Tabatinga, The Amazon River, Manaus & The Jungle - 26th October to 3rd November

Day 293 and we finally crossed the border into Brazil, our 15th and final country!

We were up nice and early to get our supplies for the boat. We didn't need to buy hammocks as we had bought a couple in Ecuador to give as Christmas presents (is it rude to still give them?) so we just needed a few snacks and provisions from the supermarket. Shopping done we set off in a tuk-tuk from Leticia in Colombia to the small port town of Tabatinga in Brazil to embark on our 4 day voyage down the Amazon River to Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian state of Amazonas.

Feeling both nervous and excited we boarded the cargo boat which, to our surprise, was already packed full of locals who had nabbed all the best spots for their hammocks. We ended up next to the toilets and the stairwell to the engine room. Great - noisy and smelly!

We strung up our hammocks feeling rather pleased that at least there was a reasonable amount of space (about 1 meter!) between my hammock and the one next to mine. Moments later some little old lady insisted in squeezing her hammock into the gap! I wasn't impressed and tried in vain to stop her by flailing my arms around and saying "no no no too small too small" but she was determined and even asked Dan to help her with her ropes - which he did - traitor!

So, hammocks up we settled down to get comfortable and wondered what on earth we were going to do with ourselves for the next 4 days!

The drill was basically as follows:

6 am - breakfast bell rings. Breakfast consisted of a cup of coffee and a dry bread roll. Thankfully we had brought some little croissants, strawberry jam and bananas for breakfast so we didn't bother queuing and instead had our own little feast whilst laying in our hammocks. Breakfast in bed - how posh.

Post breakfast - Lie in hammock, admire the scenery, read a book, listen to some music, doze.

11am - lunch bell rings. Normally by the time the bell rang there was already a steady queue so we stayed in our hammocks until everyone else was fed then joined the stragglers (usually the Europeans) at the end, grateful for any left overs. To be fair there was plenty of food to go round so we didn't miss out on any gastronomic delights. Lunch consisted of rice, spaghetti, beans and chicken (or sometimes a different "meat").

Post lunch - Lie in hammock, admire the scenery, read a book, listen to some music, doze. Perhaps a nice brown river water shower to freshen up!

5pm - dinner bell rings. Same drill as before. Dinner consisted of..........same food as before!

Post dinner - Yip, you guess it......lie in hammock, admire the scenery, read a book, listen to some music then sleep (or toss and turn for a while and finally nod off only to waken at about 2am freezing cold!).

So that was essentially it for 4 days. There was the occasional bit of excitement as we pulled into a small dock to load or unload passengers/cargo, or when someone walked into my hammock ropes and almost strangled themselves (which seemed to happen a lot!!). We did venture up to the bar a couple of times to join the locals for a drink or two, but that turned out to be a mostly hot and uncomfortable experience (there was very little shade and few chairs), so our bar-time was limited!

After 4 days we finally arrived in the city of Manaus at about 10.30pm, some 800-900 miles east of our start point, in the middle of a pretty impressive thunderstorm. We had expected to arrive earlier in the morning, but had been delayed en route, so by the time we finally got there we couldn't get off the boat quick enough. We expected a mad rush as everyone tried to get off at the same time but bizarrely most people were in no hurry and there were still loads of hammocks up when we disembarked, the captain allowing those who wanted to stay onboard another night.

Annoyingly there were no taxi's touting for business on the dock so we (with another English guy and a Swiss guy) headed up to the main road to flag a couple of taxi's which we did with no problems. Twenty minutes later we were in our hotel and overjoyed to see a nice big clean double bed and a decent shower. Such treats!

After a good nights sleep we set off the next day in search of a Jungle Tour. We didn't need to look very far as our hotel had a couple of tour desks so we spoke to one of the guys in the offices and he offered us a 4 day tour leaving the following morning. We went away to think about it and bumped into a couple who had been on the boat and they had been offered a similar tour for the same price by another tour company. Their lodge was in farmland rather than in the thick of the jungle so we decided we had been offered a good deal we went back and confirmed the booking before having a quick look around town.

Manaus is surprisingly large, with a population of around 2 million people. It grew up in the rubber boom and still has a large port with various types of tankers loading and unloading. There are still signs of the extravagance of the boom-times dotted around the city, one of the most celebrated being the Opera House, built with materials shipped in from Europe. We sat outside in the sunshine enjoying a cold drink before getting up for our jungle trip the following morning.

We set off at 8am, taking a taxi to the river to pick up a boat to take us down the Rio Negro (on which Manaus actually sits) and across to the opposite bank of the Amazon. On route we stopped at the meeting of the waters - the spot where the Rio Negro meets the Amazon. The waters of the Negro are colder, darker and clearer than the muddy brown Amazon and there is a clear line where one river ends and the other starts - this line runs for several kilometres and is really quite impressive.

On the other side of the river we transferred to another taxi for the 1½ hour drive to where we picked up another boat which would take us to our lodge on Juma Lake. In the wet season the lake is actually part of the river and accessible by boat from Manaus but at this time of year the water level is too low which is why we had to take a taxi for part of the journey.

