There is WiFi onboard but it’s inclined to come and go so of the 250 pictures I’ve made so far on this journey south across the great river I will post as many as I reasonably can. The ticket collector greeted us at the gang plank. $165 for our cabin, $310 for GANNET2 was the final bill paid in cash. Excellent.
Our landlord picked us up at 7:45 to drive us to the docks Tuesday morning. His passenger window was gone as he has been a victim of a smash and grab on Monday. He left the car parked briefly with his cell phone in view and check to find it gone and the window smashed. A reminder to be cautious. The harbor was a busy place in the 90 minutes before we left. A strong breeze blowing down the Amazon kept temperatures comfortable. Between 28 and 32 hours to Belém:
I think this guy below was coiling a dock line as they went.
And at precisely ten o’clock the gangplank was dragged onboard:
Within ten minutes the port town of Santana was lost to sight as we rumbled down the Amazon at 11 statute miles per hour.
To a romantic traveler like myself imbued with the stories of Victorian exploration of Africa and the Far East and of course this very river, our journey was a not simply the only way to proceed but it was also a recreation of the voyages I had read about all my life. But what I have actually come to discover is that this river journey is a voyage not quite through suburbia but almost. These river banks are inhabited. 
These dugouts come from houses on shore, tiny spaces carved into the jungle. We were not alone, hardly that. 
Eventually I understood why these adorable kids were coming out to meet the loudly rumbling weekly ferry; some other passengers more clued in than us brought packages wrapped in plastic so they would float and they tossed them to the lucky waiting kids. Begging it may be but I wished I had known.
And then there are the sudden pauses in our progress. I soon figured we were stopping to pick up passengers, but we didn’t really stop we just slowed down:
I have no idea how they arrange these pick ups as I can’t ask anyone. We are the only foreigners onboard that I could see at first though I did meet a couple of Cubans speaking Spanish. They moved on before I could get their story.
Many of the boats on the river, such as the one above, use air cooled long tail engines such as I have heard of in the Far East. 
Life on board is mostly getting through the day kind of stuff. The newness and rawness of travel down the river hasn’t worn off and I still find myself marveling at life on the Amazon but the ferry isn’t a cruise ship. It’s noisy and rattling all the time. The dining area is right above the engines and the hatch to climb into the engine room and it is like eating inside the engine room. Shouting is how you speak in a foundry. 
The engineer sits and stares at the dials ( we were turning 1612 rpm according to the Caterpillar digital read out), the box on the right is one of two fans forcing air into the inferno below. 
A meal ticket costs about $20 and the food is served with all the panache of feeding time at the jail. Meat or chicken? Here’s your styrofoam bowl and plastic utensils. 
Chicken rice beans pasta and coleslaw does the job and the roast chicken was flavorful but it’s more a matter of eating fuel than anything remotely made with attention to detail. They have water coolers on each deck but this is not any cruise ship. Our $165 cabin has air, a fridge, comfortable bunk beds and barely enough room to swing a camera. 
There are power outlets all over the ship as everyone has a phone. We have three outlets in our cabin and luckily we are in the 110 volt area of Brazil. 
The private bathroom is lovely but it comes with a bar of soap and toilet paper but no towels. Cold shower sink mirror and a toilet that flushes brown Amazon water. Again it works but without frills. Interestingly the light in the bathroom is motion sensor operated. 
Layne agrees that twenty eight hours is plenty of time cruising the Amazon in these conditions. For $45 you can sleep in the peanut gallery but bring your own hammock and I was up until midnight and the deck lights never turned off. 
The air temperature on board varies wildly as we pass through constricted airless channels and move into onto breezy open bodies of water. It got intensely humid yesterday afternoon as a rain storm sideswiped the ship and under overcast skies sometimes it’s quite pleasant outside. Our a/c unit has no controls and blows all the time and at night we needed blankets from the van.
It’s been fascinating despite no wildlife sightings, no surprise considering the noise our progress makes! 
The most patient dog in the world. He insisted we take him to the car deck after dinner, down the steep stairs. There he found a wheel to his liking and peed copiously. I mopped it up as best I could and he has been sleeping ever since. Rusty knows how to cope. And on that uplifting note I end this excessive post. How I got it done through this rickety Internet you don’t want to know. Much cursing was involved. And no editing so if any of it is garbled I’m sorry. 
No comments:
Post a Comment