Back in Brasil

Boa Vista is the last big city on this North/South route that leads to Venezuela. Had we been able to get through the Venezuela/Colombia border we would be turning North and going to St. Elena in the morning and from there to Angel Falls. As the border is still closed we turn South and head towards Manaus.

This is the typical lobby parking process.

Manaus is on the south end along Amazon river and is one of the largest Port cities in the region. Between the two there is not much for population, there is however a very large nature reserve area and the city of Presidente Figueiro. Pres Fig seems to be a resort type town where people go to take jungle tours and swim in the rivers around town. Other than the friendly drunk guy at the gas station there is not much else for us in Pres. Fed.

Some nasty looking clouds.

A unique dining experience at the bus station, where there are six small kitchens and a bunch of picnic tables, find a spot to sit and the corresponding waitress gives a checklist menu to fill out. Then she collects the menu and shortly thereafter brings out the food. Then take the menu to whatever kitched she too it to where there is a cashier. Well that is how it is supposed to work, it is much easier to write about it after we learned the system. Initially we walked up to the counter and the cahier pulled one of the menu’s from a pile and circles something and pointed at the total. $R39. Then the arm flap and we sat down at a table. Then the waitress came over and looked more confused than we did because we had a filled out and paid for menu/bill. She smiled and walked away, followed by the cashier coming to the table and giving us back our money and taking the bill. Now, we can start over, the waitress comes over like she has never seen us before and the proper system is implemented. This process would not be complete without the drunk guy from the gas station visiting tables and asking for food, which he shared with a stray dog. Even the drunks are friendly here.

Nothing makes a scene more than two bigger, louder bikes pulling out of a hotel and into a crowd of people. Our hotel is across the street from the bus depot restaurant which is full of morning customers. We stand out at the best of times but moments like this garner more attention that usual. Every head in the restaurant turned when we started our bikes and rode away, then it was like we were never there and they carried on with their routine.

We made our way South to Manaus in the hopes arranging our boat passage to Porto Velho for Tuesday. There is scattered info online about the boats and prices and who to trust. We had been corresponding with Amazing Jungle Tours in the past few days and they seemed to have good reviews online. We found a hotel close to the dock in Old Town and on our way back from parking the bikes were approached by a overly friendly guy named Max, Mad Max as he called himself, he and his brother Armstrong run a tour company together and is eager to help. He points us back to our hotel and not surprisingly within an hour there is a call to our room that Armstrong is in the lobby. This is when the Spidey senses start to tingle. We understand that they have to hussle for business but we never mentioned what we were doing in Manaus. Armstrong was very personable and guaranteed that we could book a suite on the boat with a/c, one big bed, a beer fridge, and ensuite bathroom, all for the low price of R$2900 for the room and two bikes. All our research indicated that the bikes should be less than R$600 and the cabin at about R$1200. This left a lot of mark-up, and he seemed a little to eager. We told him to wait as we were talking with a different company already. Leonardo at Amazing Jungle Tours promised all the same stuff for R$1900, that seemed more reasonable so we did some final negotiating and committed to Leo. The next morning he was at the hotel a bit earlier than scheduled an took us and our bikes to the dock where we secured our passage and bike shipment. The south American factor had to kick in at some point so we were a bit disappointed when he told us the a/c suite was not available and we would have to take the Camarote cabina, basically bunk-beds in a closet with a locking door. I was a bit vocal at this point as I knew how hot it was on the first boat and sleeping is nearly impossible without a/c. He apologized profusely and blamed it on the Brazilians not doing business the same as in North America. Everything is first come first serve, even with reservations. It took a few minutes to calm down then realized it was still better than hammock class. Leo reduced the price accordingly and gave us the key to our cabina. We off loaded the luggage from the bikes and put the bikes onboard. Then back to the hotel in the hopes of getting our riding gear laundered today.

The river boat loading process. None of these are ours.

So four hours after dropping off our riding gear the front desk clerk says that the laundry machine is broken and they cannot wash our stuff. I promptly told him to use an outside laundry service instead of the hotel machine, to which he responded he would try but it may be cheaper. Okay, cheaper is good when talking about laundry. Much to our delight it came back the next morning smelling of cleanliness instead of stinky tourist hockey bags.

Now we had some time to walk around the town and snoop. We needed to buy some snacks for the 5 day boat ride and it was recommended t also uy some fruits and bread. Brazilians love bread. We also needed a bit of silicone to seal Brenda’s dash, I planned to do this while on the boat as 5 days is a lot of downtime. We also decided to buy a hammock because the room was to small to sit in and we would need a place to relax. After that it was soft serve ice cream and popcorn treats, then onto the boat the next day. Tuesday Jan 5th, 2016 2:00pm we board the Paulo Moriero. Next stop Porto Velho.