Sailing down the Amazon

We were awoken in the morning by the breakfast bell going off and clambered out of our hammocks having had a most successful nights sleep. I thought it was a success anyway due to the fact that my knots had remained firm and our hammocks hadnt fallen down in the middle of the night...see Dad I do remember some of what you taught me!!! We had strange breakfast of very sweet coffee and salted biscuits with margerine, this was all that was on offer and we were a little disappointed after how good dinner had been the night before, but we made the most of it and soon found ourselves chatting with the woman in the hammock next to me. Flor (which isnt exactly her name but is easier to pronounce) is from Chile and is going to live in Rio while she works as a journalist. We chatted about various things, all in Spanish as she speaks very little English and we both commented on how clearly she spoke compared to the people we had met in Chile who we could barley believe were speaking Spanish it was so hard to understand. After breakfast we spent some time watching the world go by and looked on as we stopped in a couple of ports to pick up and drop off more people and cargo. The weather changes quickly here and one minute it can be blazing sunshine, the next torrential rain, both of which we experienced during the day requiring you to shift your position on the boat depending whether you want breeze and shade or shelter. At some point during the day we came to a narrow part of the river and were able to look much more closely at the rainforest lining the banks, being lucky enough to even see a monkey swinging in the branches of a tree as well as hear some of the chatter of the birds over the noise of the engine and awful music theyblare out on the boat. After lunch, which was much more satisfactory than breakfast consisting of pineapple juice, rice, spaghetti, stew and meat, I decided to brave the showers and found that actually they are not too bad! The little cubicles are so stiflingly hot that the water, barely heated by the sun, is cool and refreshing instead of freezing like in some hostels we've stayed in. Feeling clean and happy I put my shorts on and spent the afternoon getting a suntan on the top deck, reading from my Kindle and talking to some of the other passengers as there are a few from Poland who speak really good English, one in fact who lives in Scotland! After dinner, which was the same as lunch but with chicken instead of beef we went up once more to watch the beautiful sunset and moonrise with another beer followed by rum and coke, relaxing, chatting, reading etc until it was bedtime once more.