I took a high-speed tourist boat from Iquitos down the Amazon to the Brazil border in an 8 hour trip. I crossed the border from Santa Rosa, Peru, to Tabatinga, Brazil, by boat. Dealt with passport control, spent 1 night in the miserably poor and dirty town of Tabatinga. The next day I learned that the next high-speed tourist boat to Manaus (a 2 day trip) wouldn't depart for 5 days and that the next flight (which would be much more expensive), wouldn't leave till after that. The much slower passenger ferry would leave sooner but arrive later.
So I went to Tabatinga's more affluent sister city, Leticia, Colombia (no border formalities), and relaxed in a nicer hotel to wait for the high-speed boat.
The boat ride is disappointing, in that one doesn't see much of river life, other than locals commuting or fishing in motorized dug-outs and the occasional ferry. Though there is the option to get off a at port and catch a later boat.
The Amazon is very wide. (I read that there are sections so wide one cannot see both shores simultaneously due to the earth's curvature.) However, one can't appreciate its true breadth along this route because there are many islands along its course. And the boat doesn't get close enough to see what's occurring on the shore, except when briefly docking at towns.
Above: A typical view while boating down the Amazon.
The most interesting part of the trip was when the Brazilian border authorities questioned each of us and searched our boat and belongings as we neared Manaus. They didn't find anything interesting. It was a standard protocol that they were doing with all the boats.
Right: Manaus, a welcome sight. A city of 2 million on the western edge of most of the deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon Basin. Aside from its opera house (below, built when Manaus was the "Paris of the jungle" during the rubber boom of the 1800s), the city itself offers very little of interest to tourists. It is, however, the only place where I had delicious all-you-can-eat Brazilian barbecue (at Charruscaria Buffalo, near port -- no, buffalo wasn't on the menu).
Manaus is a launching point for excursions into the jungle. I read and heard from tourists that those to the south up the Madeira River are more exciting because that area is less populated than the north and it is easier to see wildlife. As I explained earlier, precipitation in Manu Cloud Forest finds its way to the Madeira before joining the Amazon.
Right: My hotel room during my 5 day stay in Manaus, while awaiting my flight to Rio. Easily the worst private room I've ever had. The ceiling was taller than the room was long. Shared bathroom outside.
Right: Manaus is most famous for the "Meeting of the Waters", where the dark waters of the Rio Negro from the north meet with the chocolate-milk waters of the Amazon a few miles east of the city. I spent $75 to hire a private taxi and boat to go to the spot because I didn't have enough time to join a tour before my flight to Rio de Janeiro. A couple pink river dolphins were swimming around this boat and ours. Dipping your hand into the water while passing from the black to the brown water is fun, because the brown water is much cooler.
The Meeting of the Waters, as seen from my airplane window on my departure for Rio. The waters of the Negro and the Amazon remain visually distinct for 11 km (6.5 miles) downstream of their intersection. Their merger is so gradual because the Negro has many more tannins, which make it darker, more acidic, and warmer, and the Amazon is very silty. So pH, temperature, and sedimentation gradients all contribute to maintain the rivers' differentiation. The Negro's low pH also reduces mosquito populations and the incidence of malaria in its watershed.
What Peruvians call the Amazon (from Nauta, Peru, eastward), Brazilians call the Solimoes. Brazilians call it the Solimoes until its union with the Negro, after which they call it the Amazon.
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An intriguing side-trip that I was considering but ran out of time to see, involves taking a bus or flight north from Manaus to Boa Vista, Brazil, near the border with Venezuela. After crossing the border into Venezuela, you reach Santa Elena de Uairen, which you use as a base for travels to Angel Falls and to Roraima, the highest tepui in the Gran Sabana.
Angel Falls is the world's tallest waterfall, over 3,200 ft, best seen in the wet season (though clouds can obscure the view), versus dry season, when the falls can diminish to a trickle.
Typically, tourists hike into the base, so the lower pic is more likely what one would see. Perhaps the view in the higher pic can be seen if flying there from Santa Elena.Angel Falls plunges from the top of a tepui, one of many plateaus rising from the Venezuelan jungle, formed by erosion.
Roraima tepui, elevation 9,200 ft. Because of tepuis' isolation, they possess many unique flora and fauna. Roraima was the inspiration for Arthur Conan Doyle's "Lost World". One can climb Roraima (guide required) on a 5 day trek, no technical skill needed, but hiring porters does make it easier.Adding Angel Falls and Roraima tepui to my trip probably would have required 10 days. Easy and worthy enough to do on a separate trip to Venezuela some day.
