boat, jungle, and bites

I cooly try to ignore the large amazonian man that I have angered, due to a poor hammock hanging action by the crewman. I reach for my book and settle in, trying as hard as possible not to actually move an inch. He grabs some things and heads upstairs to the bar.

To my right a family are sitting around waiting for the boat to leave. A grandmother, her daughter, her husband, and their 2 sons. They are around 3 and 5 years old. The siren goes to announce our departure and the Dad gets up to leave, it seems that he works in Manaus and that the family had come to visit.

He leaves and the boys start to cry for their father, and I sit and watch the mum settle the children, she soothes them, and eventually manages to quiet them and get them off to sleep.

It is only then, when they are sound asleep, that the mum starts to quietly weep. I lie in my hammock and try not to stare at this incredible woman, and I begin to think about a mothers strength, and the power it takes to raise children, and in turn I begin to think about my parents and the sacrifices they've made for me over the years. I feel a knot in my stomach, which inexplicably moves to my throat, and it is then that I realize that I am about to cry. I raise myself out of the hammock and go to sit on deck to gather my thoughts.

The next few days are spent eating the same meal twice a day, reading, and sleeping when the feeling takes me. Which is about every 2 hours. Doing nothing is really tiring

I make some friends along the way, and we while away the days.

We arrive in Tabatinga and make our way to Brazilian immigration to get stamped out, and at this point I realize that I might be in a bit of bother. My visa ran out 2 weeks ago, and I refused to extend it because they wanted to charge me for the pleasure. I had hoped that there would be a fairly lax system to leave Brazil via the jungle, but there wasn't.

I decide to change the 3 from '30 days' to a 8 to make it '80 days' on the visa slip.

I get to the Policia Federal and hand over my slip and passport, the guy is quite young and looks chilled so I'm quite hopeful, and he looks at the visa, then my passport, and reaches for the exit stamp, it's only then that I realize that there's also a entry stamp already in my passport with '30 days' written inside.

Balls.

He looks once, then looks twice, shows his work mate, and stamps the exit stamp,
"Yes" I think,
"He's going to let my amateur forgery slip and forget about it, nice one fella"

But he doesn't, and I need to think fast now as he's starting to ask questions to various people walking behind him. His work mate also says,
"Why you change the date" to me in sporadic English.

I decide to lie and say that the immigration guy made a mistake, and that I always wanted 80 days, and that it was him who changed the visa not me. I also say that I'm flying home tomorrow, and that I don't have anymore money. My ability to speak anything other than English suddenly disappears

After about 20 minutes of me saying 'no comprende' over and over they start to get a little bored. My case is also helped when another traveller gets his exit stamp and his entry stamp doesn't even have any date written in at all! I point this out to the guy, and he gets my point.

Eventually we all agree that if I ever come back I've got to pay 95 raels, or I get arrested. I agree, sign the paper, and run off sharpish.

We spend the night in Tabatinga before getting a fast boat to Iquitos, Peru. Fast meaning 11 hours mind, but I fill the time by running my Ipod party out.

I get to Iquitos and start looking around for somewhere that can take me into the jungle to do ayawashka with a shamen.