I wake up early, probably because of the sunrise, and notice it’s raining. Bad start. Hopefully it will stop before we go onto the river.

I enjoy a last hot shower and then we head for breakfast. We enjoy the meal, every time thinking that the next few weeks our meals will be very different. Brazialian breakfasts are good but very sweet. Many cakes and cookies and sweet coffee.

At 10:30 we clear out the room and in the lobby downstairs we meet the driver from the airport, Rosevaldo, who takes us to his car.

Unfortunately he only speaks portuguese but we keep up enough of a conversation to learn that a ‘favela’ with squatters has been moved to another city with government money. He also confirms that there are many refugees from Venezuela. Most of the roadside sellers are Venezolanos. They walk more than 1000km (600 miles) along a road from Venezuela to sell bottles of drinking water to drivers at traffic lights in Manaus. …and we in Holland give the refugees houses, pocket money, insurance and three meals per day. Here they get nothing, but are happy to be out of Venezuela. 

At a traffic light two children come begging. ‘They are Indian children from Venezuela. Look the father sits there.’

There is plenty of work here. If you want to work. Many Japanese factories, he adds.

We cross the Ponta Negra and the city is behind us. Small popular restaurants attract many visitors. The water is high. Last month the river was next to the road. One of the restaurants was below the water. 

The road is wet in some places. Local downpours.

After an hour we cross another bridge, immediately take a right and circle back under the bridge. Here we wait for Samuel. A dozen or more long wooden and metal canoe type boats are attached to the shore.

After a long while two boats approach. One of them turns out to be ours. Rosevaldo puts our luggage in, says goodbye and drives away. We are left with the two boats and the boat drivers. Fortunately they don’t leave, because the waiting lasts several hours. 

We walk around the grass field that serves as parking lot. It’s hot and sweat gently runs down my back and chin. The boats are in a small lake, and on the far side is a small party going on in a bamboo house. Except for the road we are surrounded by reed and trees. More cars arrive, people get onto small boats and are ferried to the party. Music plays loudly from parked cars. 

Next to us is a creek with large water lilies, I think Victoria Regia, and we take some pictures for Sisi.

Finally Sam arrives with a car full of food and equipment - including a complete spare outboard motor. After loading it into the boat we drive to a small restaurant for a last prepared lunch. Sam knows the owners. It’s tiny with only a picnic table on the sidewalk to sit. There’s also a pool table where three drivers from a big truck are playing. 

On the road are stacks of old tyres to force cars to slow down. These ten houses/restaurants are a village and people may cross the road. A very effective way to slow down traffic. 

The heat makes everybody move slowly.

Then - finally- we return to the boat and we take off. It’s a wonderful feeling and my heart beats faster. I see the excitement in Didi’s eyes. We are in Amazonia. It’s taken many preparations but we’re here.

We follow a wide creek between walls of jungle toward the Rio Negro.

Several times we stop. First to look at a sloth high up in the trees. Then for squirrel monkeys who eat bananas from our hands. Amazing how much Sam notices.

When our channel turns into the Rio Negro there is a lot of wind. The river is 19 km (12 miles) wide here. The waves are big enough to slosh over the front of our fully loaded boat. (We also have 240 liters (60 gallons) of fuel with us.)

Therefore we decide to follow the shore line, which adds a considerable distance. But after an hour the wind dies down, and we start to move diagonally to the far shore. 

As the engine hums and the white foam splashes up on both sides of the bow, I stand up for a long time, enjoying the bumps of the boat as it hits the waves.

The water is very wide and the sun hides behind the clouds.

Wonderful to feel the air cooling my sweaty body. Occasionally we pass a white beach and as the sun sets, a small sliver of the moon appears.

And all the while our courageous little boat skims over the water.

The forest on the river banks turns black, but thanks to the moon we can navigate.

It’s high water and everywhere small islands of grass stick to the shore or float in the middle of the stream. I have to think of the Om Sufa (?) reed islands in the Nile, when it enters the immeasurable swamps of South Sudan. So marvelously described in ‘The Nile - the life story of a river’. On one of those islands an elephant family lived for months until it hit the shore again and they walked off.

And now I see those mini-islands here in the Amazone estuary. But they are small and at most hold a young cayman.

It is night. Only the little moon is our guide and our light. Sam turns on a very powerful and focused flashlight. There they are! Two small lights shine back at us from the water surface. A cayman, and there are more.

We approach several. The big ones sink and become invisible. Small ones (30 cm/ 1 foot) stay motionless, mesmerized by the light. Didi picks one out of the water and it is very beautiful.

Sam makes challenging noises and some heavy caimans reply. But we don’t see them. They can reach 5 or 6 meters (18ft) in length.

Finally we approach the shore to find some real land. Terra firma. Most is trees growing out of the floodwaters. In the pitch dark with small headlights, Sam and Didi attach our hammocks and a mosquito net, while I cook soup.

My shirt is soaking wet from sweat and I see it dripping off Didi’s face. Glimmering in the light of my headlight. I must look the same.

When I lie in my hammock the sound of frogs is deafening. We saw a few while searching the black shore for animals. They are not big, but puff up their throats when producing the sound.

Oh, we also heard howler monkeys today. What a ruckus!

Surrounded by the sound of the night jungle I fall asleep. A couple of hours later I wake up by the sound of rain. Didi gets up, ready to sit in the boat under the tarp roof. But it already gets less and I am already asleep again.