After five days of waiting in Manaus today was the day of departure, scheduled for 12:00 hours. My first night on the Voyager V in my new hammock was acceptable but I would have to do some necessary adjustments to improve the stability and the comfort and I would probably need help from a more frequent user. Already early in the morning while I was still sleeping more families had arrived and the passenger deck looked 100% full to me, hammocks everywhere. Loading of the ship had started with sunrise and the approximately twenty carriers just from Voyager V were busy bringing cargo from the trucks to the different parts of the boat. I went to the bus stop “city center / port” and the plenty of snack stands to have a Maracuja juice and to withdraw more money. Although breakfast, lunch and dinner were included in the price I wanted to have enough money with me while we are travelling.

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The market stands in the port and the public market were all open and busy and I looked for a small bag for my waste to keep my documents, credit cards and money separate from the backpack. I was hoping to leave the backpack in a secure place or in good hands now during the boat tour and in the future while I would be doing sightseeing in a city or in a National Park. I had to think different now and get used to a new way of travelling. I was now without my old friend the car but instead with my new friend the backpack. I walked to the old historic port area and watched the impressive Amazon River Cruiser, the only ship that did not load any cargo but only passengers.

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I watched the trash collector boat with an excavator on board cleaning the river from an unbelievable amount of trash that was floating towards the port area and had created an ugly hill of plastic bottles, paper, clothes, tires, toilet seats and thousand other things that people had thrown into the river just around the corner here in Manaus or thousand kilometers up the stream in a small indigenous village. The inhabitants along the Amazon River had very little understanding of an ecological friendly behavior. The Amazon River was bathroom, toilet and trash bin at the same time.

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We still had plenty of time before departure, so I walked up and down the pier to have a second and closer look at all the different types of boats and all the different activities related to arrival and departure. I was impressed by the amount of cargo and the weight of the cargo that the carriers were carrying on their shoulders. I was impressed as well on the other hand with smaller and lighter cargo the carriers created a human chain from the truck to the boat and the cargo was flying from one carrier to the other until it reached its final destination somewhere in the lower decks inside the boat.

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We had passed lunchtime and were running a little late but somehow even I could feel that departure was close, the cargo delivery had slowed down and the activity around the commando bridge had increased. Just one more hour and we actually left the port, arrived at “the meeting of the rivers” where the black water from the River Rio Negro meets the brown water from the River Solimoes and the Voyager V turned into the River Solimoes and headed west towards Tabatinga.

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We needed a full hour to leave the metropolitan area of Manaus behind and arrive in the countryside, the Amazon rainforest, the jungle. Another hour and the first dinner was ready and served; chicken soup with pasta, potatoes, carrots and chicken of course. Another two more hours and it was hammock time.

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For a small understanding of the days travel, I have included a Google Earth map. The red pins mark the locations I have stopped and taken pictures. At the bottom of the page you will find a link for all the pictures I have taken. The link will open in a Picasa album. At the top left of this Picasa album you will find the button for a Slideshow.

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