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My adventure began when two friends and I boarded P&O’s cruise liner Arcadia at Barbados in mid-January 2001 for the holiday of a lifetime. We had all cruised before, but never with such an intriguing itinerary. Having sailed at dusk, we spent the next afternoon on Trinidad before leaving port on our way to Brazil. For two days, we sailed round the coast of South America, longing to leave the Atlantic behind us. It was rather choppy and I was taking my pills.

We entered the mouth of the Amazon after dark on the fourth day by crossing “The Bar”. This is an area of shallow water like a sand-bank. The Amazon is an enormous river (its delta is 143 miles wide), yet there were only 4.5 feet of water beneath the keel at one point. As Arcadia is such a large ship (63,500 tons), there would be only a narrow channel deep enough for her to pass, throughout our thousand-mile journey upstream. Needless to say, we slowed down! The serenity of the river was welcome after the turbulence of the Atlantic.

I awoke to my first sight of the river. The first thing you notice is that the water is a very unusual chocolate-brown colour, caused by the reddish soil it carries downstream. The short bursts of torrential rain, which we experienced most days, stir up the mud. The red mud caked our shoes and stained anything it touched.

We crossed the Equator at 10.36 and at noon we were at anchor at Santana in Brazil, where we took on board two skilled Amazon pilots and several local officials to complete the immigration details. We watched all the activities from the deck with great interest. One of the pleasures of cruising for me is seeing how the ship is handled and managed. All day, every day, something interesting is happening. Whenever we docked, crowds gathered on deck to watch the ship being manoeuvred, or the anchor being dropped. The Captain always had an audience when he was on the flying bridge for the more delicate operations. Maintenance work seemed to go on round the clock. Whatever the weather, men with paintbrushes worked all hours touching up the varnish and the railings.

Some of the time we could see both banks of the river, even if in the distance, and it was fascinating just to sit on the deck and watch the scenery slide by. On this trip, the temperature was mostly in the high eighties. We were travelling through tropical rain forest so it rained for a short time almost every day. One minute the sun was shining and the next the rain was coming down in torrents. Sometimes, there was gentle rain. The amazing thing was that we never got soaked. Every time it rained, we were under cover!

My enduring memory will be of the very tall trees and palms growing along the banks of the Amazon. The deep green of their foliage contrasted beautifully with the brown river banks and water. In my notes, I read that these trees were mahogany, rubber, kapok and brazil nut. Mostly there was no sign of habitation. We were there at the start of the rainy season so, in a few weeks, the Amazon would begin to rise and flood the forest. If you watched Andes to Amazon, you will know all about this. Occasionally a clearing in the forest came into view, where there were a few wooden houses all built on stilts ready for the flood. Fishermen in canoes were seen nearby. There were black vultures circling the trees. We noticed huge moths and blue dragonflies sunning themselves on deck. During the night lots of beetles, bugs and crickets settled on the ship but I didn’t see one mosquito, which was very comforting.

On the sixth day, we had sailed 295 nautical miles from Santana and arrived at Santarem which is a large industrial town with a blue and white cathedral. Here, the Amazon is joined by a 15-mile-wide tributary called the Tapajos. As he prepared to bring Arcadia alongside the quay, the Captain came across a problem. A pile of timber (probably mahogany ready for export) was stacked up just where our gangway would reach. Within minutes, he had turned the ship right round so that we could disembark. We were going to set foot in Brazil at last.

There was gentle rain as the bus left the quay, taking us out of town to a small settlement in a jungle clearing. On arrival, we were taken on a short jungle trek to look at the trees and vegetation. Having seen them from a distance, we were now able to touch them. Then we were able to explore the village. The wooden huts had open sides and thatched roofs made from palm fronds.

The natives were pleased to show us how they lived. In spite of warnings from the others who thought I’d never get it off, I was brave enough to smear red dye on my face to ward off the creepy-crawlies, as we were shown! The people were self-sufficient, eating fish and manioc flour, which they process themselves. In one hut, a man was opening brazil nuts with his machete. I hadn’t realised that the individual nuts grow in groups inside one big shell a bit larger than a coconut. When he cut it open, there were twenty-two nuts tightly packed inside like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. At his feet was a small boy of about three, who was cutting up bits and pieces with his own knife. He was enchanting, as were all the children we met. We noticed that they were very placid compared with children at home. The simple lifestyle seemed to suit them. Pineapples, breadfruit, bananas and melon were some of the fruits we tasted. We were shown piranhas and catfish ready for the cooking-pot. Meanwhile Grandpa was sitting in his hammock watching us.

