On the morning of the 19th we went down to the docks in Manaus at about 10am to get set up on the boat. The only transport we had was a van with no seats so there were around 12 of us crammed inside on the floor, no aircon and couldn´t see out of the windows. I felt like a refugee trying to escape across the border! Anyway, back to the boat. We all had hammocks in the 1st class area (only difference from 2nd class is that its further away from the engine noise and smell. There were literally hamocks everywhere - above, below, crammed together - not much room to manouvre at all! ´The swinging eachother manically soon lost its appeal!

We had 4 nights of this! We sat on the boat all day til it eventually set sail at around 8pm, only to stop 5 minutes later for fuel. You´d think that since the boat had been sitting in the docks for about 4 days, they would have been a bit more organsied and had the sense to fill up before they loaded all the cargo and the 200 passengers on board. Oh no, that would require some initiative and common sense! Never mind, we eventually got going and then the whistle blew for dinner. Got our spoons and plates and stood in the queue only to find out it was soup - not going to work with a bloody spoon! So, we stood in line for the refectory which was like a small dining room with 12 proper wooden dining chairs. We had to sit there and eat while everyone stared at us through the door and the hatch, willing us to hurry up! I went to bed fairly early but when the others came to bed it was a nightmare - I was bashed right, left, underneath, on top and kicked repeatedly in the face (thanks Debs!!). But that´s how close we all were and were going to be for the next few days at least. I did think we needed tp rethink the face and bum configuration though as were were eating a hell of a lot of beans!

Still on the 1st day on the boat, one of the boys bought me 2 ice creams from a random sales guy. How unlucky can 1 operson be? Others got strawberry and passionfruit. Linda gets corn flavour, moans, gets bought another one and its some other kind of vegetable, possibly pumpkin but really not sure. Disgusting!

Anyway, we ended up being on the boat for 4 nights, 5 days - no stops. I thought I would have got cabin fevere after the first night but I was surprisingly calm and ok - read 1 book but only listenede to my ipod once - am definitely chilling out! I wasn´t amused towards the end though as the roof kept leaking on my hammock (only seemed to be mine) and I got soaked, was freezing cold and there was nowhere to move to - grrrr! There was brown water in the sinks and toilers - straight out of the river - nice. The drinking water was ok at first and then that also turned brown. Somehow I managed to escape being sick although most other people were. I´ve also discovered that too much vodka makes you make bad judgement calls!

Our guide, Daniel, also went a bit loopy (he had warned us he was just going to drink for 4 days but we didn´t quite realise how much!). Most of what goes on tour of course stays on tour but suffice to say he was throwing tables around the deck and chairs off the boat into the river. The captain threatened to tie him up and put him in the locker room until we arrived in port. On the last day the police came aboard and Daniel got called to the bridge. Luckily he had sobered up by then but we did all wonder what would happen to us if he got arrested. Anyway, it seems it was totally unrelated and all was ok - phew!

We got to Porto Velho on Saturday night and into our truly s***ty hotel. We were desperately hoping that our truck had arrived already (it set off on a barge 3 days before us) but it hadn´t. Aaaargh! Most of our luggage was on the truck as we had only taken a daypack to last us for the jungle stuff and the boat. I had no clean clothes left and desperately needed to do laundry. We went to reception and we had to take everything out of the bag to show the guy what it was so he could identify it and write it down. Hilarious! I´m surprised he could as most of it was walking on its own. You have no idea how bad it smelled (David - you might be close if you recall the trainer smell in Bangkok all those years ago - it may have been 14 years ago but I´m sure it´s still stuck in your nose somewhere!).

Anyway, Sunday we got up and set out to explore the metropolis that is Porto Velho and find some coffee and brekkie. Traipsed for at least half an hour but everything was shut. Finally found a bread shop where my famous miming skills were put to good use once again (haven´t yet found anyone on the streets or in the shops in Brazil who speaks a word of English - or Spanish for that matter). Managed to order a fairly decent coffee and a cheese sarnie - luxury!

Forgot to mention that I had developed an odd thing on my forearm a couple of days ago (while still on the boat). It just appeared overnight and looked like a mini volcano - big white p**** blob about 1cm in diameter surrounded by a bright red ring and then a swollen lump surrounding that - alien! It looked and felt like a burn but couldn´t have been. Daniel said it looked a bit like leishmaniasis which is caused by a mozzie and basically your skin ulcers and then it spreads through your body. He´d had it but he did say it was unlikely it was that. We coincidentally have 2 pharmacists on our truck and both of them had no clue what it was. Aaaaargh! Of course I panicked as I then googled it and it looked exactly like my blob! By Sunday, it had grown and was really painful. Went to the pharmacy and luckily the guy didn´t recoil in horror. Got the most amazing service. he called a lady who must have been a doctor and she spoke great English. She asked me some pretty specific and detailed questions after which the pharmacist took me into a room, cleaned it up (at which point I almost fainted - of course!). They said that if I didn´t get it treated it would grow, get more painful and I would need to get it cut out in hospital. Yikes! Turns out I can´t get the name of whatever it was but it´s likely been caused by something I´ve eaten rather than an insect bite. We can only think it must be some kind of parasite or worm. Ugh!! Have pills and cream and it should be gone within 6 days - we´ll see eh? So, that´s my war wound (the first so far) in Brazil! Anyway, needed to treat myself to an ice cream for being such a brave little soldier and spent the rest of the day aimlessly wandering around this one horse town.

It´s now Monday and our truck has still not arrived but should be here today - fingers crossed. Our laundry also wasn´t collected so the only clothes I have are the ones on my back that I have now been wearing for about 3 days - in this stinking heat. You have no idea!

So, on that note, I´ll sign off. All being well we will be on the road tomorrow with 2 long driving days before we reach the pantanal which is where we expect to see a whole load of wildlife including capybaras. Cool eh?!

Oh! I almost forgot to mention the sweet pizzas we had last night - chocolate pizzas, banana and cinnamon pizzas and other random fruit pizzas. All with cheese but absolutely delicious - seriously! Needs to take off elsewhere in the world methinks.

Ok amigos/as. Wish me luck on the laundry, truck-finding, volcano front.

Linda xx