Belem

The boat docked at the port and there was a mad scramble by all the passengers to complete their journey and get off. I was a little amazed at how wobbly I was on my feet, after only being on the boat for 5 days. Did I get me ‘river’ legs (not sea legs, as I was not at sea) in such a short time? I think that I must have. The walk to the terminal building was a little strange, as I was with the Argentineans and the French couples. As we walked through the terminal building we were hassled by all the Taxi drivers. One would ask if I needed a taxi and I would answer “nao obrigado” (no thank you) and the next taxi driver standing next to him, who witnessed the previous conversation, would ask the same question. Maybe they thought that I wanted to travel with him, because he looked better dressed? Don’t ask me… One taxi driver even grabbed my arm, pulling at it and asking “Taxi, you wanna taxi, Senhor?” I was not happy about that, so I gave him the filthiest look ever pointed to his hand on my arm and said, very sternly, "Nao Podde!" (This basically means “no can!”)... he quickly let go of my arm and backed off to the other vultures, opps, sorry Taxi drivers…

I said my goodbye to both the couples, as they jumped into a taxi for the bus terminal. I asked a shop keeper where the local tourist office was, only for her to ask a taxi driver, who of course wanted me to get in his taxi, as it was very far away and too far to walk. I told him to go away and just started walking towards the centre of town. I ended up walking past the tourist office, but only realised that I went on the city tour, which I will discuss later. I finally found a travel agent and asked a few questions about Belem and tours. I asked them for directions to the nearest internet café and away I went. I needed to get Myla’s number from my emails, so I could call her and get her cousin’s number to arrange to met me, as I was to stay with her and her family. About 2 hours later, after time on the net, telephone calls and then waiting for Elive to collect me, I was finally on my way to her house, a place where I could have a decent shower, something I had missed in Manaus, due to the humidity, and on the boat.

The fun began. Elive, is just like her sister Danni, Myla’s cousin in Brasilia who I stayed with there. They don’t look the same but they have so many similar characteristics, that when I wasn’t looking at her, I would think that I was talking to Danni. After freshening up and having something to eat, we were off on a tour of city. The funny things was, we all went on the tour. Elive was driving, I was in the front passenger seat and, their live in maid, Preta (‘Black Female’ is her name directly translated) and Erik Victor were in the back. It was dark, but we still went to a number of tourist locations, just so I could get a feel of the city. Even though I didn’t see much, I still appreciated the efforts, as I got to see Belem by night with all its lights on. A city is very different at night. We returned home and I went straight to bed, as I was very tired.

The following day I went on another tour of the city with Elive, Erik Victor and Preta. It rained all day, but I still took loads of photos… We would drive from one place to the next, stopping only for me to wind down the window and take a photo or to be stupid and run through the rain, getting very wet, take a photo or two and then running back to the car. Everyone thought that I was a little crazy, but I was having fun and grateful that I was being chauffer driven. We ended up at the Waterfront area, which reminded me of Melbourne’s South Bank, with all its shops and restaurants. We went to an Ice-cream shop where I tasted over 30 flavours, only to have a huge problem of remembering which three flavours were the best, so I started to try them all again… The attendant didn’t say anything about it and he just kept serving me more ice-cream. I think that you can get away with many things here in Brazil, just because you are a gringo. That said, I think that some take advantage of the fact that they are gringo and the locals take advantage that they are a gringo. $ signs flash and it is Jackpot time.

The last day that I was there, I went on a tour to one of the local parks, where they still have a lot of the local indigenous vegetation and many animals living within that environment. It was quite a big park, as we spent about 2 hours there. My tour guide for the day was the local street guy, Jose. He lived on the street just outside Elive’s house and did odd jobs for the locals, like washing cars and running errons to get a little bit of money to buy the things that he liked or needed. Most of the locals would either offer or give him some food and drink when they saw him. We walked through the park chatting and looking at the trees and animals. We stopped and looked at the fish in the ponds and even the sea cow that was swimming in the 3m x 3m pond. I think that he enjoyed his time with the gringo and made sure people saw him with me. I didn’t mind as he was nice to me and waited while I did the usual stupid tourist things.

