We left the Amazonas Hotel after shaking hands and using Google Translate to thank them for putting up with us…
…while they in turn directed us to the tourism bureau after I said I was sorry we couldn’t communicate very well.
No one spoke a recognizable language but one woman volunteered to take us round town and we followed her on her scooter with us following. What I thought was a lost cause turned into a moment to remember.
She first stopped by a vegetable patch with manioc plants. These are the tubers that they cook and grate in some manner to create the yellow powder they eat on their food and that we use to blend in. Yup, eating manioc makes us look like locals. Believe that…
Lisa in the sunglasses introduced us to her cousin at her cousins home. They must be tight if she felt comfortable showing up with us in tow without warning.
Rusty guarded GANNET2 in the shade. 
Lisa has a Robinson Crusoe uncle who lives on an island in the Castanho (Brown) River.
And look at these river boats like you see in movies, with the big wooden superstructure.
Master of all I surveyed from the deck.
Lisa asked what we needed and led us to a car wash where we said goodbye.
The plan was to take a back road ferry to the north from the village of Manaquiri across the river which would let us drive to Manaus from a different direction that usual. It was a 45 minute drive through ranches and greenery and was quite pleasant in an easy suburban way after the highway dirt. 
It was far from being a happy place on Friday as downtown was a massive traffic jam on the only street through town.
We nudged in and sat there surrounded by a rip tide of motorcycles, and we continued to sit like a rock until the flow got moving properly and took us with it, a matter of ten minutes and very little horn honking surprisingly.
We stopped at a store to buy drinking water and amused the store keeper by giving her a tour of our home. Meanwhile Layne checked out the barber shop across the street and got a $1:88 haircut in the time it took me to siphon 15 gallons into our tank. 
Then we found our way to the car ferry dock. They call car ferries “balsas” or rafts because they use tugs and barges to transport vehicles. It arrived two hours late from Bela Vista across the river. 
The problem became apparent as we watched the cars trying to get off and getting stuck on the ramp. The angle was too acute despite putting down some planks and getting passengers to get out and walk. I suspect the criteria lower than usual and the tug can’t get any closer to the bank. We decided we didn’t need to ding the van again after we got it repaired and we chose not to take the Manaquiri boat. It was 3 pm and we needed a new plan.
Here’s the layout. We followed the red line and after the first failure to board the ferry at Manaquiri we doubled back and took the highway to the main ferry which crosses the Amazon to Manaus. 
We looked for potential stopping places or hostels along the 30 miles of road but nothing looked appealing. By the way Brazil built VW vans and bugs for years after they ceased production in Germany. The vans are still in use as taxis around here:
It was sunny annd over 100 degrees but we could see dark clouds and lightning in the horizon. Rain fell eventually but we were snug on hard pavement and enjoyed watching the temperature drop to the 70s.
A Florida style home I thought, and I’ve always liked the broad overhangs.
Night was closing in and we had nowhere to sleep but we’ve been living like this for years so we knew something would come up.
We thought about spending the night on a pull out by this wetland but we figured the insects would be unbearable. We found a gas station near the ferry terminal and as we lined up for gas we asked about spending the night, speaking as always through Google Translate and they said no problem so we parked.
Loud music and barking dogs were our portion. It was a hot sticky night and insects weren’t too awful but all in all it was not a great nights sleep before we took the ferry to Manaus the next morning, Saturday.
