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)