I had a great time in Belem with Elive and her family. She opened up her home and family to me and it was great to be able to relax and have fun. It was a wonderful time after being on the road for some time. I will always remember the request that she made of me, to translate, from English to Portuguese, the instruction manual of an instrument that aided in the development of the pelvic floor muscles in women. I know more than what a man needs to know about a women’s body!! I left Belem on the overnight bus to Sao Luis, the home town of my friends in Brasilia, Myla and Dario.

The Amazon River by Boat.
Manaus to Belem.

I have always had a dream to travel on the Amazon river by boat. I was to fulfil that dream on this trip to the Amazon Region. I boarded my boat in Manaus at 1:30pm on the Friday afternoon, full of excitement and wonder of the coming adventure. I had paid for a cabin, so in effect I had paid for two people to journey on the boat. That said it was better for my own safety, which I will explain later.

Our scheduled departure time was 2pm. So it wasn’t all that bad when we left at 2:30, after all passengers, crew and goods were safely on-board. The port was a little crazy, with people running from boat to boat, trying to sell all the important last minute things that people may have forgotten to buy earlier. Things like sun cream lotion, sunglasses, snacks, water, etc.. I was alright in this department, as I went to the local supermarket earlier that day. When I purchased SPF 50 sun cream lotion, the lady in the store gave me a very funny look. It wasn’t until later that I realised that the bottle was one specially designed for babies. I guess that when you have fair skin, like mine, you need these sort of things. The journey had started, however it was short lived, as we went to another pier to load more goods. This took a further 4 hours, so we left really late. That said, it was still great to be on the water and watching the Amazon River Dolphins play and chase fish.

The main memory of that first night on the boat was one of quiet tranquillity. I sat and watched the city lights of Manaus gradually begin to get less and less and the light of the stars and moon become stronger and stronger. All this time there was the sound of Brazilian music being played and people starting to mingle and make new friends for the journey. Being the only native English speaker on the boat, it meant that I had a lot of time to consider things, places I had been, people I had met, where I had been and where I was going. It was a great time of meditation and a time of getting closer to God. The male passengers also started to play dominos and it seemed to be never ending. Game after game was played. It was almost strange not to hear the smashing of dominos onto the table, as each player took their turn. Each slap had to be lauder than the next.

The next morning the daily routine of waking at 6, eating breakfast, going back to bed to sleep a little more, walking the boat for exercise, sunbaking, lunch at 12, sleeping a little more, eating dinner at 6 and then listening to music (at full volume) and then going to bed at about 9 or 10 night, set in. It was a good routine, as it enabled me to do what I wanted between meals. As I had purchased a fare in a cabin, I was given special treatment, along with the other cabin passengers. Our meals were given to us in another location, not with the rest of the hammock passengers. The area was sectioned off and we could take as long as we wanted to eat, the same food as everyone else, but with the occasional few extras. We would get the occasional look from the other passengers, which made me feel a little uncomfortable, but this is a user pay society and as cabin passenger, we had paid.

The bar on the top level of the boat would play music non-stop from 8am to 12pm. I didn’t mind this, as it was good to have the music going. However it was a little hard to have a conversation with fellow passengers, especially in Portuguese. It was made even harder for me because the people of the Amazon Region have a different accent. On one such occassion, I was sitting minding my own business when one of the female passengers on the boat started to make conversation with me. I think that her name was Milena. This was ok to start with, but as time went by, I became very uncomfortable. To use a quote from a movie, slightly changed to fit the situation, “She was the boat bicycle, everyone’s had a ride” (Austin Powers, for those of you who don’t know). She followed me everywhere on the boat. I would go to the bath room and she would be waiting for me to exit. I would go downstairs and she would follow. I would go up stairs and she would be right behind me. During some conversations with her, as she was hard to avoid, she gave me looks that I had seen on other girls, here in Brazil. Looks where they where asking for a little more that just conversation. “Ohh, you have a Cabin… what is that like? Is it comfortable? It must be nice to ‘sleep’ in a cabin.” At one stage a boy of about 10 asked me if I had a girlfriend and when I said that I didn’t, he said “well, you are single and she is single (pointing to the girl), why don’t you get together with her and be happy on this boat”. I thought it was then time to lock myself away for a few hours, for safety. While in the cabin, reading my bible, someone tried to use the door and enter. I just kept quiet and eventually they left. I waited until she departed the boat before I reappeared.

