23 - 26 Feb - Heading for the Amazon

Check a map....Brazil is HUGE! So, a couple of big truck days to get us across to our hop off point for our Amazon boat trip, Porto Velos. Due to board our boat on Tuesday (26th) in the afternoon for a 6pm sail, I was able to go in search of a watch to replace my destroyed, indestructible swatch watch. I am now the proud owner of a retro stylie digital number for a fiver. Let's hope it lasts 3 months.

Final pre-boat supper. Ordered a slice of pizza and a juice


That's how to keep your seat cool


We also went hammock shopping so we would have somewhere to sleep on the Amazon boat. Ten quid. Bargain.The woman who got our custom must have been happy to clear 23 hammocks and mosquito nets in about 30 mins. Set for the boat, we meandered down so that we could try and get a spot altogether for our 3 nights of sailing. Typical port, with prostitutes and drunks and (slightly more pretty), the odd dolphin (including a pink one). awww.

This was only a dent in the road before Pete drove over it


Quality bar at the port



Pete had to take the truck on a barge and would be leaving after us and likely to go slower than us. Some of us went to watch the loading of the truck, which was.....rustic. This involved Pete's skill, his 20 tonne truck and a couple of long planks, balanced on a block of wood on one side and a pile of mud on the other. When the front wheels snapped the plank just as they landed on the barge, there were some loud gasps and I learned later that even Pete nearly had a secondary accident in the truck cab. Ahem! With not a lot of choice, he went for it and we were relieved to see the truck get on board.

Bendy, bendy, bendy....


...and snap!


Watching the boat load up was pretty impressive. Truck after truck arrived, mainly with onions, but also limes, potatoes and some white goods. People started appearing and hooked up their hammocks. We were all along one side of the boat, ready to watch the world go by.

Setting up


We then learned that we would depart at 9am the next day, so we would have a night on the boat in the port. Clearly, they had room on board for more onions. So, we took to the top deck, for hamburgers and vodka and as those that had gone to bed at 10pm started getting up and coming upstairs again because it was so hot, I decided I was going to skip going to bed and just stay up! I few of us made it to about 4am but it then cooled down so I headed for the hammock. Trying to get into a hammock, squeezed inbetween two sleeping hammock dwellers after a couple of vodkas amused me a bit.

oi, Mikkel, get out of my hammock!


Loading up






That's our hammocks, that is


Boo!