Amazon Riverboat

Our boat in the jungle was very good, it was comfortable but there weren't too many luxury's, we had airconditioning but the hot water didn't always work and there wasn't really anywhere to sit down comfortably and read. There was a bar on the uppper deck which got most use, it only with plastic tables and chairs but you could watch the world go by from it which always kept you happy for a half hour.

There were loads of activities every day, one or two in the morning and one in the afternoon after lunch and a siesta. Some in the evenings too. Food was three times a day and didn't vary that much though what was there was OK, but it was laid out for self service and so was always cool, certainly never hot!

Thirty people on the boat, about 12 couples one single guy, a Russian mother and daughter (they live in Boston) a father and daughter and a couple of other single women. Crew were excellent, there were two nature guides, Victor and Allan, who looked after us directly and then Dining room people, the bar guy, the skiff crews and the boat captain and engineer who we hardly saw. One bit of luxury we did get was our fresh towels folded into different shapes every day - swans, football shirts, cut melon .... amazing art!

Almost all of the trips were in the skiffs which you will see in the photos, flat and fairly large with two 80 hp outboards on, so quite fast. Most of the trips we'd spend 20 or 30 minutes getting there (on longer if we saw something on the way) the about an hour pottering around and then back.

Best trip for me was swimming in a tributary of the River Tigre with pink Dolphins as company. They didn't come too close - about 10 to 20 yards away but they stayed with us all the time as we drifted, swimming sort of, down to the Tigre. The dolphins didn't play like ocean ones, and instead of being on the surface and frisking around, tended to be very much up, over and down again although they occasionally jumped right out of the water. Was in the water for about an hour and a bit, fantastic morning.

Worst trip was an overnight in a "jungle camp" which was very basic. camp beds with mossie net surrounding the outside. It was very warm and humid and no airflow as you had to keep the mossie net closed (the mossie's got in anyway!) Quite glad to get up at 0530 to go for an early morning walk though the actual walks were never too great - trailing 30 people along a narrow jungle path (very slowly) is not the way I like to walk!

On the way back to the boat there was another optional walk which we gve a miss and instead went back to the main lodge where they had a beautiful lodge with swimming pool into which we dove very quickly. Good lunch then, and after that got blessed by a Shaman and then finally back to the boat for a shower and cold beer.

We saw lots of birds, the two guides were extremely good on ID and also had amazing eyesight, spotting things and stopping the boats to show us. Saw some sloths, monkeys, iguana's, bats butterfly's (a beautiful huge blue moth butterfly but couldn't get my own photo, there may be others have them) frogs (poisenous ones) and of course the pink dolphins which I think I liked the best. We asked for Anacondas, Caimans and giant otters but .....

Trips ashore (apart from the above mentioned jungle camp) included a trip to the town of Nauta where we watched a demonstration in progress, it was for  Earth Day and all the school kids from Primary and secondary, Scouts paraded through the town.  Since Nauta is in the heart of the Amazon, the enviroment message definately seems to be getting through to the people there.   We also had a trip ashore to the village that Allan (one of the guides) was brought up in and we were introduced to his family.  We were shown what they grow which included two types of Bananas, potatoes, tomatoes, chilli, and lots more fruit trees.  Their diet consists mainly of rice, bananas lots of the time with their meat mainly being chicken.  They do still shoot birds but, of course, fish completes the line up with daily use.

One of our last trips was a fishing one for Piranaha.  Materials were pretty basic, a bamboo stick with a hook and some meat from the kitchens.  We werein fairly shallow water at the end of a by-water.  Allan, on the other boat, started catching immediately  but eventually our boat started getting them and Mary was one of our first to get one! Unfortunately, no camera with me so no proof of the five foot pirahana that she caught, but we all believe fisherman's stories ..... don't we?

Although we did see some signs of logging it was mostly by villages for their own use, they cut and then, some time later,  burn,  several acres on the river bank.  Typically it will be just flooded during the rainy season and when the waters start dropping again they plant it with crops for the village.  In the photos, you can see all the houses are built on stilts, by the height of the rainy season, in about another 4 or 6 weeks, the water will be up amongst the stilts and they will use the dugouts to get between their houses.  When the river goes down it leaves behind an extra layer of silt ready for next season's crops.

The amount of water going down the tributuries is staggering and seeing water flowing backwards up the smaller tributaries gives some idea of the amount of area that becomes covered by water, and the volume of that water, as the rainy season proceeds.  While we were there, they showed us the high water lines on trees and many had another three or four feet to go!

One other last thing of note for the moment was the way the locals would arrive with homemade hanycrafts wherever we stopped.  Up river it wasn't a problem although we were still offered them (mostly necklaces, baskets, bracelets though some more adventurous, a model of our boat for one!) Prices very cheap, about €4 for most things and discounts for quantity!  Closer to the bigger towns like Nauta it became a bit of a nuisance, even while we were fishing a couple of dugouts arrived but I suppose once they've found ways of making money then basic human emotions like competition start to show up. It was suggested to us that we should not just give money over but encourage local enterprise which makes a lot of sense, but still it is a different way of life for them and one that will start them on a different road to the last thousand years.

That's all for now, lots of photos at .................... Amazon riverboat photos

Here are some photos of the path we took, look at the better (google) maps in the photo gallery for the "wider" view -

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