Sunday 21st December - First day on the river

I was up with the sun this morning and out on deck.  There were a few others, like me, bug hunting, as well as the birders on the front deck.  I wasn't expecting much this morning, since we weren't in the river proper, and very little had landed on the ship.  I did come across a bird that turned out to be Azure Gallinule. Very exotic sounding name, and in the books, it is very pretty, but in the early morning light, my photo is not so.  We got a few moths too, but nothing I haven't seen before.

We spent quite a bit of time on deck, watching the Amazon go by, but it's hot out there.  Peter is losing his voice, and at the end of his second class, he was down to a husky squeak.

The day ended with thousands and thousands of little insects of all types landing on the ship, quite unpleasant for anyone out on the lighted decks.  Peter and I went to the front of the ship where there are no lights and very few bugs.  There was very little wind either. Maybe that was why there where so many of the little critters at the back.  Still, it bodes well for my bug hunting plan in the morning. Oh, and we were back at the dart throwing again. I think we might be getting better, it didn't take us anywhere near as long to get all the way round this time. AND I beat Peter.

It's the first of our Amazon River stops tomorrow, when we'll be in Santarem. We've had some brilliant days there in the past so we are really looking forward to it. Let's see what tomorrow brings.