Before we left, we saw the collecting of latex from the rubber trees. The bus then took us to an old-fashioned rubber factory and on to the vegetable market near the cathedral in Santarem. Around here were the first shops we had seen for days and so the hunt was on to find postcards to send home. We were disappointed (but not really surprised) to find only faded cards with curled edges. The same thing happened at all our riverside stops. Amazonia is not geared-up for tourism. How refreshing!
Next day, we sailed up the deepest part of the Amazon for about 45 minutes to Alter Do Chao, a large village on the Tapajos River where the white sandy beach overlooks an idyllic turquoise lagoon. This is a popular retreat for residents of Santarem. The exotic shore looks almost out of place yet comes as a delightful surprise on arrival. We explored on foot and were greeted by children selling bead necklaces. (I discovered afterwards, that as only about a dozen ocean liners visit Amazonia each year, the children had a day off school to see us.) Some were carrying their pets and I gasped when I saw a girl with her sloth, which was about the size of a cat. It was clinging on to her chest with its long claws.

We walked along the tree-lined square with its array of hammocks and local crafts, past the cream-painted church towards the Centre for the Preservation of Indigenous Art Culture and Sciences. This is a very interesting museum, which was opened in 1992. It has magnificent displays of masks, ceremonial clothing and other artefacts from most of the tribes of the Brazilian Amazon Basin. We saw evidence of 87 tribes, many of which are now extinct. There was nothing dull here. I liked the two dancers in natural straw costumes, who looked like statues to begin with, then scared the life out of me when they leapt into action with a yell. During a short downpour, we bought eco-friendly souvenirs such as smooth wooden pots and boxes in the shop. As soon as it stopped raining, we walked to the lagoon and paddled, while nearby a woman and her child were doing the washing. The sun was now high in the sky and the pale sand was unbelievably hot so we made for the shade of a deserted beach hut and got out our water-bottles. It was peaceful and very beautiful.

All next day, we were sailing upstream to Manaus, our furthest point on the Amazon. I could see the river bank from my bed in the cabin. The tall trees with the graceful silver branches were Cecropia. There were also Ceiba (kapok) and rubber trees, as well as tall palms. White egrets showed up against the green. My little binoculars were useful on a trip like this. I joined a number of keen birdwatchers, some of whom had telescopes set up on deck. After the black clouds, down came the rain. Large insects like scorpions came to shelter on the deck. Then at 11.00am, we took on board two naval river pilots for the final stretch. We arrived at the floating dock at Manaus just after 6.00pm and we stayed there overnight and all next day. To reach here, we had turned north-west from the Amazon into the River Negro at the Encontro das Aguas (Meeting of the Waters), where the two rivers run side by side for several miles without mingling. Seeing the two colours of the different rivers was spectacular.

We had reached the furthest point of our journey and this was marked in a special way. So far, I haven’t mentioned that this cruise was ‘themed’ Classical Music. In addition to the usual onboard entertainment, we were fortunate to have Richard Baker and a team of fourteen first-class musicians with us throughout. These included four singers, a piano trio and John Lill, the pianist. Altogether twenty-six musical events were organised, including a quiz, talks and interviews as well as all sorts of concerts. That night at Manaus, six hundred and eighty-five of us attended a Gala Opera Night in the Teatro Amazonas. This beautiful Opera House (complete with chandeliers and cast-iron balconies) was built in 1896 from the riches of the rubber trade. This was a night to remember!

We had sailed about 1,000 miles from the Atlantic and had reached the confluence of the Amazon and its tributary, the River Negro. (At this point, the Amazon is called the Solimoes.) Manaus is a big, commercial city and the state capital of Amazonas, which itself is almost twelve times the size of England. From here, ferries travel up and down transporting people for days on end. We could see passengers’ hammocks on the open-sided decks as we passed these boats.

