Voyager IV

After a lovely, long, undisturbed nights sleep we got up at 8 and went for a shower which although just a pipe coming through the wall and shall we say 'unheated' water, was nonetheless pleasant as it is very muggy here and we woke up sticky and hot. We then got dressed and headed out to walk to Tabatinga where we hoped to accomplish two things, 1. buy a ticket for a boat down the river to Manaus and 2. get our passports stamped in to Brasil. We made a brief stop along the way for breakfast and were impressed with our large coffee and cookie type things for a fraction of the price we were paying in Bogota or Cali and thanked the woman at her tiny cafe, which was probably originally her living room! Not having a map of Tabatinga, only of Leticia which are technically the same town just with a border down the middle, it is not surprising that we couldn't find what we were looking for. After a while I asked someone how to get to the port but they either didnt speak spanish (most people here only speak portuguese despite living metres away from Colombia!) or didnt understand what I said as they directed us to the airport which is considerably further away than the boat port at which we were rather annoyed! After turning round and asking a soldier guarding one of the bases we'd walked past and finding out he didnt know his arse from his earhole, we carried on and luckily found the police immigration where we were able to get our passports stamped as well as rough directions for the port. By the time we arrived at what we thought was the correct place the sun was high in the sky and it was as muggy as ever meaning we were dripping in sweat and starting to burn :( Finding out from a guy just inside the gate that we were still at the wrong place we were able, with his better directions, to finally find the port and in fact the boat itself that we would be travelling on. We walked onto the fairly new looking 'Voyager IV' and spoke to a man sat at a desk with a computer, asking if we could buy tickets to sail to Manaus the next day. Again, he only spoke portuguese but as it is similar to spanish and we were asking something he expected to hear we were able to make ourselves understood enough for him to write the tickets out. Unfortunately, though we had guessed it already, there was no way to pay with a card and although we had tried several ATM's in Tabatinga we had not been able to get any Brazilian Reals out to pay with. So, poor Andy had to walk all the way back to Leticia to use an ATM there then go to one of the money changers to get the pesos swapped for reals before walking all the way back to the boat again!! Meanwhile, I was offered a cup of lovely, cool water and introduced to a man named Jose who also worked on the boat and was the only English speaking member of the crew. He turned out to be very pleasant and took me on a tour of the boat, showing me where we would be able to hang our hammocks, where the mess room was, various bits of information about the voyage and finally getting us both a cup of really nice coffee before leaving me to wait for Andy to come back whilst he got on with some work. I took a couple of photos on the boat and sat to watch portuguese television on the brand new, flat screen attached to the wall behind the desk. Just as I was getting slightly concerned, and the men were teasing me saying Andy had gone on another boat, leaving me behind, he finally turned up and we were able to pay for our tickets. I had found out while Andy was away that we would in fact be able to string our hammocks today if we wanted to secure a good spot instead of having to scramble for one tomorrow when everyone would be attempting the same thing. So saying we would be back later on, we walked slowly back to the hostel where another cool shower was heavenly after our hot morning. We changed and went out once more, this time to buy some rope to tie the hammocks up and to have another shaved ice cone as they were delicious!! We got as far as eating our shaved ice in the park when an American on a push bike, who we mistook at first for a school boy, started chatting with us only to end up preaching the Morman Church at us even after we had told him we weren't religious in any way shape or form! Before he could get too involved (he was talking about literature and going to his church) the heavens (!!) opened and we dived for cover under the wooden armadillo which is the centre of the children's play area in the park and the closest thing resembling shelter where we were. After 20 minutes or so the rain abated enough for us to make a run for it back to the hostel where I changed once more and we went and sat on the covered patio out front deciding what to do for the best with regards to the hammocks and the boat. Our questions were answered as a motorised bicitaxi came along the road and we chose to flag it down to take us to the port in Tabatinga. We ended up sharing part of the way with a Police officer who got dropped off outside the closest station before continuing the rest of the way in the pouring rain through flooded streets and getting lost a couple of times before we asked to be let out and we'd walk the rest of the way, realising that every wrong turn was costing us more and more! By the time we arrived back at Voyager IV we were rather damp and Jose found it quite amusing especially when I asked if he thought it would stop any time soon!! We ended up waiting around for half an hour or so for the lady who runs the on board shop to return so we could buy some rope to tie up the hammocks. This ended up being my task as I am the only one of us to know any knot other than 'granny' and I succeeded in getting our hammocks off the ground and not falling down when we gingerly climbed into them. I may be getting Jose to check them before we actually have to sleep in them however!! We then walked back to Leticia one last time and deciding we were hungry went back to the market street we bought the avocado from yesterday and ordered a fish each for dinner. We're not sure what type of fish they were but they were cooked, wrapped in banana leaves and served with some yuca and rice to which we added some spicy salsa. The fish was absolutely delicious, so fresh and cooked to perfection, we scraped every last morsel from the bones and went away very satisfied. Deciding a little something for dessert would finish our dinner off nicely we went to the supermarket to see what we could find. There not being anything we fancied, we ended up back at the park where we were able to buy a slice of cake each to take back to the hostel and devour before relaxing a while before bed.