Amazon and on.. and on..

miserable hammock dweller...

Next morning in "Alto do Chao", after another bad night in a 
hammock, and I'm ill (again). I really feel bad, it's my 3rd trip to HELL (of this whole trip), and I'm regretting returning to the Tropics at all, especially a place notorious for unpleasant bugs. Once again it was a Burger, I'll be put off those damn things for life ! I also find that the boat leaving Santarem the next day is the last one for 5 days, if I don't get on it, I'll be stuck here for a quite a while (at Manaus I was told there is a boat everyday from Santarem to Belem, not so...).

Strangely, the following day (after my first actual sleep in a hammock) I felt absolutely fine and made the crazy decision of returning to Santarem on the bus and getting on the boat. It's a shame to be leaving "Alto do Chao", I've seen so little of it (confined to hammock) & the "jungle trips" are supposed to be good here.

As soon as I stepped on the boat at approx 1430 it left the dock (I was heading for the 1800 boat, this was the 1000 boat and it was very late, it turned out there was no 1800 boat, this is the last boat for 5 days !). Cost was R130 for a hammock space. After 2 hours of steaming away from Santarem my symptoms returned and I then had the most unpleasant day and half that I could just about imagine. Nausea, a high fever and bad diarrhea are hard enough, but in a hot, humid and grubby Amazon river boat when all you have is a hammock (which is hard to enter and exit without disturbing your neighbours), and just a few toilets between hundreds, is no fun at all !! As I was the last person onboard I got the worst hammock space, bottom deck by the engine, steerage ! This boat, the "CISNE BRANCO", is in some ways better than the first one, smaller, quieter, better run, but I find it hard to appreciate the improvements.

I'm fortunate that I'm feeling better when we come to the most interesting part of the river trip, we enter the narrow creeks and channels of the Amazon delta as we start to head Southeast towards Belem. People are living on the muddy river banks here in crude wooden shacks. The living looks rough and I wonder how anything ever dries, they live suspended (on wooden posts) over mud, everything must be perpetually damp & mouldy. Later we pass hundreds of canoes (pic left), mainly containing children making a strange high-pitched ululating sound. Brazilians, on our boat, throw plastic bags full of food and clothes out to them. Turns out they are VERY poor and they need this stuff just to survive.

More enterprising kids are selling stuff on our actual boat. To do this they take big risks as the boat does not stop for them. They paddle their canoes close enough to place a homemade re-bar hook inside one of the truck-tyre fenders (the hook is attached to the bow of the canoe with rope), they then hold on for dear life as they accelerate to 12 knots !! Impressive to watch ! Most did not try to sell their wears too hard at all they were more interested in the freebies they got off the crew, tins of coca-cola, biscuits, sweets etc...

a typical small community on the banks of the Amazon

After 2 and half days (2 nights) from Santarem, we arrive in Belem.  The boat skipper says it is too dangerous to navigate the creeks close to Belem at night, there are too many pirates !! For boatey types:  the river boat had no charts, no GPS & no Radar, they navigated the whole 1500km on memory alone, quite a feat, and, except for arriving in Belem, there were no external navigation aids at all (buoys, whitheys, beacons, lighthouses).

It's typically raining hard as we arrive in Belem (the rainy season has just started) and it's a surprise to see skyscrapers and office blocks looming out of the murk, having seen very little of "civilisation" since leaving Santarem.

Into the Heart of Darkness & down the river

Sao Paolo, I spent a day there waiting for my flight, I wandered around the center in the rain. It is a huge concrete jungle before heading for the real one !! I can't say there is too much for the visitor to do in Sao Paolo, because there isn't. The scale of the place is incredible though. The new & efficient subway whisks you around so fast it actually feels dangerous ! nothing like the plinky plonky ancient creaky London Underground. Next day I take a plane to Manaus.

Manaus is not quite what I expected. It's a large, very industrial town right in the middle of the Amazon ! How did that happen ? There is an enormous HONDA plant here (and others), apparently sited to make the most of the cheap labour (I'm told just $300 a month) and raw materials arrive by ships sailing up the Amazon (Manaus is an international port, 1500km from the sea !)  At my hostel is an older British couple I'd met previously in Chile in August last year, a remarkable coincidence because they are on their second holiday since I saw them last !

