Road traffic in the Amazon is still underdeveloped due to numerous rivers, wetlands and inpenetrable forests. The existing roads are yearly flooded and destroyed, which makes driving in wet-season more of a lottery than a planned travel. As it has always been in this area, river-boats still offer the best trasportation of people and goods. It is not strange, that the big port-cities are bustling with ships and boats from the smallest canoes to large and modern cruise-ships and tankers. Following the local habits, we chose to travel to the city of Santarem in a so called "slow-boat", even though we would need around 30 times less with one of the pricy yet numerous flights available between cities. Since each of the traveller is responsible for his own sleeping arrangement, we bought ourselves two simple hammocks for the way. To spice up the adventure, we bought the cheaper tickets for one of the smaller boats, that do not leave from the main passenger port. We also wanted to take advantage of the general rule, that allows the travellers to sleep on the boat already one day before departure. Fully packed with all our belongings we headed for the so called "port" in the darkness of the evening. The shady dock with rotten wooden pillars, an abundance of suspicious characters in the vicinity and the river favelas full of palafitos (simple wooden cottage that stand on pillars over the river) were not offering comforting feelings. Nevertheless we decided to board the boat, tactically position our hammocks (far away from the toilet areas and loud motors) and spent the night with only some of the fellow passengers. We woke up into a busy morning... The slow-boats are a sort of a combination between transport and passenger ships and the loading of the boat had already started in early morning hours. The cargo was a strange mixture of things that varied from toilet paper and diapers, up to air-conditioning units, tractor tyres, motor oil, autobus windshield and of course dried shrimps. We headed out to the market for a couple of hours to get some food for the passage and the crowdy scene on the boat at the time of our return did not please us at all. All around the deck and especially around our "tactical position", passengers have placed what seemed like an unmeasurable amount of hammocks. We were startled when we got the information that this is only a third of the boat's passegner capacity but in the end we had to accept that we will be contstantly bumping into other passengers while getting too familiar with sweaty feet of the closest neighbours. We departed more than 3 hours late because the manual loading of the boat required more time than expected. First day we were navigating many smaller canals and estuaries before finally reaching the main Amazon river canal. The vast amount of water along with the numerous little islands is overwhelming and only the dirty brown colour of the surroundings reminds that the boat is actually not cruising the sea. When the river-boats are sailing upstream they usually search for calm waters with slow current near the river banks in order to save on time and fuel. This brings the boat just up to some meters away from the magnificent amazon forests blooming all along the river. We were able to observe simple wooden houses placed all along the river that serve as homes for bigger or smaller communities living completely without access from the land. The children and youngsters are floating around in wooden canoues to play with the waves of the passing boats that probably represent most of their daily entertainment. Accompanied by their parents, some of them lance themselves behind the boats to catch them with hooks and ropes in a true pirate-style. After attached, they take a walk around the deck offering passengers home-made goods such as acai, fresh cheese, dried shrimps, fish, fruits and cooked corn. At night at some of the river passages the pirate games actually take place and the armed crew is scanning the suroundings with strong search lights to spot the potential attackers on time, before they can board the ship. During the day on the common deck the sounds of 80s and 90s music resonates from the flat-screen TV accompanied with the original videospots. It seems like the soundtrack hadn't changed from the time of the first boat-launch. Despite the limited space on board, everybody seems to find their place to spend the long hours of the ride. Among the interesting variety of people on board, it is not difficult to find a partner for a relaxed conversation which is the most popular way of spending time, apart from reading and doozing off in a hammock. Unfortunately, Manca was forced to do the latter for three days straight, since the flu that we caught in Belem repeated with high temperature and digestion problems. With the low number of bathroom spaces which encompass showers and toilets in a single two square meter box and are briefly washed with water only once a day, her situation was less than desirable. After three days we finally arrived to Santarem, a lively port-town at the confluence of the rivers Amazon and Tapajos. We countinued the same day to reach the small village of Alter do Chao that is famous for the most beautiful beaches in the Amazon basin. Although we heard a lot about it on the way, we had some serious doubts about the beauty of the river beaches. But the disbelief faded away on the first evening already, when we sat down on the promenade to watch the sunset over the Isla do Amor. Alter do Chao is nicknamed the Caribbean of the Amazon and during our week of stay, we decided that it more than deserved the title. Kilometers of white-sand beaches strech into the dark waters of Tapajos river, while the aubndance of greens are taking care for a comfy escape from the tropical sun. Dark rivers in the Amazon basin are flowing slowly enabling decomposition of organic matter that gives them the characteristic colour as well as just enough of acidity to prevent spreading of mosquitos. The combination of all of the factors actually wakes up the feeling of sea athmosphere that only dissapears when a dip in the water doesn't end up with salty taste in the mouth. We rent out a canoe to discover a nearby lake, where the river just started with yearly floodings (it was just the beginning of the rainy season). This enabled us to silently glide between the flooded trees while looking out for wildlife. Impressed over the lush forests, we decided to head for a local nature reserve for a while and discover more about the Amazon forests from the local people.
38 Comments
|
Timeline
February 2019
Categories
All
|