This final leg of the journey was really spectacular. We started off in a really narrow part of the river and wound our way out into a wider channel and into the lake as the jungle continued to thicken. Half an hour or so later we arrived at our lodge which was set back from the river nestled in the shade of the jungle. The lodge was really nice. There were 3 small private chalets with private bathrooms (one of which was ours), a shared dorm and a restaurant area where we met the other 3 guests (2 of which were leaving after lunch). We had lunch and our guide (Marcelo) briefed us on our activities for the rest of the day.

To our surprise we were told that after lunch we would be heading out to a camp where we would spend the night sleeping in a hammock in the jungle. So much for our nice private chalet! We headed off to the camp which was about 40 minutes away by boat. There are over 150 different species of birds in the Amazon and we were lucky enough to see a few different types including eagles, red and green macaws, kingfishers and storks. We also saw some caiman and quite a few dolphins including the small grey river dolphins (max weight 50kg) and stunning pink river dolphins (max weight 150 kg).

When we reached the camp we set up our hammocks, gathered wood for the camp fire then headed back out on the boat to catch supper. Being a non fish eater I am pleased to report we didn't manage to catch a thing so we had BBQ chicken instead with salad and rice which was absolutely delicious! After supper we settled into our hammocks listening to the sounds of the jungle (most notably the frogs) keeping our fingers crossed that we had no uninvited visitors during the night!

The following morning we were up with the sunrise and the sound of the howler monkeys, feeling relieved to have made it through the night with no major dramas! The fire was still smouldering so Marcelo stoked it back up to heat the coffee and make the toast for breakfast. We polished off breakfast, packed up our hammocks then headed off in the boat to visit an indigenous village (one house) to learn about their very difficult life as farmers in the Amazon Jungle.

After the visit to the village we headed back to the lodge for a shower and met three new arrivals - an Australian couple, Steve and Maureen and Maureen's sister Jude. After lunch we all headed out in the boat for a spot of Piranha fishing. Hoping not to catch anything again I threw my rod in and to my horror got a bite straight away. Marcelo did the honours of getting it off the hook as I had no intention of touching it. I did pose for the obligatory photo though, looking very proud of myself whilst at the same time feeling like a murdering git. Dan didn't have quite the same beginners luck. It took ages for him to catch something and when he finally did it was such a tiddler that much to everyone's amusement it had to be thrown back in. All in all we caught 7 fish which were taken back to the lodge and cooked up for dinner.

It was dark before dinner and Marcelo rounded us all up for a spot of caiman spotting. We jumped into the boat with our head torches and within seconds could see lots of pairs of little green eyes glowing in the dark around the waters edge. A few minutes later Marcelo managed to catch a small one (perhaps 50cm long) and he held it whilst he told us all lots of facts about how big they get, what they eat, their reproductive systems, how they compare to crocs etc. It was really interesting and we all go the opportunity top hold it whilst we had our photo taken. Even though it was pretty small it was still quite an adrenaline pumping experience.

We rounded off the day with a trip to the local grocery store (a floating wooden hut!) where we purchased a couple of £3 bottles of vino tinto to have with dinner. It turned out to be similar to a Rose which, after chilling in the fridge for 30 minutes, was actually rather good!

The following morning (day 300 of our travels!) we were up nice and early for a trek in the jungle. We walked for about 3 hours whilst Marcelo explained all about the different trees and plants and what they were used for, whilst we spotted some monkeys swinging overhead. There were a few plants and trees which were used for medical purposes but also some more unusual ones including the jungle telephone (which makes a really loud hollow sound when whacked with a machete) and the smoking tree which was closely followed by the anti smoking tree! We also saw the rubber tree which led to the rapid growth of Manaus during the rubber boom at the end of the 19th century.

Our last afternoon in the jungle was spent canoeing and swimming in the river. A lovely relaxing day spotting the wildlife and pottering about on the water. Back at the lodge we asked Sisi (the lodge owner) to take us back to the floating shop to purchase a few more bottles of wine. He was very accommodating and to say thanks we bought him a beer at the shop which he cracked open straight away so, not to be rude, Dan joined him and I opened one of the bottles of wine. We were also joined by his brother and the shop owner (who liked to serve her customers wearing nothing but a towel!). All very random standing in a floating shop in the middle of the Amazon in the pitch dark supping a £3 bottle of Brazilian plonk with the locals.

Back at the lodge the wine (and beer and caprinha's - Brazil's national cocktail made from sugar cane rum) were flowing and everyone was in good spirits (literally!). A really fun end to a great few days in a truly fantastic location. I think this is what they mean by travellers heaven.

Shame we had to get up early the next day feeling slightly worse for wear to visit a somewhat bizarre rubber plant in the baking sun before travelling back to Manaus via boat, taxi, boat, taxi to catch an overnight flight to Salvador.....this is definitely what they mean by travellers hell....but the less said about that the better!!!

See you soon amigos.

Sue & Dan xx