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Travel blog of a year-long round the world trip.
Currently in London, UK.
(the first leg of my trip in a nutshell -- route as originally planned).

And Nothing Ever Happens... [1/12/03] 

I am in a bit of a foul mood for various reasons and not many events of much interest have occurred anyway, so I will attempt to keep this one short and uninteresting!
Indeed most of the past week has been spent on two different boats, first from Manaus to Santarem, a one-night fairly pleasant, if not especially noteworthy, stay there and another boat to Belem from there. And after all this cruising of the largest waterway in the world I think I've decided I don't want to be a sailor: being on a boat 24 hours a day is DULL! A few interesting people here and there, a few of whom on the second boat even spoke Spanish, but for the rest there wasn't much to do except gaze at the riverbank (far, far away for most of the trip), listen to incredibly cheesy and very samey Northern Brasilian music (I became very intolerant of Calypso & Co) and a very monotonous diet (which also happened to be quite disgusting on the first boat). I also confirmed I don't make much of a fisherman as my attempts at catching Piranhas with left-over meat from lunch were all unsuccessful.
At any rate, it was an experience, maybe interesting for bits like the crowded sleeping deck that had one hammock next to and across others, tinned sardine style.
As seems to have become a trend with my interesting experiences so far I usually crown them with an attack of the killer stomach bugs, as also in this case. Suffice it to say, I have left a part of myself with the Amazon river, and it wasn't my heart that I threw off the back of the boat. I'm hoping that at the rate I'm going I'll be able to eat sewage for breakfast, no problem.
The last three days in Belem I've been mostly recuperation and looking around the city a little, which is kinda interesting but I wasn't particularly interested in general I guess. Tomorrow morning I'll probably catch a bus to Fortalezza (or Bahia) where I'll be hoping for some beach R&R and interesting things to happen. Or not.

[you may have noticed the website's back up with limited functionality and ads. I'm working on it. Slowly :)]

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