Next day, we left the ship on an all-day excursion by river-boat to Lake Januaury (correct spelling!) and Terra Nova Island. At first, we followed the two rivers and saw the colours running side by side. Carlos, our guide filled two glasses, one from each river, and asked us to test the temperature. The Solimoes was much warmer than the Negro.

After about an hour, we transferred to a motorised canoe to go deep into the igarapés, the flooded overgrown tributaries in the Nature Reserve. Each canoe held only ten people, so we had a marvellous view of the water and the wildlife. Egrets, cranes and vultures were all around. We saw huge blue, apricot and yellow butterflies as well as red and black dragon-flies. The sharper-eyed even had a glimpse of some pink dolphins. The large black and red moorhens stood out against the tall green grasses. It was very hot. On our slow, quiet journey, we saw men and boys fishing with nets. They came up close to show us the piranha they had caught. Carlos grabbed a stick and held it near a piranha’s mouth. Sure enough, the fish bit right through the stick! Children paddled their canoes alongside to show us their pet snakes and parrots. Leaving them behind, the canoe travelled very quietly so as not to disturb the wildlife.

Lunch was included on this trip and the canoe took us to a floating restaurant where we had a delicious buffet of regional dishes including piranha, manioc, pineapple, palm-fruit and baked bananas. Just outside the restaurant was a raised walkway, where we went to view the giant water-lilies Victoria Regia and the caymans swishing their tails just beneath. I think this was the hottest moment of the whole holiday.

We then returned to the riverboat for the hour’s ride to Terra Nova Island. On the way, a mighty storm blew up and we had to go below to shelter and to stabilise the boat. Five minutes before, we had been sunning ourselves on the top deck. The storm was much more frightening on this small craft than any experienced on Arcadia! There was torrential rain for twenty minutes.

It had stopped before we reached the island, but everywhere was very muddy. On landing, a new raised wooden walkway led us through sugar-cane and maize to a small village with six or seven thatched houses on stilts. There were some very pretty children here. One little girl had her parakeet to show us. The free-range hens had very long legs and rather strange elongated necks - adapted for the floods, I couldn’t help thinking. Carlos took us round the village while his assistant, Francisco, made a bird out of a palm leaf, origami-style, for me to hang in my cabin. We saw cocoa pods growing amongst the rubber trees. Tomatoes, melons and marrows grew next to the tropical shrubs. This was the most delightful spot. With very muddy shoes, we went back to the boat.

The Captain turned Arcadia round and we sailed away from Manaus. By 6.30am next day, we had arrived at our final stopping place in Brazil, Boco Do Valerio (mouth of the Valerio). One of Arcadia’s tenders took us from the ship through the marshland to the tiny jetty. This village is accessible only by river. About a hundred people live here and it was easy to see why they needed to build the houses on stilts. There was hardly any riverbank at all. The people here rely on slash-and-burn agriculture, hunting and fishing to exist.

We were invited to go into the school, which had one classroom with twenty-one seats, a blackboard and a few books. The church was well kept and welcoming. All the buildings had unglazed windows and, although we visited in the morning, the temperature was in the high eighties and climbing. The villagers here are ready for visitors and they had dressed up in native costumes. They all wanted to have their photos taken (for a small fee, of course). I bought a piece of local wood carving, which looks even more impressive now I’ve got it home. As we waited for the ship’s tender, it was fun to see the local children asking for ice-cold drinks from P&O’s stall by the river.

Soon after 2.00pm, Arcadia left Boca Do Valerio astern and continued down the Amazon on our way home. Next day, we had our last look at the river and were treated to a beautiful equatorial sunset. While we were dining, we slipped unceremoniously out of the Amazon without realising it. Later that evening when we were enjoying a concert entitled “Opera For All”, it became evident that we were back in the Atlantic. The singers were holding on to the grand piano to keep upright! We were heading for Grenada, Barbados then home.

I recommend this trip to anyone who is able-bodied and fairly adventurous. Do it while you can, I say. Very fair-skinned folk like me need to take great care. For days ashore, I was covered from head to toe against the sun and the mosquitoes. On board, one can be more relaxed. This is not what I would call a sightseeing holiday, but more of an educational experience. It has given me something to think about in future years. I hope to return to South America one day.

First published in VISA issue 41 (summer 2001).

Another article on Brazil
Photos of Brazil