Last night was the best nights sleep I had since starting this river trip. I learned from earlier nights to prepare early for the evening and night, both for mosquitos and the cool nights. Double socks, the mosquitos can bite through one pair. Double trowsers and hoody for the cool over night temperatures. Put on mosquito repellant early on the backs of my hands, they love biting me there. Later in the night, I also put on my rubber slippers to keep my feet warm.I have also found sleeping positions that work best.
The result was only waking up 3 times last night.
We had a couple late night very brief stops to pick up cargo and passengers. Some times the boat is flagged down and other times, it must be prescheduled stops at predetermined locations. The boat slowed at one point before 4 am this morning and was searching the shore line apparently to make a pick up, but they didn't find anyone, so we moved on.
It amazes me that this huge boat, about 40' wide and close to 200' long will pull over to a river bank to pick up a single piece of cargo or a single passenger. It's not like a bus pulling to the curb. It takes some manuvering to slow the boat, work with the current to be turned into the right position, then slowly nose first into the bank.
The lady we picked up this morning, flagged the boat down from a canoe, waving a white cloth to catch our attention. Her and what I expect was her husband are in a canoe that is less than a foot off the water. They passed several buckets, bags and other things on board before it was the ladies turn. Remember the deck on this boat is over 4 feet off the water. There are no ladders to put over the side. The husband got on all fours and the lady stood on his back. A couple crew members reached down over the railing, each grabbing one of the ladies arms and hoisting her up. Other crew members were then able to reach over to grab one of here legs and roll her over the railing. I should mention, this was not a young lady, probably in her 50's and not petite. Even the crew members where having a chuckle over this boarding.
The boats are constructed with long slopping front sections from the deck to the bottom of the boat that makes them ideal for this river bank loading. The deck of the boat is about 4' above the water line, but when they nose into a bank, people can often times walk on and off without using a plank.
I was up early enough this morning hear a lot of bird chatter from the shore and to see others including parrots making there morning commutes.
I have been surprised that I haven't needed to do my morning dump for the last couple days. Finally today I did. It must be this very liquid food that is being served on the boat.
I also took the opportunity to show and wash a couple pieces of cloths. We will be on the river all day today, not docking in Yurimaguas until about 5 this evening, so my cloths will have time to dry.
Having touched on the thought of hygiene, I should show you a couple shots of the facilities on this boat. They change slightly from boat to boat, but this is the only time I will post pictures that you will not be able to unsee.
This first picture is the powder room. Very convenient to wash your face and brush your teeth.
This next picture is the combination shower and toilet. They are not so fancy as the combination toilets in Japan. At the top of the picture you can see the valve and water outlet for taking a shower. I don't know for sure, but I think this water is just pumped up from the river. Even so, after the heat and humidity of the day, a shower on board is pretty refreshing.
The biggest draw back here is the floor doesn't have enough slope and there is often a 1/2" of water on the floor.
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