6/19/2014 Onboard the Itaberaba to Manaus

Our first night on Itaberaba was quite interesting. First, there were the intense vibrations of the steel plates making up the walls and ceiling of our cabin. There were intervals when the vibrations lessened or disappeared, but not for long. Putting on his noise canceling headphones helped David survive the night sane. Our theory is that the drive shaft/propeller are out of balance, not a good thing on a four-day journey with no maintenance facilities on shore. The business manager on board told us the next day that the vibrations were due to the relatively light amount of cargo. What this means is a mystery to us.

During the night the boat stopped at 2-3 ports along the river, announcing its arrival and departure at each with loud blasts of its horn close above our cabin. Later during the day we were able to watch the loading and unloading of passengers and cargo at the towns of San Antonio do Ica and Tonantins, the latter during a torrential rain. We spent three hours at the former to "change the oil". Our stop was much shorter at Tonantins, where the dock facility consisted of a 300-foot fuel barge whose use for loading passengers and cargo would have broken all the safety laws at U.S. ports. Given the up to 30-40 ft. variations in the level of the Amazon during the year depending upon its depth and width at a particular location, most of the docks for larger boats consist of metal barges and other floating structures, with ad hoc access capability from the varying levels of the shore.

Our first breakfast consisted of hot dog rolls to which we added cold cuts and cheese, with yuca chunks on the side. There was a large thermos of coffee, but the coffee was sickeningly sweet, which we understand is common in Brazil. It looks like the food will not be the best, although the eating area was very clean.

At 1 pm, we saw Colombia win its World Cup match against the Ivory Coast on a flat screen HD TV in an open air lounge on the upper deck (where we were, but not the players) with about 50 raucous Colombians and others. The crowd went wild, with firecrackers thrown off the deck. Later we saw England lose to Uruguay. David was one of the few rooting for England and felt particularly bad for his English son-in-law Matt now that England has been eliminated.

The Amazon at this point, about a quarter of the way to Manaus, varies in width, but is usually 1-2 miles wide, although in places less than 1/4-mile wide. Frequently there are long, thin islands dividing the river into numerous channels. We generally stayed to the middle of the river to avoid the sandbars which appear when the water level declines. Not much wildlife viewing under these conditions, although we saw numerous grey and pink dolphins near the boat while docked at Tonantins. It definitely appears to us that the freshwater dolphins are not endangered species. The current is very slow. We are making about 10-12 knots, probably slower in the dark, which means about 1,200 miles on our four-day trip to Manaus. The color of the water is a medium brown resulting from the predominance of water from rivers carrying sediment down from the Andes of Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. Near Manaus we will see in a few days where the Rio Negro, or Black River, joins the brown Amazon in an interesting mixing of waters. More on this later.

It is only the beginning of the dry water season, so the river level is still high. We have read that in some places, mostly downriver, flooding of the adjacent low-lying areas extends miles inland from the main channel. Because of the islands and vegetation, it is impossible to see this.

According to the Brazilian government, we are not really on the Amazon River, but instead on the Solimoes River, with the accent on "mo", which to Brazilans runs between the Peruvian border and Manaus. Brazil defines the Amazon as not starting until near Manaus where the Solimoes joins with the Rio Negro. In contrast, Peruvians and probably the rest of the world consider the Amazon to start where the Maranon and Ucayali rivers join in Peru upstream from Iquitos near Nauta, where we were last week. Instead, Brazilians call this section the Maranon until it reaches the border. Whatever the names, most international geographers/cartographers consider the Amazon to start in the Andes near Cusco far to the south, making it the longest river in the world.

So far we remain in generally good health, except for David, who has a severe case of excessive verbiage, evidence of which you have read above. We are also both gradually going mad and have sworn before the captain of the Itaberaba, in lieu of a notary, never to travel together again, except possibly to Switzerland. Our relationship is now worse than that of Gonzalo Pizarro (Francisco Pizarro's brother) and Francisco de Orellana in 1541-42, when de Orellana was the first European to travel the length of the Amazon after he abandoned Pizarro in mid-trip. Will there be a reenactment? Stay tuned.