Manaus's most famous landmark is the opera house (right), otherwise it is very busy, noisy and pretty dirty, very humid, and unlike other places in Brazil, tourists come in for some attention, staring children etc...
When it rains, it RAINS !! I got caught out and was soaked in seconds, I forgot my passport was in my pocket, it got a little soggy.

I bought my boat ticket for Santarem for the next day, and made a mistake. The "official port" is not the place to buy tickets (LP is wrong), buy them 300m down river at the floating "unofficial port", on the actual boat, I paid R115, I should have paid around R80.

Next day I'm at the official dock at 0630 (missing my hostel brekkie), the boat is there but no-one else is, even the crew, the 0800 departure looks unlikely. Sure enough, when the crew turns up, our ETD is 1200 !!  I've got 5 hours to wait ! The "official port" ticket office gave me totally the wrong time. On the positive side I am the first person onboard so I get a good position for my hammock . I leave for 20 minutes to get some breakfast, return and have a heart attack !! The boat has left, there is an empty space at the dock, ALL my stuff is onboard ! I can't see it anywhere   Don't Panic !  After some very confused conversation I am told it has moved around to the unofficial dock. I try and sprint there but it's too hot for that, and 500m down river, there it is.....it's a relief to see it, and my stuff is where I left it. After a couple of hours more hammocks are appearing....(pic below)

At 1220pm the "Ana Beatriz III" is as full of people & baggage, on 3 decks, as can be imagined. We cast off and noisily head down the Amazon, with the current.
I've mostly lost my good hammock position as people have crowded in from all sides, but not below and above as I'd heard previously.
I was pleasantly surprised by the conditions on the boat, the showers and toilets are OK, the food was pretty good, though not that cheap.

typical Amazon passenger boat (not mine)

The 36 hour trip down river to Santarem is not the best for tourists, as the river is wide and the boat goes down the middle, it becomes significantly more interesting after Santarem. There is one other backpacker on the boat and we get chatting, he is called Rami, from Germany. That night they play "Forro" music (Brazilian folk), until very late, it's quite a party atmosphere as there is a bar on the top deck. I did not perfect hammock sleeping that first night ! I think it takes a while to adapt...




I spend most of my time on the boat giving English lessons to an enthusiastic 18 year old Brazilian guy, his English is really terrible ! but I think I've done my best for Anglo-Brazilian relations. Actually that surprised me in Brazil, a lot less people speak English than other parts of South America.

After we arrive Santarem, me and Rami head straight to "Alto do Chao", an hour away by bus, where there is a most amazing river beach, right in the Amazon, it looks like a 5* resort. We arrive in the black dark and the rain and have a bit of a game finding accommodation (it's all pricey). In the end we go for more hammock swinging spaces at an Albergue, frankly it's the last thing I wanted after a sleepless night on the boat, but it's all there is. It's strange, lying in a hammock, right in the jungle, there are no mosquito nets, I thought we were in for big trouble !  but, strangely,  the multitudinous insects did not bother us. In the kitchen there are pickled snakes in 5 litre water bottles, ominously all caught in this Albergue ! All are poisonous, one is a beautiful multi-coloured coral snake.

Alto do Chao

After stringing our hammocks we went for food. There was a stall selling BBQ kebabs. They looked good but I shied away after previous bad luck with street food. There was also a shop selling burgers, for safety I had one of these (I feel that vendors in solid, unmovable structures cannot poison their customers....). Completely the WRONG DECISION as it turned out.....

Rio - on the cheap !

It's another long bus trip from Iguazu to Rio. They play the movie "Up in the Air" for the 5th time, I think I know all the dialog ! I find that overnight a "Cama" seat is not quite as good as two "Semi-Camas" (if your lucky enough to get two free seats that is !) The Rio bus station is busy and fairly horrible but I find a bus to Catete, the cheapest accomodation area. But in Catete I can't find the hostel !! After 2 hours of padding about with a heavy pack, in the heat, and not wanting to get back on a local bus, I give up and go to a very cheap hotel. The "Hotel Oasis" is a men only hotel and it's very rough, but only R16 ($9) a night !! sort of a doss house really, but friendly enough.

