The Boat

The boat… Elizabeth and I arrived at the Port at 5:00pm in Manaus to board our boat that would take us to Porto Velho. As soon as we arrived we realized that maybe an hour early wasn´t early enough because when we went up onto deck to sling our hammocks, where we would sleep for the next 4 days, there were already about a hundred hammocks slung up. With a little finagling we managed to squeeze in between a lady with a baby and a young guy.





The boat was a huge cargo boat with three decks. The first deck is where all of the cargo is held along with the engine and a few unlucky suckers who were later than us had to stay down below. The next deck is where most everyone slept and also where we had our meals. The top deck was completely open with a little snackette and benches and tables where people would hang out to get some sun or have a beer.
The first night was very hot and we didn´t end up departing till almost 9pm but once we were on our way and got some breeze it was quite nice.

The next morning at 6:05am with the sun barely over the horizon the lights to our deck area are turned on and we are awoken by a whistle to alarm us for breakfast. Surprisingly everyone very quickly gets out of there hammocks to go line up for what is waiting. ¨Ooo breakfast… will it be?´´ I climb out of my hammock to find… hotdog buns with butter and coffee so sweet you can feel your teeth rotting, but it´s early and tastes pretty good. Now back in my hammock for my early morning nap.

I read a little, hang out, sleep some more, then… ¨WISTLE!!´´ that must be lunch. Lunch and dinner are a little more serious than breakfast. Everyone lines up outside the eating area because only 12 people can eat at a time. Once the eating area is completely cleared off and the people before you are gone you are allowed to enter the eating room where family style plates of food are set down in front of you and everyone chows down. Meal time sometimes felt like a family dinner where everyone was angry with each other because no one talked they just looked and their food and ate. Breakfast was always a hotdog bun with butter and coffee until the last day when I guess they ran out of hot dog buns because we got crackers and butter instead. Lunch and dinner were the same except for lunch we would get stewed beef and dinner we got stewed chicken. Both meals came with plain spaghetti, rice, beans, some kind of potatoes and a salad of onions, bell peppers, tomatoes and cucumber. The food was really good and flavorful but by the third day some variety would have been nice.


(enjoying the view)

And that is pretty much what our days were like, up early, hotdog bun with butter, sleep, read, eat, read, relax, eat, sleep, repeat. With all our down time we did manage to make some fiends. The lady with the baby next to us was super sweet and deemed me her unofficial nanny. I got to watch her baby from time to time or pick her up if she started crying if mom was eating or bathing. We also met a young guy traveling from Columbia and an older gentleman from Italy, and a family from Bolivia. Everyone was super friendly and made the four days fun.

(lots of beautiful sun rises)

(and sun sets)

(this is kind of what our boat looked like)

Dois Passagem Para Manaus

So the adventue has begun. Elizabeth and I left Guyana on a flight from Chedi Jagen International airport on wednesday, July 28th. With a last wave goodbye to the country that has taught us so much and been our home for the past two years we boarded the plane and arrived in Boa Vista. With a little help from a friendly Brazilian we checked into our "quaint" hotel room. After some much needed rest Wednesday, Thursday morning we went out to explore.


(Eliz enjoying our room)

Using our Lonley Planit Guide book we managed to ask in very bad Portugese "Onde fica onibus qual que Manaus" Where is the bus that goes to Manaus? We got sent on a walk with the belief that the bus station would be right up the road. After a ten minute walk and no bus station in sight we asked for directions. The people we asked spoke no English and told us to come with them, luckily he was a taxi driver and gave us a free ride to the very far away bus station. I am so glad we didn't walk all that way in the Brazilian heat.




(stopped for a beer along the way)


(on our way)

Once we got to the bus station again with the bad Portugese " Dois Passagem Para Manaua" "Two tickets to Manaus" but good enough, we got our tickets and later that night we boarded the bus and right ontime at 6:00pm the bus left. The bus ride was scheduled to last about 12 hours. Everything was going quite well untill around 8:00am alredy 14 hours on the bus but an easy 14 hours if that is possible. The bus stopped and with some confusion because everyone was speaking very quickly in Portugese we realize that the bus has broken down. Everyone got out of the bus and all our luggage was taken off the bus and set on the side of the road...now we wait and surprisingly enough another bus comes along but only has room for 4, a third bus stops "Women with children first" they say, well since we don´t have children we didn´t make it on that one, and then ten minutes later another bus.... no spots available... but sure enough not much more than an hour after we stopped a bus came by and had room for everyone and once again we were on our way.




On the bus that picked us up there was a someone who spoke very good English and he helped us to get a taxi to the hotel we wanted. Manaus is a very big city with a population the size of the entire country of Guyana. This is a town for me (Elizabeth) sandwiches everywhere, any kind you can imagine and in every restarant. The people here are incredibly nice, and let us practice our very limited and probably poorly pronounced Portuguese on them. They smile and sometimes laugh in response but luckily we always managed to get through. Sophie turned 27 while we were here, we went out on Saturday night, the night before her Birthday and had a blast. The club scene in Brazil is definitely something to experience. We ran into a few Project Trust Volunteers who had been here for about 3 weeks and also met some fun locals. The Brazilians here love to dance and have a good time. We are getting ready to board our ship to Puerto Velho later this afternoon, and we are excited for the next adventure but going to miss this city. Good memories. Til next time. Ciao!