Boat from Belem to Macapa - Information: Sept 2010
 

Booking yourself and your motorcycle onto a boat to cross the Amazon is really straight forward. Agents selling tickets for the onward journey on the Almirante Do Mar ship can be found at dock 15 at the junction of Rua Bernal Do Couto & Ave Merechal Hermes. This is also the dock for buying tickets and embarking to Manaus. Boats leave twice a week so when you get to town you can very quickly find out when the next sailing is.

GPS - S1 26.492 W48 29.681

If you book hammock space it will be cramped and you'll have to endure the engine noise too. A private cabin is for four people, has aircon as well as power points and of course its much more secure.

I was offered hammocks space at 100R but I ended up paying
Price: 150R for cabin 200R for motorcycle

I later discovered that the dock for disembarking to Macapa is in a different part of town

GPS - S1 27.618 W48 30.442

At the dock is a booking office so why not save yourself the agents commission and see if you can book your tickets from there.

When loading on to the boat its best to hand the job over to the porters. You will need to tip them; I tipped 15R for loading on to the boat in Belem, but I rode the bike straight off the boat in Macapa.

In Santana (the port town for Macapa) You'll need to pay 5R port tax when you disembark.

The boat journey took just over 24hours and the waters were very calm.

Hotel in Macapa with plenty of parking space:

Hotel America Novo Mundo
Av Coaracy Nunes 333
Centro
Macapa
(96) 3223 2819
N0 01.945 W51 03.233

You did well on the prices; I paid more, as did others. I also took a cabin and found it worthwhile. The A/C was minimal, and I'd not have enjoyed sharing with three other people--one other would have been fine. I did hear that the other boat was much more luxurious, but since I can't remember which I took that's probably not helpful for anyone else.

It's important to find out in advance when loading happens in Belem, since it depends on the tides. I loaded the day before departure. This provided a good opportunity to find the place where the boats actually dock, which was several miles from where I expected it to be. The loading process was a bit hair-raising, involving a narrow, flexing, slippery, steep ramp and a couple of guys in flip flops barely managing to keep the bike upright and slithering it on board. Bring baggage separately to keep the weight down and for security.

So you're riding up to Cayenne and across to Georgetown? Should be easier now than it was during the rains in May and June! I'll watch for a report here.

Mark