Sunset from Ipanema beach

the lovely Hotel Oasis

After a shower I head off into Rio. I'm quite lucky as in my first few hours in Rio I see both Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. There is a glorious sunset over Ipanema beach. It's a Saturday and the beaches are busy, when the sun finally sets there is a loud cheer and applause ! After that it's back to my grotty room for a sweaty sleepless night. The next day I find that I can rent a fan for R3 a night! so I do that, it makes a big difference, but I find 2 nights at that place is quite enough. I relocate to an inexpensive spacious small hostel (Hostel Carioca) in Copacabana, 5 minutes from the beach, the small ones are best ! There is a nice set of people there, only problem is, it's run by a witch...

My first impressions of Rio are positive. I did not expect it to be so beautiful and so scenic. All around town the views impress, there are large steep sided rocky outcrops covered in tropical vegetation and the famous mountains "Big Jesus" (Corcovado) and Sugarloaf (Pan de Azúcar). It's seems so unique to use the super modern subway and emerge at a station just minutes from a fantastic tropical beach. There are office blocks right on the beach, what a quality of life ! Ships come and go, there are tankers, cruise liners and supply ships, oil rigs in transit, airliners taking off and landing, cable cars rising and descending, it's a Richard Scarry scene brought to life. Offshore there are islands and on the hillsides, Favelas creeping slowly upwards.

The main tourist attractions are expensive but with a little "google research" there seem to be other options. There are footpaths up both Corcovado and Pan de Azúcar. Next day, myself and Kieran, from the hostel, head up the footpath to Corcovado. The start of the footpath is at the back-right of "Parque Lage", a very pleasant park close to the botanical gardens. It's a 2 hour sweaty, jungly climb to the top, but a pleasant enough trek. We disturbed a naked batheing couple on the way up, at one of the natural pools, who scrambled for their towels. At the top we hit bureaucracy !!  At the car park they refuse to let us into the grounds of "Big Jesus", we can get a free ride to the bottom so we can buy a return ticket back up again !! It's a "swiz" of course, we refuse on principle. But the 8 or so security people eye us suspiciously in case we try and vault the fence, of course, we are tempted ! but we don't. From the car park we can see the views West and from a bit further down we can see the views East, we don't really lose out.

Next day two Hong Kong girls that I had met in B.A.  (same hostel), CiCi and Karina, turn up and we catch up over beers. That evening me and CiCi stay on Copacabana beach until long after it gets dark. Thanks to the floodlights and the warm humidity, beach life goes on into the evening (a far cry from the "dash for warmth" that occurs at the very moment the sun goes down in the UK !) I body surf in the largish waves, in the dark, it's lovely !!

As Keiran is busy I tackle the footpath right to the top of Sugarloaf, by myself. The start of this footpath is located at the end of the paved path called "Pista Cláudio Coutinho" at Urca beach, you go past the small concrete lighthouse at the end, skirt around the rock (at the same height) until you get to 5-6 small disused concrete blocks, turn left here and go up the steep path to the top. It's frankly a bit of a scramble, however, not far from the top, it became really hairey, I felt I had to turn around (as I was alone) which was disappointing as I was nearly there. Keiran later reported that he made it to the top with a friend, that it was indeed really hairey ! climbing gear is recommended ! He also went back to Corcovado and successfully vaulted the gate at the top and got in without trouble. I had to settle for walking up "small" sugarloaf instead, the midway cable car station, which is still free and still very scenic.

Rio with Sugarloaf at the back

The first time I wanted to go and watch Samba in Rio it rained the moment I put my foot outside the door. It then rained hard all that night and caused substantial flooding and mudslides to the North of Rio. So bad that it made the international media and I got a few concerned emails. In fact downtown Rio was completely unaffected. The second time I wanted to watch Samba I was sabotaged by my fellow Brits and the UK drinking habit. A British couple in the hostel suggested an aperitif before going out, homemade Capirinhas (the national cocktail of Brazil). We assembled three 1 litre bottles of Cachaça (a 45% proof, or more, spirit for just R4 ($2.5) a bottle ! ) and made them. We had plastic glasses, and there were only 7 of us. Alarm bells should have rung !!  Poor CiCi did not pay attention. As soon as our Taxi pulled up in the Samba district she was incredibly ill, as I knew her I best I had to take her back to the hostel, my last evening in tatters.

