Tuesday morning into Wednesday middle...

We've just woken up, there's a whole raggle taggle group of us and we spent the night in the main square of this lovely little town we've arrived at, Alter do Chao, on the banks of the Tapajos, a huge Amazon tributary.

Since I last wrote I've seen loads of river dolphons, including shiny pink tummies, which really suprised me- I had thought river dolphons were really rare with no chance of seeing them but maybe that's the Yangtzee sort.

And alright I know we're in the Amazon and everything but I never expected to see actual alligators! Me and Ash were just chatting about mistaking logs for crocodiles when we saw a great big spiny looking log dissappear with a great big splash, you could tell it was huge just by the amount of water swirls it made.

Then we saw another sinister looking head, you could just see it's dark little eyes eyeing up this huge noisy intruder to it's dark watery home, before dipping back under to continue its mysterious business.



Only a minute after seeing those enormous reptilian beasties, we went past a tiny aldeia, with kids splashing around in the river at the bottom of their little jetties. I felt a bit sick but just hoped none of them went near each other!



While I was off writing a little letter for mum at the back of the boat and chatting to a drunken friendly brazilian (the one who brought my spider) the others saw a big black snake, 1-2metres long, with an orange tummy. Apparently it reared a good 1/2 a metre out of the water up against the side of the boat... I wonder what it was trying to do! I hate to imagine the chaos that would have ensued if ti had got onto the packed out bottom deck with all those people!



The other exciting thing I saw was some fishing eagles and then 2 enormous black and white birds, they looked like turkeys till they took off then they were more like eagles.



Anyway, after passing the time with music, massages, eating, cards (thank you Rhiannon!) and general lounging aroundwe finally arrived at the town of Santarem where the clear watered Tapajos fans into the thick muddy Amazon.



Here after replacing my magic dissappearing shoes and internetting briefly, we caught a bus with Paul and Richard who you already know, Ariel, Cristian and Javier the Argentinian musicians, and Danny the Mank (Isle of Man) version of Bobbi Jeelan... (Complete with Freddie the funny Amazonian artesan we had every single musician on the boat with us :) ) to the nearby village of Alter do Chao- High Ground as far as we can tell!



The ground is covered in a thick carpet of candy pink fluff from these flowery trees, with a healthy spattering of juicy mangoes which replace themselves faster than 9 of us can gather and munch them down!



Looking out overthe dark expanse of the Tapajos you can just make out the top halfs of a line of beach huts & bars & trees, drowned now until June or so when the wet season starts to get tired out.



Well after chatting to a few friends of Freddies who we met, and laughing at the parrot shaped phone box (we took a picture of Danny 'chatting up a bird') the weather turned & gave us a taste of a proper Amazonian storm- we all bundled into this hut think like a band stand in the main praça in the town centre, with our impressive heap of colourful baggage- consisting of great rucksacks with hammocks, boots, ukeleles, guitars, mozzie nets, towels, displays of jewellry made of wire, string, feathers and seeds; and settled down to play some music and wait for the rain to pass.



As the rain got heavier and heavier though , up to Glade '07 standards and possibly beyond, it wasn't long before a few hammocks were strung up for comfort, then the avocado, crackers and pimenta sauce were brought out to keep the wolf from the door, and hte cachaça lime and sugar for tasty caiprinhas followed soon afterwards.



By now of course most of our bags were more or less unpacked so we gave in and committed ourselvwes to night there.

We must have been a funny sight all brushing our teeth in the bandstand in teh main square!



I fell asleep slowly and happily to a mix of Buena Vista Social Club, Jackson Frank and Leonard Cohen's Suzanne, thinking of mum as Leonard Cohen always makes me :) ....



In the morning after stuffing our faces with fresh mangoes and getting laughed at by many, and asked ever-so-nicely to move on by 1 or 2, we headed to the Pousada Por-Do-Sol (sunset hostel) where we heard there was a hut we can string up our hammocks in, and a kitchen we can use, all for about 4pounds a night :)



The Argentinians and Freddie are sleeping on the beach because they've got tents- but it's only 1 minute away so it's all part of home for now :)

By now I'm well into the Wednesday bit of this entry... after getting distracted from yesterdays scribbling me, Richard & Paul hired kayaks (although we've spent so much time in hammocks we kept on calling the kayaks hammocks!) I managed to haggle the bloke down to 2 reais an hour, then we went off to explore the drowned beach village, then along the forested coast (o.k i mean riverbank) to this grat big headland.

When we got there I ealised there was moer water the other side of the vegetation we could see, so I pushed my way through and found this tranquilo lagoon the other side, fringed by rainforest trees & lianas draping into the still water. I quietly went for a peek around the edges - it was very different being by myself, I could hardly stop thinking about alligators and snakes.

At one point I could have sworn I heard something eating something in the undergrowth; I battled with my sensible side as images of big cats and big old lizards accompanied the chewing and crunching sounds in my head. After nearly rowing away I realised I'd never forgive myself and crept back, heart pounding, to have a look, wondering how fast alligators actually are comparedwith aninexperienced kayakist, and how well jaguars can swim.

It was just the sound the little wavelets made though, as they splished into a funny shaped hole in a submerged tree trunk. Sorry no stroy there!

I laughed at myself a bit rthen paddled on into the lagoon, I just had to see the other side before going back to meet the boys...

When I got closer though I could tell it was possible to carry on going through some more vegetation, so of course I did, and when I broke through and couldn't see the other side of the water I knew I was back in the main river so I quickly paddled all the way round the headland / island to find Paul & Richard just where I left them.

We paddled back, the boys stopping at the little bar on the outra lado for um poco cerveja, I went back to den where Ash was lying in one of the Argentinians hammocks looking very chilled.

We went and got a muito gostoso ice cream, (Açai and tapioca flavours!) & used the internet- had a look at Dad's Cuba pictures! They aer really good, it looks like you had a great time my loves.
A lovely lady called Agnes told us the name of that great big green ball fruit Fiona was looking at 5 minutes before I saw the picture of yours, but I'm sorry I forgot. You can't eat it but some people use the hard shell inside thwe green bit for making things out of :)
I tried Skype to call mum but no matter what I twiddled she was just saying, Hello?... Hello?... :(

I also had a lovely letter off Anne, my godmother which was really nice :)
By the time I'd finished though it was getting dark, so I went and got some tasty veg, cheese etc for the barbecue on the beach we're planning for tonight.

By the time we'd got home & started cooking though I felt really sick, so while the others went down to the riverside to eat round the fire and play music, I was feeling green in my hammock now repositioned to be closest to the toilet. Very annoying, but one good thing was when I got up to lather myself in mozzie reppellent (not till after my hands and face were covered in bumps from one really persistent little bugger though) there was a little frog sitting on the wall, lookng at me with it's big black beady eyes. It wasn't bright green or anything, but it was beautiful, and it made me loads happier to know it was there :)

Even better, when I woke up to the sound of stereo satisfied and slightly hungover snoring, there was a hummingbird frittering around the hut!