4 days in a hammock

We are crossing the Amazon in a Barco. Its a boat for transporting cargo and people, but for the people there are no seats, instead on two levels you can hang a hammock from the roof, and that becomes, your seat, bed etc.

The air conditioning comes from the boat moving on the sleeping levels because the barco has no windows. It's open.

The ticket for this 4 day ride is US$50 each, but that includes all meals, and a hammock costs $10 on top. The food is basic, but OK. Rice and/or pasta with stew/chicken/ mince. All is fine with a helping of chilli sauce.

When I read about this trip, people complained about 3 things: 1 Heat 2 Not being able to sleep the 1st day 3. Petty crime. So far, we can't complain about any of those. Although the Amazon is hot and humid, during our travels in Asia and Africa, we had worse . To my surprise, sleeping in a hammock once you find a good position is easy, and knowing the risk of theft, we padlocked all our stuff and tied it down with camping rope. The boat company seems to take security pretty seriously anyway. Fingers crossed.

The ride through the Amazon is a steady flow of jungle on the river banks, the occasional house, and every five or six hours a village or a town. The river itself is wide in the rainy season, several hundred meters. The boat is often in the middle to take advantage of the current, but it's also close to the bank for certain periods. Sometimes, the route goes where the map shows land. It's not clear if this is an error in the map or that the river has changed course. Occasionally, we take shortcuts on rivers, and where these meet the Amazon is where the dolphins like to hang out. Seems everyone but me saw them this morning or this afternoon.

Footnote. The boat has a capacity of 417 passengers. I counted 83 hammocks. There are a handful of shared hammocks, so maybe 90 passengers, or 25% full. I'm not sure it would be nice with 4 x as many people.Read more