over a few beers whilst Hannah and Abbey played pontoon for money or entertained the local children. On occasion we were treated to some magnificent sunsets:
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The original estimate was 6 days to reach Tabatinga, but it turned out to be 7, which was pretty much in keeping with the information I got from the crew. On our daily stops I usually got off to stretch my legs, take some photos or go and shoot pool with the boys. If we asked the crew how long the stop would be the answer would usually turn out to be a quarter of the actual time so we got used to taking information with a pinch of salt.
Finally we arrived in Tabatinga, which wasn’t what I expected at all. Bearing in mind the Monteiro is a reasonable size I had anticipated at least a dock of some kind, but we actually pulled up by the bank. A plank was pushed out and that was that. Having literally ‘walked the plank’ we all piled into a truck and were driven to the border with Columbia. Tabatinga in Brazil and Leticia in Columbia is actually one town with the border running through it. Providing you don’t leave town you can pass freely from one side to the other without showing your passport. With lots of guns on show from the guards our driver was nervous about taking us across so we piled out and walked the remainder of the journey into town. It didn’t take long to find a decent hotel with a great pool and that part of our river journey was put to bed.
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