Before embarking on the two day boat journey to Belém, as it was Friday night I thought it would be rude not to sample the nightlife that Santarém has to offer. I've been away for one month now, and I have long since lost the feeling that I am getting old which had started to set in when I was in London. Despite being warned that Friday night is traditionally the night that the younger crowd head into town in Santarém, myself and two 33-year old Swiss guys I met in Alter Do Chão decided to paint the town red. We were recommended a club called Dubai, from the outside the music sounded decent enough so went through the security search formalities and hit the dance floor. Within seconds we noticed that we were around 10 years older, half a foot taller and 50 shades whiter than the average person in there… needless to say we blended in a treat! After about an hour we called it a night and headed back to hotel to sit back with our slippers and cocoa – a much better way to spend an evening.

The next morning we wandered around the markets a little and I got to see some more of Santarém. It seems like a very nice town and maybe I should’ve stayed a little longer (especially as that night was Halloween and promised much better parties for the older generation), but my decision to get the boat to Belém couldn’t be delayed as the boats run fairly infrequently. One of the Swiss guys I had met (Marcel) also wanted to go the Belém so we went together to bargain for our tickets as promised. Although we still paid more than the locals, I think we got a fairly good deal… fortunately Marcel speaks Portuguese so that probably helped!

Within a hour of getting on the boat we had set off, so pretty good timing. This did however mean that our hammocks had to go up wherever there was space left, which meant we were near to the toilets. This wasn’t too much of a problem though as the boat was quite a nice clean one this time. Marcel quickly made friends whilst I struggled to understand what was going on. It’s at times like this that I really wished I could speak Portuguese, everyone seems so friendly! One of the guys that he was chatting to seemed quite keen to try and talk to me, and despite the fact that he dances like Sergio he seemed like a nice fella so I thought I’d give it a try. After 2 days on the boat with him and a lot of Spanuguese (or Portañol as it’s known here) later, I started to understand a lot of what he was saying. I am now proficient in being able to sweet talk any woman with blue eyes and a Brazilian bum – excellent! I even managed him some English and earned myself an invitation to go and stay with him and his family in São Luís should I wish to go there on my way down the coast.

This time I really enjoyed my boat journey, and the hours flew by. I didn’t get sick from the food at all, just a little sick of the terrible music DVDs that are constantly blasting on the top deck. I even managed to find time to do all my washing and get it dried... a task that is becoming very tiresome as having hardly any clothes in hot climates means doing this every few days! So all in all, fairly uneventful but thoroughly enjoyable… it’s going to be tough to get back to bus travel again.

At the moment I am in Belém, where things start to get a little dangerous for the tourists. I am now on a mission to learn more Portuguese, otherwise I think things could get very difficult for me. The next couple of days I will be heading off to an island almost on the equator for a bit more relaxation...