Travel by Boat in the Amazon

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The Marañón River, the deepest river, has some whirlpools. In places it is wide enough for a small single-engine float plane to land on.

Long wooden-planked commercial boats are a common sight on the Marañón River. Powered by a 40 hp motor these boats can take large loads and passengers. Travel in these boats is relatively fast. They cannot travel in shallow water.

On a two day boat journey we ate sugar cane, papaya, mango, banana, boiled plantain and roast yuca. At one stop, a boy got a couple of skewers laden with roasted suri, a delicacy palm-beetle grub; when eaten alive it is good custom to bite off the head and then slowly suck out the jelly-like fat. Lunch was cooked fish wrapped in a banana leaf. There is no ice cream in the jungle but there are sweet foods and snacks to enjoy.

Throughout one four hour journey it was pouring with rain. We sat inside the boat under the roof. Up at the bow was a boy with a piece of plastic draped over his shoulders. He had a long pole which he used to ward off floating logs.

From time to time he bailed out water from the bilge. The banks became waterfalls. In a couple of places huge volumes of water, rich brown in colour rushed down the banks into the greenish river. Sometimes we went from one side across to the other where there was less turbulence. Slowly, under the rushing force of the water we zigzagged our way up the Marañón River.

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