Could you see yourself cruising the Amazon River, sleeping in a hammock, enjoying the sunsets and sunrises, while the pink dolphins show their face every once in a while? Well, it might be time to read this blog. This has been one of my favourite travel experiences ever and it costed less than $100 for a 5-day trip, including all my shoppings and snacks. Let’s go!
I had a hard time to find useful information about the boat journey from Leticia in Colombia to Manaus in Brazil, so I decided to write this step-by-step guide myself. It’s probably one of the reasons that it isn’t discovered by mass tourism yet, and that’s exactly why I was excited to try it. Another reason is that the boat officially doesn’t leave in Leticia, but in the neighbouring Brazilian town Tabatinga. In this blog I’ll give you all the information I have about taking this boat and I’ll tell you the things I wish I knew before.
Next to the Tabatinga – Manaus route, there are countless other options for cruising the Amazonas. You could start in Macapá or Santarém, or do a little stop there. What about Peru? The Amazon river could lead you to Iquitos as well! Even though I focus on the journey I made, I’m sure you can find some useful information for your journey on this page as well.
Done reading? Excited about the journey? Head over to my post where I share all my experience of the trip itself. You can find it by clicking on this link. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or send me a DM on Instagram.
Detailed Summary
Price: 240 Brazilian Reals, about $46 USD. Food, potable drinking water and showers included. Going upstream is more expensive as it takes longer.
Duration: Usually 4 days / 3 nights.
Starting days: As in December 2022 on Tuesdays (4pm), Wednesdays (2pm), Fridays (time unknown) and Saturdays (time unknown)
What unusual stuff do you need to bring? Hammock, extension rope, blanket, plate, cutleries, cup and towel.
When and where to buy your ticket: Preferably a day before at the port. There’s no need to book months in advance or using a travel agency.
How to leave Colombia and enter Brazil? Go to Leticia Airport and then Federal Police of Tabatinga for both of your stamps.
In This Post
Introduction to the Amazon Cargo Boats
Travelling by boat has never been my favorite kind of transportation. I’m easily suffering from motion sickness and I don’t like the feeling without hard ground beneath my feet. If you asked me one year ago if I would go on a four-day boat trip, sleeping in a hammock and being disconnected from the world, I would probably have called you crazy. But here I am, I did it and it was amazing!
The first time I heard about these kind of Amazon cruises, was when Anna did this trip. We’ve been following each other on Instagram for a while and she’s known for travelling to the most beautiful but uncommon places in the world. You can find her website here and you should check it out. When the World Cup started, I decided to try to go to Brazil to watch some of the matches from there. I love football, I love the football culture and I could only imagine how amazing the atmosphere in Brazil would be. The seed was planted and I was about to make this happen!
Getting to Leticia
If you want to start your journey in Leticia, like I did, you have to get to this jungle town first. There are daily flights from Bogotá straight to Leticia. I came from Medellín and had to do a small transfer in Bogotá, before heading to the Amazon region. Leticia is an amazing town in the midst of the jungle where you could easily spend a couple of days to get some good jungle vibes. There’s no need to arrange tours beforehand as there are countless tourist shops in town, or you could simply walk to the port and arrange it there for a better price.
Where to stay in Leticia or Tabatinga
There are countless options for accommodations in Leticia, but not that much in Tabatinga. During my trip I stayed in Hostel Tambo, it has a good rating on Hostelworld, they have cheap rooms with a personal fan and an amazing common kitchen. If you decide to go to this area, I’d recommend to stay in Leticia, even when you formally already left the country. Tabatinga just doesn’t have that much accommodations and staying in Leticia while having a Brazil stamp is possible because of the next point.
The open border
Something really interesting about the border area of Leticia and Tabatinga, is that the towns share an open border. You can cross as many times as you want, there are no checkpoints and if you stay in the area, there’s no need to get stamps done yet. From one moment to the other you’ll see the difference. Pesos become Reals, gracias becomes obrigado and the empanadas make space for feijoadas. Good to know is that both towns accept Pesos and Reals. If you want to exchange money, it’s possible at the border cross point, but expect high commission rates up to 12%.
