DRIFT Travel Spring 2021

By day three I am thoroughly in love with riverboat life - it's like one big pajama
party with lots of friends swapping hammocks. I have named the pig that lives in
the sack below me, Alfredo, and have pressured the crew to allow it free reign on a
leash. Carlos and Carmina and their two children in the hammocks next door are
best friends, and I have yet to fall ill on the beans, chicken and rice that we are fed
three times a day. When we pull into small pueblos along the way, there is enough
time to get off, stretch the legs and meet a few locals.
Leticia in Colombia is not what I had imagined it would be. This sleepy port
seems to be inhabited mainly by Colombians that have escaped the rat race of
violence that typifies the rest of the country. Mention Bogotá or the Medellin
cartel to locals and they roll their eyes and shudder, then proudly tell you that
here, they can leave their doors unlocked at night.
Just across the border in Tabatinga, Brazil, I get lucky and find a boat leaving
for Manaus the same day. Sometimes you can be left waiting days for an onward
passage. By the afternoon we are off once again. The mighty Amazon River is
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