kellita the señorita the ibby dibby dow: Boat Journeys

I traveled to the jungle mainly to travel via boat on the Amazon River from Iquitos in Peru to Leticia in Colombia. There wasn't a lot of information to be found about it on the internet, and therefore needed some guidance upon arrival to Iquitos.

I took a mototaxi to the port where all the boats are docked on Sunday to see about the journey. I talked to two workers from different boats who gave me prices and rough details about the journey. They told me I would need to show up around 3pm the day of my journey to hang my hammock in the cargo area and claim my spot. I was told there would be around 150-250 passengers vying for hammock space and for that reason it was so important to get in early. The boat would leave whatever day around 7pm. The price was $80 soles or US$30 and the trip would take approximately 36 hours. I just needed to decide which day to leave.

Taking stock of my money situation, I realized I didn't have the money to do jungle tours and get to Colombia by boat, and because I had pretty much thrown my budget by the wayside, it was time to pick and choose. So I decided to take a boat the next day. My roommate Henrik was also taking a boat journey, so we traveled to the docks together even though he had a different destination. We hailed a mototaxi in the pissing rain and though Henrik had told me a little about his previous boat journeys, nothing could have prepared me for the site that awaited us upon arrival.

As we pulled into the fenced-in area, no less than 20 men surrounded our mototaxi shouting names of different boats, prices, and options. It was super-overwhelming and I felt thankful that I had previously visited said boats and selected travel upon The Gran Diego. As we tried to collect our belongings, say our good-byes, and make moves toward the boats, we were bombarded. It was maddening. The men were yelling out their best offers and I was yelling for them to leave us be and that we didn't need to be sold anything that everything was set. They didn't care. It was hysterical, and Henrik was looking at me a bit panicked, and asked if I wanted him to accompany me to my boat. I think he though I was losing my head. Probably because I was just standing in the middle of all these men in 3 inches of mud tipping my head back and laughing like a mad woman, yelling that I didn't need their help. We got caught up in the hustle and bustle, and rushedly bid each other adieu before being swept away by the masses. I entered The Gran Diego and hung my new hammock near the back of the boat. And when I say I hung the hammock I mean a nice young man hung it for me as he knew the tricks to hang it well to prevent me from falling out of it.

Then I thought about how I needed to exit the boat to buy some snacks, toilet paper and other miscellaneous provisions. (The ticket included breakfast, lunch and dinner on the full day of the journey) Just as I was about to exit to search for said provisions, the boat began to fill with random vendors selling almost everything you could imagine needing - flashlights, toilet paper, empanadas, sweets, huge bags of assorted breads (unnecessarily copious amounts of bread), toothbrushes, cakes, hammocks, clothes, you name it. So I just calmly and lazily swung in my hammock buying up everything.

Thank goodness I got there early because as was promised, the boat began to fill up quickly and hammocks were hung from every possible nook and cranny. At around 7:30, we pulled away from land, and visions of Titanic began to fill my head. I then removed those visions because we all know how that story ended. I climbed out of my hammock and watched the lights of the city grow dimmer and dimmer until we were surrounded by the starlit sky and the brown Amazon River. When I couldn't really see anything more due to the darkness, I climbed back into my hammock where I stayed for almost 36 hours straight reading, napping and eating. I made friends with several pre-teens, who, just like many people I've met recently asked why I was 30 with no children. More on that later.