Tabatinga to Manaus, conclusion

At one point around 8pm one night we came to an abrupt halt, which did not seem to be normal behavior for a ship. We quickly found out we were stuck. I asked the bartender how long we would be stuck for, and he shrugged as if to say, “who knows”. He didn’t seem too worried about it, so we sat back and watched as the boat handlers attempted to shake her free somehow. The most surprising part of the episode came when they shined the spotlight on the shore and the forest was only a hundred meters or so away on either side. Being accustomed to seeing the boat in the middle of a very large river, it was strange to be in such a tight channel and see the forest right there in front of us in the dark. At any rate, after about 20 minutes they shook her free somehow, and off we went.

After about 66 hours on board we arrived in Manaus, right on time at 6 am. All in all, a very pleasant trip down the river, made even better by the great company of the other travelers. The only negative for the whole three days came at the very end, when one of my fellow travelers awoke to find his netbook gone. He had a four digit lock that connected into the computer, but somehow the thief had managed to open it in the night and abscond with it. We quickly got together to try to figure out a way to retrieve it before everyone disembarked, but there was really no way, and we had no good suspects as it really could have been any one of 50 people nearby. Using that laptop in front of the other travelers during the journey was probably not the best idea, but then, you buy things to use them, not to be owned by them and watch them every moment of every day. I have had enough things stolen from me over the years that I tend to let my worry over my things bother me a little more than a probably should, which is something that I mitigate by not bringing much of anything of value with me on trips, although this trip (and especially this blog) would be better if I had my laptop with me, as wi-fi is fairly ubiquitous these days, even down here.