Brazilian upgrade...

My amazing bed´s behind Suleyka´s

In the same week I hear Brazil´s economy has outgrown that of the UK, I catch the boat from the border to it´s jungle heart, Manaus.  The boat is a vast improvement on the one during the Peruvian leg of the journey.  A large mess, fully equipped galley, showers (using river water), cleanish toilets and even a little shop selling beers and snacks.  A veritable heaven, or at least it would be if I hadn´t left my hammock in the hotel.  In my rush to leave, the receptionist, Samuel, inherited my treasured hammock and I faced the next three nights on the floor.

The boat was bigger and more spacious.  The majority of passengers were Brazilian but there is an increase in the tourist presence, my Peruvian friends to start with.  In addition people are travelling from Colombia, Argentina, Slovenia and France.  Throughout the journey we would experience grey skies and intermittent heavy showers.  Still, warm all the way!  At night the boat uses a huge spotlight mounted at on the bow of the ship.  It resembles a giant version of the cruiser in ´Apocalypse Now´.  The beam picked out fluvial debris whilst music blasted out at the rear.  All we were missing was the puppy, the acid and the explosions.

Dinner looked incredible.  The usual rice, pasta and beans but with some mince that looked really lean and tasty.  I piled it high only to find, when I tucked in, it was at least 20% pure gristle.  Rather than masticating it was more like compressing the rubber ´meat´ before it would cause my jaw to spring open again.  However, wasting food is against my religion and, after looking around at the locals chowing down, I decided to force the extra-large portion down my gullet.  A welcome addition was a substance that looked like granola but was incredibly hard in texture.  When added to the mince these little pellets prevented the jaws from closing, thereby avoiding the unpleasant texture of the meat.  Problem solved.  After half an hour wishing my eyes were smaller than my belly, I moved on to the top deck which becomes a pretty good bar every evening, a chance to hang out with the locals as the Amazon slips by in the night.