Talking about money, there are not a lot of ATM’s in Tabatinga and the locals use them for transferring money and making payments as well. Expect some waiting time and just hope that the machines don’t run out of money. In Leticia the BBVA bank didn’t charge me any fees. In Tabatinga I used Bradesco and they didn’t charge any fees as well. Always press ‘continue without conversion’ as the conversion rates of the ATM’s are likely to be higher than the rates of your own bank.
Getting around in Leticia and Tabatinga
Transportation is easy due to the friendly people in both Leticia and Tabatinga. A common form of transportation in Leticia is the Tuktuk. In Tabatinga they mainly use motorbikes. People don’t always wear a helmet, so if you want to be safe, you could ask the driver to arrange a helmet for you. You can always negotiate with your driver to get the best price. I didn’t do this a lot as I tried to be nice to them for some extra stops. I stopped for example at a local shop, at an ATM or I asked the driver to wait for me to take his bike again after I got my stamps at immigration done. There are taxis as well, but I personally didn’t use them. The last kind of transport I took, was a motorbike hitchhike coming back from Parque Mundo Amazónico. To get there, I took a Tuktuk with a girl from my hoste,l but there were no transportation options from the park back to the hostel. We stopped one of the first bikes we saw and jumped on the back of for a 7km ride with the three of us on one bike.
Some prices I’ve paid for Tuktuk transportation in Leticia:
Leticia Airport – Leticia Town 7.000 Pesos – negotiated
Leticia Town – Tabatinga Port 15.000 Pesos – non negotiated
Leticia Town – Parque Mundo Amazónico 15.000 Pesos – non negotiated
And for motorbikes in Tabatinga:
Tabatinga Port – Leticia Airport 20 Reals – non negotiated
Leticia Airport – Tabatinga Federal Police 20 Reals – non negotiated
Leaving Colombia and entering Brazil
It’s pretty straight forward to leave Colombia and enter Brazil, but it requires some traveling between the towns. You can get your exit stamp at the migration office at the airport in Leticia. After exiting the country, you have 24 hours to register in your next country. Brazil in this case. It’s best to get the stamps first and buy the boat tickets after. Sometimes the ticket office at the port doesn’t want to sell a ticket yet if you can’t prove that you’re allowed to get your Brazil stamp. In my case they gave my ticket anyway, probably because of my Dutch passport that doesn’t require any visa for Brazil.
My journey to arrange all of it went like this:
15:00 Leaving Leticia by Tuktuk, stop at ATM for some Reals
15:15 Arrival at port Tabatinga to buy my ticket
15:30 Taking a motorbike from Tabatinga Port to Leticia Airport to get my stamps done
16:00 Leaving Leticia Airport for Tabatinga Federal Police to get my entry stamps for Brazil
16:15 Formal entry to Brazil done and ready for the boat trip!
If you decide to do it yourself, I’d suggest to do it as follows:
Go to Leticia Airport to arrange your exit stamp, most efficient to do it straight after arrival.
Go to Federal Police Tabatinga for your entry stamp, do this within 24 hours.
Go to Tabatinga port to arrange your ticket
When does the boat from Leticia/Tabatinga to Manaus leave?
As in December 2022, the slow boats leave Tabatinga on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The times may vary, but our boat was supposed to leave around 4pm and they asked me to be at the port at 1pm for final checks. Even though it’s not required to buy your ticket in advance, I preferred to have my spot secured and ask some final questions about the trip. There are fast boats and slow boats. I didn’t consider a fast boat as I’m going mainly for the experience and not for a quick way of traveling. The fast boat takes about 36 hours and will be in a closed cabin that looks like a bus. There are no beds or spots for hammocks and you won’t see much of the scenery as you go too fast or won’t sit close to the window.
What’s the price of the slow boat from Leticia/Tabatinga to Manaus?
Expect to pay about 240 Reals for the journey from Tabatinga to Manaus. This is a whopping total of $46 USD for a full board boat ticket for four days. You read that right, full board. In this ticket price, you get three courses a day, unlimited potable water and your daily showers. You’ll sleep by putting a hammock on the hooks. It’s a very unique experience and I’m not sure if you’ll get that anywhere else in the world. If you do the trip the other way around, from Manaus to Tabatinga, the price is higher. Going upstream means a longer journey, more petrol and more meals. The price for Manaus to Tabatinga on this boat would have been 425 Reals or $81 USD.
