Month: October 2023

I don’t agree with the Buddha, I quite like sensual pleasures. Particularly new sights, new sounds, new smells, new tastes, new tactile experiences, and some mind wanderimg fantasies.

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As Human Beings we crave certainty along with security. People like a diagnosis… whether good or bad… a diagnosis enables a sense of certainty.

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Just like my ‘self’, the Amazon River changes moment by moment. It is in a constant state of flow, changing it’s shape and direction. And just like my ‘self’, the river is impermanent; one day neither of us will exist in any shape or form.

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When I was a young shipping clerk for Liner Shipping Agencies in Leadenhall Street in the City of London, I looked after ships coming from South America, including the Amazon Basin with transhipments to/from Belem, Manaus and even as far as Iquitos. I can vaguely recall a story about one of our Blue Star Line shipping containers being found somewhere in the jungle and no-one knew how it got there. When I was about 21 or thereabouts, I had an interview for the job of Head Office Representative in the Belem office. It was the type of company where it mattered which university you had attended. I never finished A-level studies let alone higher education. I didn’t get the job but I always remember that Belem has an Opera House. Maybe, I will come back one day and go to the opera.

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Now we are underway, it is worth all of the hassle to just lay in my hammock watching the jungle go by. The boat from Iquitos to Santa Rosa/Tabatinga was fun but, to put it kindly, a rust bucket. This vessel from Tabatinga to Manaus is like a luxury liner in comparison! There is even onboard WiFi if you are prepared to pay for it.

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The boat makes a stop somewhere after midnight but I am too tired to look. I wake up before 6 am. Some people are packing up to go. This part of the Amazon borders with Colombia. My new friend, Marina is French but speaks excellent Spanish and a smattering of Portugese, asks one of the crew what time we will get to Santa Rosa. He replies 12 o’clock. Both Marina and I were hoping to formally exist Peru in Santa Rosa and enter Brazil in Tabatinga in time to catch a boat to Manaus. My Yellow Fever vaccination is valid from today to I am allowed to enter Brazil. 

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As the boat makes one of it’s many stops, nudging against the muddy riverside, a gangplank is dropped to eliminate the gap… and Bruce Springsteen can be heard from the bridge singing “…can’t start a fire without a spark”. This song always meant so much to me as a long-term nightshift worker, in fact, since the dawn of the smartphone it has been my ringtone.

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I appreciate my good fortune. I don’t have much and I try not to suffer for what I don’t have. Someone once gave me a book called ‘Enjoy Every Sandwich” and that seems to be as good a purpose for life than any.

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I explained to Luis my intention to take a slow boat to Santa Rosa (on the border with Colombia (Leticia) and Brazil (Tabatinga). He said he would send me the sailing schedule by WhatsApp, and he might even have a hammock that I would be welcome to take away. Luis also recommended the Amazon Bristo as a good place to eat… “down 8 blocks to the river then one and a half blocks to the left”.

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When I was drinking alcoholically, maybe around my 21st birthday, I didn’t aspire or expect to live beyond the age of thirty. Although, I did stop drinking when I was 39 years old, I am still amazed that I doubled my own life expectancy to 60 and beyond. It makes me smile just thinking about it.

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