Amazone boat trip

It sounds so cool, a trip over the great might Amazone. Sailing for hours over undiscovered waters in enormous boats. Sleeping in hammocks like a real sea sailer and eating with your hands, one of the many fishes you just cought with your own made fishingpole. Visiting endless native towns along the banks of the river, where electricity, tv, radio and coca-cola are unknow vocabulary.

How far away from the story I have to tell. Imagine the hypotetical story being 1 apple. What I about to tell is 2 pears.

I was going to travel this ´river´ with a friend who I met in Cusco. Emily from the US, is travelling around South-America. I arrived a day earlier than she did, so I already kept an eye open for leaving boats. Thursday I was told, which would have been fantastic. 1 Day left in busy booming Pucallpa was enough for me. I was ready to sail this water mass.

Thursday we went hammock, snack and booze shopping. Some beers, some rum, a bit of crisps, and ofcourse my new shiny (as far as cloth has any shine abilities) hammock. A bowl with spoon is neccesary because they don´t equip 200 people on the boat with cutlery. TWOHUNDERD! How big was that boat? You need a lot of space to house 200 people. No you don´t. Not in Peru. Not in South-America.

The first day we arrived, the do-everything-floor (sleeping, eating, talking, card playing floor) was deserted. We had all the space just for the two of us. But we didn´t leave Thursday. No we would leave Friday morning. More people came on the floor. We would leave Friday night. This guy put his hammock 15 meters from mine. We are definitely leaving Saterday morning. Babies start occupying the floor and crying when not attended to. No later than 8 o´clock in the evening on Saterday. I had to rehang my hammock because it was slightly diagnoal and this mom managed to squeeze in between me and my neighboor who was 50 cm away from me. Sunday morning for sure. One guy tried to put his hammock above mine. You know, hammock bunk buddy. Since I asked politely (not involving any curse words, but making sure he understood me) he put his hammock in the walking path next to 25 others. We left at noon. 250 People on a packed floor. Everywhere hammocks. More hammocks than there is actual space, but here they manage. I was sleeping butt-to-butt with this guy from Lima. Nice!

Food is included, so you don´t have to worry about bringing your own. What a luxurey. 3 Times cooked and served at exact times a day. All you have to do is stand in line, prison style, with your own bowl and spoon, prison style, to get food, prison style, in prison style. Take bowl, KWAK, in your bowl, Next. KWAK? I didn´t know mashed potates made that noise, or rice with chicked, or maybe a nice tomato cream soup. No, but warm milk with bread does. So does spaghetti soup (spaghetti in warm water), and the delicious rice in watery juice. For 3 meals a day, it was weired that I almost starved to death. Because the boat trip took 5 days, and eating warm milk with bread is never pleasent, I skipped warm milk every day. Enjoying the ´spaghetti´ soup more I guess.

The toilets are no exception to the boat ´standards´. Filty, small, smelly, and without seating. Even better is that the shower is in the same cabin, which I do understand, only has pumped up dark Amazone water, which I don´t understand. You get cleaner, but in the mean time dirtier.

Arriving on Thursday we jumped into a mototaxi, raced to the hostel and took a nice (cold, they don´t have warm water in the jungle) shower. Aaahhh.

See the pictures here.

wij kregen een ,shower, van de falls!free,clean and refreshing..completely wet.ask bett.
where and when do we meet again? cumprimentos de todo.

Nós chegamos sabadO,ontem fomos nas cataratas na Argentina,que fOi maravilhOsO,um passeiO ótimO,perfeitO.Nós estamos muito felizes! =)

Je gaat me toch wel vertellen dat je beide zijde van de waterval bezocht hebt! De Argentijnse kant is veel mooier, beter, komt dichterbij en is goedkoper. Dus zonder Argentijnse kant heb je maar 30% van de watervallen gezien! Je had dit kunnen weten, en ook dat je nat wordt, als je mijn blog leest, ik quote:

´Two days later the better side of the waterfalls, Argentine side. Although both views are beautiful, you get much closer to the big falls from the Argentine side. We were warned to wear swimshorts, so we took that advice. Good advice, you get wet if the winds turns, just a bit to your side. A natural free shower.´

Dus beide landen bezoeken, en ook ff Paruguay bekijken. Kost practise niets meer.

natuurlijk!met een gids,eten in een chic rest. en.....
in de boot!!!!

natuurlijk doen wij alles bezoeken op onze reis als het op de route ligt onder het motto : gedeeltelijk in de voetsporen van olaf.maar die bootreis krijg je van ons cadeau , dan liever een nat pak om daarna in de pousada lekker onder de douche te gaan .
wie is er trouwens eerder thuis ?

Tjaaaa, wij komen in ieder geval voorbij in September na onze vakantie in Piemonte, waar we 100 procent niets zullen vangen met onze handen en het enigste back-to-nature-experience de donsveertjes in ons dekbed zal zijn. Waar eindigde de boottrip eigenlijk?

En wat is het adres van Joke en Henk blog?

Oh de boot. Dat was te duur voor mij, dus dat heb ik overgeslagen. Maar dan wordt je inderdaar lekker nat.

Waar slapen jullie in brazil of in argentinie? En uiteraard zijn jullie eerder thuis. Ik denk nog niet aan thuis komen...

en wij denken dat je er in je zwembroek inzat .
in foz sliepen we in een pousada , nu in curitiba in een luxe hotel natuurlijk na geregeld te hebben dat de prijs flink omlaag moest , anders kun je toch niet lekker slapen . ik denk dat je binnenkort toch moet overvliegen , anders wordt het zwemmen .