If you prefer to have a real bed, you could consider paying for an airconditioned cabin. There are limited spots, you get a small private balcony and your meals delivered to your room. It might be your thing, but it wasn’t mine. You pay 5 times as much and you won’t get the atmosphere you’ll get on the big deck. I didn’t even consider taking a cabin and I’m super happy with the experience I had!
How long does the journey take?
The journey should take about 4 days. For us, we left Tabatinga on Tuesday at 5pm, but had some delay. We once got stuck on the river banks and some stops along the way took longer than expected. We ended up arriving on Saturday at 5.30am, one extra night in a hammock, but not another breakfast. My journey took about 87 hours, yours could be a bit less or more.
What do I need to buy before going on the boat from Tabatinga to Manaus?
As this is not just an ordinary boat, it takes some preparation ánd some shopping if you’re a light traveler like me. As mentioned before, you sleep in a hammock. Some people bring it while traveling, but I didn’t. It’s absolutely not necessary to bring them from home, as you can easily buy one in Tabatinga. Looking for an essentials shopping list for Tabatinga? I got you covered! There are numerous shops selling these items. The big ones are called Tabatinga Importados and Lojão Caruaru, but there are smaller ones as well. If you’re not sure where to look, you can ask literally any Tuktuk or Motortaxi and they’ll bring you to one of the shops they know.
Hammock
Hammock Extension Rope
Pillow
Blanket – it does get cold at night
Towel – I only had a small quick drying towel and decided to buy one
Plate, cutleries and a cup
Tip: take Tupperware, or any reusable box you can close, as you might not always be hungry at the given times for food.
Buying this whole shopping list has cost me about 200 Reals, so about $38 USD. I didn’t really save on the items as some of the hammocks were a bit smelly. If you’re on a tight budget, I’m sure you can manage to buy all these items for 100 Reals in total. If you buy a lot, try to ask for some desconto, it’s always possible to get a discount of about 10-20 Reals, even if they have fixed prices.
Some other items I brought are dependent on your needs. It didn’t cost me a lot and I just wanted to have them with me. I didn’t take malaria pills as anyone I asked said I probably won’t need it on the boat.
Mosquito repellent – Amazonic is a good option. You need it during stops as there will be quite some mosquitoes around.
Snacks. Lots of snacks.
Eventually some medicines. You can buy them at any pharmacy. I brought these items, but didn’t use any them:
- Motion Sickness tablets – the boat is very stable, the river very calm
- Loperamida – didn’t want to end up on an abandoned boat with diarrhoea
- Cetirizina – For general allergic reactions
How long does the journey take?
If I’d prepare this journey again, there are some things I would surely keep in mind. These were my mistakes and I want to prevent you from making the same.
Make sure you download everything you want to use during your trip before flying to Leticia. You’ll be in the jungle and the internet coverage is bad. I checked the Claro Colombia coverage map and expected to have 4G coverage throughout town. Let me tell you one thing: 4G in the Amazonas is not the 4G you’re used to. As soon as you enter Brazil, your internet will be gone for the next couple of days. I recommend you to download these things before taking your flight to Leticia:
E-books
Music
Movies/series
Map of Brazil and Colombia on Maps.Me
Google Translate dictionaries in English, Spanish and Portuguese
If you’re on a tight schedule and want to book a flight from Manaus or the destination you have in mind, do it beforehand as well. It took me about 3 hours to book a flight while staying in Leticia. Not because there weren’t many flights, but because the internet was terrible, again.
Get your passport stamps before buying your boat ticket. As mentioned before, there’s a chance that they won’t sell you a ticket if you didn’t get entrance to Brazil yet.
Buy something for the dry bread along the way and don’t bring too much water. As you’ll read in part 2 of this blog series about this trip, you’ll get some dry bread every day. If you don’t like butter, this gets pretty boring. I also brought about 2 or 3 liter water on board, but as soon as I arrived I knew I carried this weight for nothing. I would just use the same reusable bottle for the whole trip as the potable water was perfect.
When you did everything above, it’s time to head to the harbour! They asked me to be there 3 hours in advance and from there, the journey will really begin. Excited? Come with me to part 2 of the blog. I’ll take you on board and tell you everything you have to know about the boat journey itself.
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2 Responses
Thanks for your detail info, highly appreciated 👍👍
You’re most welcome, thanks for taking the time to write a comment!