On arriving in Rio I booked my flight from Sao Paolo to Manaus (in the Amazon), directly on the TAM website. This was only £118 for a 4 hour flight which I thought was pretty good, booked just 7 days in advance. It's the first flight I've taken on this trip since arriving in Mexico in December 2009. So now I have to go to Sao Paolo on the bus. My last few hours in Rio are taken up with souvenir hunting and replacing a sun hat I left on a bus (I'll need it in the Amazon !). I'm sad to be leaving Rio, it's been one of the best city visits of my entire trip.

Back to the Tropics - Iguazu Falls

New Year´s in B.A. was fun, I went to a party in the hostel where Sarah and David were working (same Sarah and David from the terrible Panama-Columbia cargo boat trip in March 2010). At my hostel we had "make a dish" night. I burned my large olive pizza so badly no-one else wanted any, so I had to eat my "Charcoal Pizza" alone, it was horrible, and gave me even worse indigestion. It´s now the 2nd January 2011 and suddenly B.A. is full of tourists, mainly American, as if a Berlin style airlift (from Houston...) has occured overnight ! I buy myself a 20 hour bus ticket to Iguazu and depart. Everytime I get on a bus in Argentina there is some clod sat in my numbered seat, and this time is no exception...

In the morning, clouds and jungle, I am back in the Tropics  !!  It´s steamy hot in Puerto Iguazu. Found a good little hostel (Hostel Iguazu), with a pool ! but the AC was on the blink, so not a great night. I´m not feeling up to "The Falls" next day so I have a "day off", and change rooms, it´s too hot to do much.

Next day I get on the first bus of the day (0600) to the park and I´m about the 10th person in the park.  Instead of waiting for the train I head off down the "Sendero Verde" (I read about this "plan" on a blog and it really works) to the first train station, and then take the "Upper Trail". For 20 full minutes I have Iguazu Falls completely to myself !!! beautiful, multiple, tiers of falling water, cauldrons and cascades !!  It´s really something  ! And I try to explain to my Jaded Traveller Self that this is so !!  After 20 minutes or so a wave of other tourists appears on the path (from the first train), and during the day it just gets busier and busier.

Iguazu Falls   - of the big three (Iguazu / Victoria  / Niagra) I´d say it´s the most scenic, but it does lack the power and awesome spectacle of Victoria (both are way ahead of Niagra). Because everyone else did I took the boat trip. I was disappointed, it lasts 12 minutes !! and I think because of the season it does not go anywhere near the "Garganta del Diablo" (Devil's Throat), the most spectacular part, and of course, they don´t tell you this. Essentially it´s $30 for a 12 minute shower, in a boat, err, that´s it ! I managed to leave my wallet in the drybag I was given, whoops !! One of the boat guys returned to me intact, very honest of him.






Next morning I have to decide what to do, I have 6 weeks left (from my booked and unchangeable flight back to the UK from Salvador) and a number of options !!  I get all my maps and guides out, and ponder what to do, I could;

1. Go to Salta, Argentina (via Paraguay) then go back to Bolivia (and see more of this amazing country), then fly east to Salvador.
2. do option 1) then take an Amazon river boat all the way east from Bolivia to Belem, then bus to Salvador.
3. Take a bus to Puerto Velho (Brazil), via the "Pantanal", then Amazon riverboat to Belem, bus to Salvador.
4. Go directly to Rio, then fly from Sao Paolo to Manaus, take an Amazon riverboat to Belem, then bus  to Salvador.
5. Be a lazy xxxx and sit on a beach for 6 weeks !! , while making slow progress to Salvador !!

 I decide to go for option 4), I think Bolivia is going too far the "wrong" way, and there is not time to cross the whole Amazon by boat from West to East (though I'd love to do it..), flights back to Brazil from the West side are an unknown, I really don't want to sit on a beach for 6 weeks (I'm already a little bored of it), anyhow, going to "the Amazon" sounds exciting....!

I manage to buy the last seat on the direct bus to Rio for the next day, 26 hours!  For the rest of the day I sit by the pool and wonder if I'm doing the right thing.