BELEM - SANTAREM (2 days, 3 nights by boat)

No words can express the grander, majesty or sheer size and wonder that is the Amazon river, nor will any experience ever come close to that of rocking to sleep in a hammock alongside 200 people on a boat.  People literally strung within inches of each other, staggered hammocks from floor to ceiling, bow to stern, a chaotic mess of limbs and string and colour. 
The noises and smells were overwhelming at first - a sensory overload, however, they became backdrop within the first 24 hours, and tangled rocking sleep soothing and peaceful.
We left Belem on Tuesday night and rolled down the Amazon in torrential rain and pyrotechnic lightening. It took a few goes to master the art of clambering in and out of a hammock without breaking a limb or standing on the person below. 
The scenery encountered on the trip was utterly amazing - never could I have imagined the variations in landscape, the houses on poles literally meters away from the boat as we sailed down tributaries...people living waterbound in the jungle will never cease to amaze me! From narrow tributaries to endless river where we couldnt see either side, dense jungle to flat marshland and swamp, cliffs and mountains to flat nothing...sky meeting river meeting jungle...for the first time in my life I was truly awe struck by the majesty that is nature.
I think the two most mind blowing sights for me were the hundreds (literally) of children (tiny children) rowing solo or in pairs up river and chasing the wake of the boat in an attempt to clamber on board to beg or sell Coconuts and bags of shrimps. Nimble toddler pirates...utterly breathtaking and nerve wracking to watch these tiny children brave the wake of our huge boat and with lightening speed lash onto the side of the boat and shimmy up to clamber on board all the while carrying bags of food to sell...(I manged to capture it all on film and got chatting - in my very broken Portugese - to the kids. They left me moved, inspired and filled with a new found sense of thrill and joy and appreciation for the way they live).
The further upriver we went, the more índigenous´the people became, I can quite honestly say, the people I saw are the most beautiful I have ever seen, and the more incredible the way they survive in such a watery environment.  Farm life (pigs, donkeys, buffalo and cows) literally up to their necks in water munching on what I can only describe as Amazonian grass, satellite dishes dangling precariously on thatched rooves all perched on poles, canoes tied afront and thick impenetrable jungle directly behind them...I stared in amazement (and shamelessly took hundreds of photos) as we sailed past. 
The last night onboard was the first without rain so we lay up deck watching the stars rocking lazily...nothing compared to such an experience - Realising the scope and infinity of the night sky, and our tiny selves afloat the huge river had me speechless and awestruck - I am indeed blessed to have experienced something so magical and so great.

We will spend the next few days in Santarem exploring, going on a jungle tour, going to a couple of river side villages, visiting the wondrous Altar Du Chao (Carribbean of the Amazon) and sailing up tributaries into more dense jungle to see untouched Amazonian Wildlife.

Love to you all!
PS at this stage uploading photos is proving to be difficult and we have over 3000 now so I will do my best to get some up asap.
xxx