Amazonian River Travel

The next day in Iquitos, I decided to go to the Belem market, a huge market filled with stalls selling anything and everything you can imagine. There was turtle meat, capibara legs, crocodile legs, huge snails, chicken, many different types of fish, all sorts of medicinal herbs, hardware, local handmade crafts, animal pelts, all sorts of fruits, icecream, prepared food, and I even saw a stand selling live animals! This stand had several different types of monkys, birds, and it also had two kinkachoos. I was SO close to walking away with about five monkeys. I felt so bad for them. The vendors didn´t handle them with too much care, and they were kept in tiny cages and boxes. After the market, I went to a place called the ´Serpentario´ via a collectivo in boat form. It was really cool. This place had a bunch of animals and I got to handle all of them. There were numerous types of monkeys, HUGE anacondas, something called an ancient turtle, sloths, and a capibara (the largest rodent on the planet, it is basically just a giant guinea pig). So, I left Iquitos and caught a 9 or 10 hour speed boat to the triple frontier between Brazil, Columbia, and Peru. It was an interesting but for the most part unenjoyable ride. The night before, I woke up and got really sick from food poisoning. Then, right as I was ready to fall back asleep like a brick, I checked the time and saw it was time to pack my bags and head over to the dock! It was not exactly a nice wake up call. I caught my boat no problem, and wanting a nice view of the river, chose the seat in the very front of the boat. Bad choice. I got slammed up and down for the first two hours. Not only this, my seat was right next to the door that was at a 45 degree angle, and I got quite wet from water spraying up on the boat and dripping down through the cracks at the sides of the door. I got my exit stamps no problem, and got to Leticia, Columbia at around 6. Leticia was a pretty cool place, but I didn´t spend much time there. The next day, I left Leticia and went to Tabatinga, a town in Brazil within walking distance of Leticia. Cool thing is, the first time I entered Brazil I did it entirely by foot! In Tabatinga, I found the cargo boat I would be taking to Manaus, Brazil. The boat wouldn´t leave for two more days, but I bought my ticket and strung up my hammock and slept there because it was free. I didn´t do too much over the next two days. I was still feeling slightly drained from the food poisoning, so I took it easy.The night before the boat left, I experienced a true Amazonian storm. It started pouring rain, and did not let up for a couple hours. The thunder and lighting was crazy, and I heard two consecutive blasts of thunder that were definitely the loudest I´ve heard in my life. The four day boatride was a crazy experience. I was in my hammock in a big, open floor that was absolutely packed with people doing the same thing. I had been expecting small portions of boring food, but surprisingly, the food was really good. My typical day on the boat consisted of Portuguesse practice, reading, chatting, writing in my journal, and Capoeira. Capoeira is a Brazillian martial art/dance, and I met a Columbian guy named Alex who is travelling throughout Brazil to train in Capoeira. Every day, he, an 11 year old kid named John, and I would go to the top deck in the morning and in the night and have some fun. I was by far the worst one there, and both of them took time to teach me some of the basics. I also met several other interesting characters. There was Lloyd, a 30 year old Australian guy travelling with his surfboard who works in consulting under half of the time and travels the other half. Another guy was Dustin, a 25 year old guy from California that just got his Masters degree in teaching and is taking some time off to travel. Another nice guy was Keneji, a Brazillian guy who is in the army. Not only did he tell me some crazy army stories, he insisted upon giving me a pair of his military issue camoflage pants. Yesterday, we arrived in Manaus around 8:30, and I decided to sleep on the boat one more night to yet again avoid paying for a room at a hostel. I haven´t yet seen much of the city because once again I´ve been sick, but tomrrow I will definitely get out and see some of the sights!