The Argentinean couple I had befriended, in my bad Spanish, began to joke with me about the girl, asking where my “girlfriend” was, when she was not around. I just shook my head and we all laughed. Even the French couple jested in sign language asking where she was. It was the cabin passenger joke. The Argentinean couple had been travelling for 20months throughout Latin America and they only travelled by bus or boat, accept when they flew to Cuba. They had great stories to tell and were very interesting people. They were my refuge from the ‘bicycle’. Some people on the boat thought that I was the son of the Argentinean couple, as the husband had a fair complexion and fair hair.

Life on the river seemed very hard for the locals. The housing was simple and the people poor. They would paddle out to our boat, hoping that we would throw items of food or clothing to them. It was quite sad. Sometimes they would be able to latch onto the boat and come aboard to try and sell a bunch of 6 bananas for 1 or 2Reais (70cents to $1.50 Aus), just to get a little money. I noticed that no boats used power motors and I guessed the cost of fuel was to great for them. One very sad thing I noticed was the way the river was used as a rubbish dump. People would rather throw their empty beer can over the side of the boat into the river, instead of lifting the lid of the bin, which was right in front of them. It was easier to do this. I soon saw that the Brazilian people can be very lazy at times. I noticed that it was the foreigners who walked 10 to 20 meters to put their rubbish in the bins. There was also the constant smell of smoke in the air and it became strange not to smell it. I even commented to a local, that there were far to many fires and that there was to much rubbish in the river and that one day the forest could possible be all gone and the river no good. I just was given the funny look of “what planet are you from?”. Their attitude is, it’s so big, it doesn’t matter… but I can see that it is gradually getting smaller and smaller…

During the voyage we made various stops in both small and large ports. The better the port, the bigger and better the town. Most were made of wood and held together with either metal struts and bracing. Others like the Santerem Port were well constructed from concrete, steel and brick. We stopped in Santerem for 5hrs on the Sunday morning, so I decided to do a little self guided tour of the town, while I waited for the only store/shop to open, the local internet café. During my walk, I came accross the local Catholic Cathedral, where the locals were hold an outdoor church service. I think it may have been a First Communion Service, as all the children were dressed in white robes. I stayed and watched for about an hour and really enjoyed myself listerning to the upbeat music and trying to understand what was being said. I didn't do a very good job at that, but it was still good. I started to walk the streets a little more, trying to get a feel of the town, but it wasn't all that good. Locals noticed what I was doing and the children started to pose as I took photos. I would smile and then wave in thanks as I took my photos. I finally made it to the Internet Cafe, only to wait another 30mins, as they opened late. They didn't care, but some of the other queing customers were getting a little agitated, banging on doors and talking loadly, hoping their actions would sway the people to open. It didn't work and they opened when they did. After completing my internet requirments, I quickly made my way back to the boat by motor taxi. It is a great way to travel here, as the motorbike riders/drivers are a little crazy.

After leaving Santerem, life on the boat returned to its normal routine of endless river, islands, tropical forest, eating, sleeping and avoiding some people. Some things that stand out in my memory is watching "American Pie, Band Camp" in Portuguese and still laughing at the jokes. At one stage the bar played "Aqua's - Barbie Girl", but it was in Portuguese. However I say along in English and remembered being at Bron and Jarrod's place that night after church, with Will, Asha and Emily. It was very enjoyable. The last thing that I remember is the boat rounding the heads near Belem and seeing Belem for the first time. It is a much larger city than what I thought it would be. There were the usual loads of appartment buildings and high rise office blocks. I was quite surprised. I had heard that Belem was not a very safe city. Time would tell.