DAY 43. NO MORE ELECTRICITY

I did not sleep well. It had stopped raining, but until midnight huge drops rolling down from the tree above me pounded on my mosquito net and the tent. As they pierced the netting, they hit my face and disturbed my sleep. I could have covered myself with the tent completely, but without rain it was not worth it as it was too stuffy under it, despite the boat’s fenders. Oh, and then there were the ants! A whole colony had settled on the spot where some bread dough had been yesterday. Hundreds of ants were marching along the bow of the boat. Some of them were taking a detour into my bed and bit me on the way. Hey, this is my home! I had to resort to extreme measures. I got that magic white powder-chemical out of the bag and sprinkled it all around the perimeter. By morning, the ants were almost gone. So was my sleep.

It is no wonder that I was so excited to finally get back on my feet. I made breakfast – farinha with four small bananas and two slices of fresh bread. What a wonderful breakfast! It is even nicer that dawn graced my meal with the rays of rising sun. Getting up and falling asleep with the sun is a luxury that I have at my disposal here.

On the river I saw a curious scene: a boat with a man and (probably) his son on board had thrown a large barrel overboard. It was not until the barrel floated downstream and they headed for the bank that it became clear to me. They are casting a rafting net. I wonder if it works well. So, there are still big fish on the surface in the main current. I have made many attempts to catch them, but I had no luck. Should I try again? How? I do not know yet, but I am curious.

However, having watched the process carefully, I was sure that the net was loaded and dragged along the bottom, where the beach used to be – the locals know its exact location.

I have got hundreds of gnat bites over the last few days. They are clearly making me more aggressive. My whole face, feet and hands are sore and itchy. The little parasites do not get blown away by the wind like mosquitoes do. If it were not for the long sleeve shirt, it would be even worse. The mosquito repellent saves the day, but there is not much left, so I must ration it carefully. I usually use it when I need to concentrate, like when I am writing in this diary. The locals use anti-mosquito coils, but they do not live on the boat 24 hours a day, so they only need a few of them.

I slightly rearranged my belongings on the boat for more convenience. Now the two containers with small things are stored in the back of the boat, where the bucket with the tarafa net used to be. The bucket, on the other hand, I moved right underneath me – I often do my daily laundry, and if necessary, I can scoop out water with it. Heh, without these containers, my chair is set up in the middle of the boat within one minute. I have a backrest and two armrests, too. I put the boots next to the bucket, too. They perfectly fitted on the sides of the lifejacket (which serves as my seat) under my hands. I am extremely pleased with myself.

Preoccupied with these rearrangements, I almost missed the place where it was possible to shorten the way along a narrow channel with almost no current without making a detour of 30 kilometres! I had to sweat a lot to get back to it. As soon as I started paddling, the sun came out. I had had a lot of practice over the last few days, so I covered a good half of the river’s width without much difficulty. Now it was time to enjoy my renovated seat.

Oh, I am in a new trouble. My solar panel is malfunctioning. The charging adapter (it looks like the type people have in their cars) overheated. I took it apart to see what was wrong with it and found that that controller had fallen off. I cannot fix something like that without special equipment. I do not know if I can find a new adapter in the middle of the Amazon, as there are hardly any cars here. Hopefully there will be some major town ahead, but for now my phone must be in extra-extra-energy-saving mode; no more books for me, I am afraid. It is frustrating, but there is no choice.

I was enjoying my lunch when suddenly I saw a snake in the middle of the river. At first, I thought I was imagining it, but no, a real snake was swimming across the Amazon! I tried to show it that it can come on board to catch its breath, but it was frightened of me. It thought I was going to eat it. Well, I hope this endeavour works out for the snake. By snake standards, this river is a sea that is teeming with sharks. Good luck to it.

I washed my clothes with the disinfectant I had bought at the harbour. I managed to get the stains out of my shirt, but it acquired a suspiciously light colour. Maybe it had had this colour before, but I had time to forget it. I have been washing it in Amazonian water and sand all this time. It is easy for a shirt to lose its pristine white colour under such conditions.

One of the banks of the river has become precipitous, its red and white clay rises 5-7 metres above the river, and it seems that water once reached there, as there is nothing below the bank: it is only bushes underneath and a mature, long-standing forest above. I cannot even imagine what the area looked like back then. The scale of the river never ceases to amaze me.

I lay down and spent some time thinking about the future, trying to recover a little – my head hurts because of the heat. One of the motorboats passing by slowed down. They asked if I was all right. My boat is drifting down the river with an island of green, and one rarely sees such things here unless the owner is already dead. Maybe they were hoping to pick up an empty boat, who knows? Thanks for their concern anyway.

Today I travelled 97 kilometres closer to Manaus – that is a record for me. Of course, I aspired to make 100 kilometres since I was that lucky today, but I found a nice and inconspicuous place to camp for the night. Before sunset, I managed to catch four catfish the size of my palm: three badre fish and one of those that look like a dinosaur. This species is unfamiliar to me, but I already caught a small one ten days ago. It is interesting that it has barbs not only on the fins, but along its whole body. While it took me ten minutes to gut and clean the badre – I already have enough experience, this little dinosaur spent twenty minutes on my table. It has very strong skin, a powerful shell and damn sharp barbs. But I was pleased with the abundance of meat inside. I salted all the fish I caught. For the first time on the way, I was running out of space to store salted fish. Maybe one day I will use the bucket, too. Who knows? Dear dry season, I need you.

23 May, ~97 (1726) km covered.