We boarded a boat for the 4 day / night trip down the Amazon from Manaus to Belem, a 900 mile (1,500km) trip downriver, stopping at multiple towns en route.

Most of the passengers travelled on hammock class, where they basically strung their colourful hammocks alongside each other on the deck, and their personal belongings strewn on the ground - there was zero privacy and zero security. They shared communal facilities: showers, toilets, etc …. and these did not smell good, not even when the doors were closed! We were glad we had cabins, and although they were far from clean, they were pretty spacious (and the ensuite bathroom is actually larger than the one in my cabin on the Princess Cruise when I toured Alaska!), and the beds were comfortable. My guess is that the boat accommodated about 500 people, of which about 50 had cabins.

The sunset was beautiful from the roof of the boat. Whilst it is a very serene ride and the views are pleasant enough, apart from reading, eating, drinking, playing cards and watching the river, there really is not a lot else to do …. at most times, I would consider this bliss but I felt very constrained as there were very few spots we could wander to. There is the cabin, where I would feel claustrophobic if I spent any length of time in there, the tiny bar area in the back with its plastic chairs and tables, where I spend most of the afternoons, and the roof which is great for the early mornings and the evenings when it cools down.

On the 2nd evening, Peter brought out his bottle of cachaca (Brazilian sugar cane liquor), and we consumed the bottle in under 2 hrs - it was pretty strong stuff! I took off to bed early, and as per our normal arrangements, Tracey would knock on the cabin door to be let in (we only had 1 key between us). I am known to be a light sleeper (first to wake at first light and first sound) ..... well that night, Tracey knocked away, and another fellow passenger helped. Then she went round to Katy & Peter's to knock on our shared wall; and then round to Angelica & Louisa's... but all in vain. I had fallen into a deep, deep sleep, and I blame it on the cachaca. She was worried that I had passed out, as she could see that I had left the lights on. I did wake once at 12:30am and thought she was out late. Instead, she ended up sharing a bed with Angelica - it is fortunate that the beds are wide, but still with 2 of them on a single bed on a top bunk, it cannot have been that comfortable.

On the 3rd day, we had a welcome stop in Santarem where we could get off the boat for an hour. It was not a terribly interesting town, but it was good to be able to wander for more than 200 yds at a time!

I got up early on the 4th day so that I could get an hour of yoga in on the roof of the boat before too many people invaded my solitude. That day we passed through a much narrower section of the Amazon and it was very pretty - much more aligned with my romantic idea of the Amazon - with homes of the indigenous families dotted along the river banks. That evening a specatacular thunderstorm passed through, which meant we had to abandon our regular rooftop perch and take refuge in the bar.