How do you fancy a six day trip down the Amazon? Go on then!

Off we went to the port of Belem, the Brazilian gateway to the Amazon river. Thankfully, I wasn't expecting a Marbella yacht. Our boat was more of a skoda kind of vehicle which looked (and hopefully was!) a little more reliable than the several robin reliantesque boats we passed on our journey.

Most passengers on our clunky steel snail were travelling a la hammock. When you first board there is a manic race to nab the best hammock spot. The primary objective is to grab an area around the edge as this will reduce the amount of times you will be bumped by a swinging neighbour, with the added bonus of a slightly less penned in claustrophobic feel. Luckily for a German girl I met, your fellow hammockers will generally keep an eye on your stuff should any other passengers curious eyes get the better of them!

Despite having hammock aspirations we were booked into the supposedly cushty cabins. Unfortunately these steel cabins were slightly smaller than the average prison cell and I would guess that they were also more aromatic. We had a bunk bed which had just enough room on the top to double up as an adequate coffin. I managed to find out early on that a steel walled cabin doesn't give you much sympathy if you fell off the top bunk in the middle of the night. Ouch! We were also lucky enough to have an ensuite! Now i know what you are thinking. Ensuite?! Thats not very rustic! But when you have to share your Amazonian water (its brown in case you were wondering) shower water with about a half a dozen cockroaches the allure of an ensuite is forever tainted!

Other occupants of our ship included 3 Englishmen, 2 Swedes, 1 German, multiple greasy men, a number of amorous teenagers and loads of rather mucky kids. It was incredible to see how a bunch of 4/8 year olds could entertain themselves for 6 days with contents of the bin and a load of bizarre foreigners! They put our computer obsessed English kids to shame.

We had been warned that the food on this voyage was a less desirable than boiled spam and sprouts, so we armed ourselves with plenty of soy sauce and prayed for the best. Personally, rice, chicken and beans is a pretty good meal for me and 18 meals of it didnt bother me in the slightest.

Boredom was put at bay by numerous games of s***head and speed (backpacker card games), reading, the local beer and rum, jigging to ear drum bursting pop samba, cringing from deafening games of dominoes and turning down marriage proposals from tracksuit clad long haired lotharios from local pop groups - dont you know who i am?! Uh, no.

Obviously the main avenue of entertainment for us was off the boat but that is going to have to wait till tomorrows blog.

Till tomorrow xxxxx