Blogs :: Belem to Venezuela, Part 1
After my long long long bus ride up to northern Brasil, I jumped upon a boat heading back into the Amazon. I'd not yet convinced myself I wanted to do the boat thing again, but I met up with a Kiwi and a Bloke the night I arrived in Belem so I figured what the hell, its cheaper and its good company. Six days of card playing, vodka drinking, book reading, and hammock sleeping were about to begin.
The trip was better than I expected, more fun than the first, and it only helped I made a few new friends along the way. Two hippie couples spent their time making some crazy jewelery. Not usually a fan of hippies, these ones were super cool. The most entertaining evening on the 3rd night included exchanging lessons in language (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian) with the kids and bartending (Dirty Martinis) with the adults. Madness, mostly on my part, ensued, but I woke up with more new friends the following morning and a worthy pain in the back of the head.
At halfway through the trip, we switched boats and spent a hungover few hours in Santerem taking tourist photos. One nice thing about traveling in groups, it's easier for me to just take the camera out and act like what I am.
The next few days were rather uneventful and everyone was ready to be back on dry land after 6 days on the slow boat, in our case a super slow boat because the engine starting acting up and we went at half speed, thereby taking an extra 12 hours to reach our destination, the Amazonian city of Manaus...
Part 2 Follows...
Santerem, boats, Belem, people, Brasil, public transportation, Amazon
Posted By:
Brendon
8/25/2009