DAY 59. BACK ON MY WAY

It is 4am. I woke up to dozens of ants taking turns climbing on my head and elsewhere. It got to the point that they even got into my sleeping bag when I hid into it completely! I tried to get rid of them – without much success. I could not sleep for 1.5 hours until dawn. They are everywhere – small, medium, large, yellow and black. And they keep making new paths, ignoring my presence. They probably fled the storm, too. My canoe is now like Noah’s Ark.

I decided to be on my way before dawn and left a note for Pedro and Anna. They will probably be asleep for a long time as they do not have a colony of ants in their bed.

I am writing these notes and feel them crawling on different parts of my body! Gnats have showed up as well. I am not going to be a benevolent host. It is time to kill! I am going to clean the boat from ants, or the next thing I know they will send me an eviction note. I am not giving up easily.

It took about two hours to rid the boat of the uninvited guests. I also scooped out about a litre of sand from the hull. The ants, to my surprise, all hid somewhere. I could only get rid of a few groups that settled in the reeds. These are the easiest thing to deal with – I just tap on the reeds and the ants go to greet their guests. And here I am! Hola! Hello! I even managed to get to their queen when she decided to find a quieter home for her family.

It is a hot day, and there is next to no current. I am afraid that my ‘69 days on the Amazon’ plan is not going to work out. There are only 10 days to go, and I cannot believe it. Somewhere there is a shower, a toilet, a computer and drinking tap water, which is not appreciated by people who have access to it at all, and here I am…. I have gone completely wild. Even the wooden planking of the bed does not seem so hard now, though sometimes it is not quite comfortable to lie on – with all my bones. I have not gained any weight here, to put it mildly.

I am nodding off. I found a large floating tree stump, and it has a pungent sour odour as if someone had died in its roots. There are also dozens of large gadflies dwelling on it. I hope they are well fed, because this tree stump is my last resort. If I pass out, it is the safest thing to go down the river with a stump like this. It is bigger than my boat, and any sort of vessel would try to escape a collision with it.

According to the map, the river will now stretch for 100 kilometres straight on without its usual loops and bends. What if the speed of the current increases? Well, I can dream on. It is a pity I cannot set a sail with the local wind. That is too bad.

By sunset, the river was unusually calm. Its mirrorlike surfaces looked like a lake. I took up the oar and literally flew along the water surface for the last kilometres to stop at a large village. I need to contact my family and my subscribers to share the news: I am okay.

As I approached the settlement, I noticed a lonely man by one of the shops on the water. I decided to ask him where I could get water and find an internet connection. So, I met Alison. He asked if I was really going to go on alone, because the 200 kilometres to Coari has always been the most dangerous part of the river, but this year it is especially perilous. It had got to the point where the Brazilian authorities had had to mount an operation to clear the river of pirates. I remembered that in Rio de Janeiro I had stayed near the headquarters of such special police force while they were working on bringing order to the ghettos (I was staying in a hostel in one of them). Alison warned me that if I continued downstream, I should stick to the right bank, as it was the busiest, and my risks were slightly lower there.

We talked for such a long time that it started to get dark. Then Alison invited me to his house on land. I met his sons and had a wonderful soup made from a delicious tambaki fish.

I was given an hour’s access to Wi-Fi to get in touch with my family. There is a special tower here that gives Wi-Fi out while sim cards do not work. It cost me two reals (32 roubles, or 40 cent) for 3 hours of connection. That is quite a moderate price.

We kept talking about travelling, the river and pirates till nightfall, and then I left to set up for the night in my canoe. As soon as I was asleep, I heard something large crawl under my tent. I jumped up, looked round, and it was a cat! It snatched one of the salted fish and abandoned it on the bow of the boat when it felt the salt on its teeth. Huh.

Around 4 am Alison visited me – he knew that I would be leaving very early as I want to get through the most dangerous part of the river as quickly as possible. He brought me a whole bag of biscuits and tinned meat. People are amazing.

12 June, ~63 (2583) km covered.