Boating across the Amazon River delta

From Belem, Brazil at the mouth of the Amazon River I wanted to travel north to visit the three small countries wedged between Brazil and Venezuela, the Guyanas. In order to get to the next road going north out of Brazil and into the first of the Guyanas, French Guyana, I needed to take a 24 hour boat ride across the massive delta of the Amazon River. As Amazon River boat rides go it was a relatively short ride but the experience gave a good taste of what life on the river looked like, and it turned out to be one of the most unique experiences of my trip.

I had some trouble getting to the dock and made it to the boat about 10 minutes before it departed for Macapa, on the other side of the Amazon delta. On river boats like the one I was on they are essentially hammock boats with no reserved seats. I arrived late so all of the best hammock spots were taken but I still was able to find a comfortable place to sling my hammock, at least for the moment.








It was a such a cool experience and unique way to travel. After last bit of cargo was loaded onto the boat we pulled away from the dock and the skyline of Belem disappeared to be replaced with scenes life on the river. On the boat people were moving cargo around and getting settled to their temporary swaying homes. The boat had two decks with the upper deck having the captains bridge at the front, hammock space in the middle, and a snack bar /lounge area at the back of the boat. On the lower deck there were crew member quarters at the front, hammock space in the middle, and the engine room, bathrooms, showers, dinning room, and kitchen at the back of the boat. Cargo was stored in the hull of the boat or wherever it was convenient.





















All was well and exciting for the first two hours of our journey. Then just as I settled into my hammock there was some commotion – we were being pulled over by the Brazilian Navy! The navy boarded our boat then left about twenty minutes later and I assumed that we were on out way. Instead we turned around and headed back to Belem! No one knew why we were turning around but it was definitely the talk of the boat. Two hours later we were back in Belem and the Brazilian Navy boarded the boat to explain that we needed to have a nurse on the boat! So we waited for about 4 hours on the dock until we had a nurse on board and we were off again. Welcome to travel in Brazil! It was an entertaining experience that was telling of Brazilian culture. If this had happened in the States or Europe people would have been up in arms and demanding their money back. What did the Brazilians do? Dance and drink! After almost two months in Brazil I have seen that Brazilians have an uncanny way of being upbeat and positive. Some people were expected to be in Macapa by the next morning and it simply wasn't going to happen. Shoulders were shrugged and life went on – no one complained.


















That night the clouds cleared to reveal a full moon and there was a party at back of the boat. Of course – we were still in Brazil! It was a crowded night in the hammock. I learned a valuable lesson about hammock placement but I'll write about that later with photos I took the next day.






The next morning I woke up to catch the sunrise and a rush of activity on the river. We made our first stop in port on the way to Macapa and began to see another kind of life on the river.
















Along this part of the Amazon delta all the way to Macapa there were lots of families living along the river. Many of the kids and some mothers paddled up to the boat and at first I thought they were just being friendly. Soon I realized that there seemed to be a tradition of jettisoning food, blankets, hammocks and even mattresses overboard to families along the river. It seemed to be as exciting to people on the boat as to the kids below. At one point it there were so many people buying packages of potato chips to throw overboard that I think the snack bar must have run out.











The scenes of kids and families on the river were fantastic. Many homes as well as the extraordinary amount of churches and sawmills were built on stilts along the edge of the river. It was an interesting life with smaller boats chugging down the river along side small children paddling in dugout canoes.


































I learned that the art of hammock placement can be tricky. I arrived to the boat late so many of the best spots were already taken and I wasn't sure how much squeezing in was Kosher. I later learned that you could sleep nearly on top of or below another person and it was completely acceptable. I took me a little while to find a nice spot, but eventually I found a comfortable, and temporarily roomy, spot on the lower deck towards the front of the boat. I was an obvious rookie tying up my hammock, but being in Brazil I soon had plenty of help. You can see the original hammock placement in the second photo. Mine was the blue, red, and yellow hammock.

All was well and fairly roomy until we came back to Belem and took on a few more passengers; the largest of which managed to wedge his hammock right next to mine. It was an interesting night sharing my hammock with my friend Coimbra and sleeping wedged between the big man and my other neighbor! The next day I saw my two good spirited neighbors in their hammocks and had to take photo of the whole mess. Too funny.







We only stopped in two ports to pick up and drop off people. Our other “stops” were actually on the river tied up to other boats or quick stops tied up to smaller boats along shallow docks. Most of the cargo unloaded consisted of generators and sacks of grain.











One full day later after leaving Belem the second time there was a beautiful sunset over the Amazon and an hour later we made it to Port Santana near Macapa.





From the port the next objective was to get to the border with French Guyana. There were six of us going to French Guyana so we were able to arrange a four wheel drive truck to drive us directly to the only border town connecting the two countries, Oiepoque. Seven hours later driving through the middle of the night on a terrible road we were in the unexceptional town of Oiepoque right across the river from French Guyana.




Boat passing at night