Time to catch a boat.

Belem, here we come. This is where the adventure starts for this part of the journey. We are to catch a ferry/boat in Belem that takes us to Macapa, 24 hours across the Amazon and Para Rivers. But first we have to find it, Belem turns out to be much larger than anticipated and that means lots of traffic. Light to light driving is not fun in 35C weather, wearing full riding gear. We try to make like the locals and split lanes but at times our bikes don’t fit and we just cause a traffic jam for the local bikes. A couple of those and a bump or two from a car and we decide to sweat it out in the lane instead of risk an accident. The GPS shows a pretty good route to the docks and after a bit of swearing, I mean sweating, we pull off into a parking lot along the waterfront to get our bearings. We are quickly approached by a friendly gentleman trying to sell us passage on a boat.

I tell him we are looking for the Almirante do Mar/Macapa, and he points to the office across the boulevard. The office sign is Macapazon Tours. So after a quick discussion I go with the guy and negotiate passage for us and the bikes. I don’t like to take the first offer before shopping around but this place is a zoo and it is very hot. 

What negotiations look like and feel like.

The numbers are negotiated and the deal is done, then the lady in the office writes an address or two on the ticket and says “Navio Embarko” and points at the addresses. We had written a few notes back and forth and it was decided that we would load the bikes at 3pm this afternoon, then we would stay onboard over night and the boat would leave at 10:30am the next day. This was sounding ok, to us as we did not have to rent a hotel room and we would stay close to the bikes. So game on, lets try to find the boat amoungst one of the largest port cities in Brasil. Oh, and now it is raining to boot.

The white boat is the one we need.

And we are onboard.

We did cheat a bit with some GPS co-ordinates that we downloaded last night at the truckstop. Thankfully we did that because the address on the ticket was useless due to lack of road signs plus the fact that this place is a zoo and now it is raining, but good thing it is still 35°C. We bump along through traffic and past the Mercado, which is nice to see but the fish market was a bit ripe. Then we start making a bee line to the coordinates. The first dock is pretty close, we just need to be on the other side of the building, so back out into the street and around the block and up to the second dock. Success, we see the boat, but it is on the other side of a similar sized boat that is being overhauled. I get off the bike and walk over to see if I can find the Captain or a crew member. I find a few guys welding on the project boat and by the time I get back to the bike, about 50ft, there is a weathered looking dude in shorts and flip-flops there to greet me. I say, Embarko Almirante, and he turns and yells something unrecognizable and then walks towards the boats motioning for us to follow. I push my bike along behind him and as you would guess he pull a plank from somewhere and lays it from the dock into the project boat and points “that way”. Fairly universal language what needs to happen. The plank is about 12 inches wide but only about 1” thick, I bounced on it quickly and it seemed very strong for its dimensions. When in Rome. I grabbed by bike and wheeled it across the plank into the project boat where the welder stopped to check out the action of this big bike rolling through his boat and off the other side into the Almirante. Then repeat the process with Brenda’s bike and we are “embarked”. Well wasn’t that easy.

After that the Chief Steward gave us our cabin key and we got settled into the little cabin. This of course is supposed to be air conditioned and with a private bath, all this would be in order if the ship’s engines are running, not so much with the engines off tied to the dock. So, the room was very hot but the water in the bathroom did work so it was not a total loss.

Not very glamorous accomodations.

Due to the location of the dock, we were not in the nicest area of town. This is not like a cruise ship that anchors on a big pier and there are vendors and such waiting for the flood of passengers to come off the boat. We are anchored in a shipyard, where the most exciting thing is watching people fix boats and such. There is a friendly porter fella that we later learn is named Martins, he escorts us through the streets in the area to a local eatery where we can get some food. He makes a big fuss with the owner and chef who is sitting outside the restaurant in a plastic chair, with no shirt on. Mr. Chef did put on a shirt before going into the kitchen which we considered a very good thing, even better would have been a reasonably clean shirt. 

We wait and watch as our food is being prepared and within a few minutes we are presented with a breakfast sized plate of chicken and another with rice, spaghetti, and fried beans. Everything was very tasty and the chef’s son came along when we were finished and said “Thank You”, he learned to speak English in school.  Martins re-emerged from the conversation he was having with some other locals and escorted back to the boat, or at least where the boat was. This made us a little nervous, then we laughed that you could not have planned this any better. We leave all our stuff on the boat, go for supper, and the boat disappears. After a few minutes wait, we see the boat chugging back to the pier. They tie off on the outside of two other boats, making it nearly impossible for us to load the bikes if we had not done it earlier. We decide to stay on the boat for the rest of the night, just in case it decides to go for another trip somewhere with our stuff.

Storm brewing over the city.