Tuesday 23rd January - Boca Do Valeria

I was up dead early today and up on the decks looking for moths n stuff.  Once again I was disappointed that there was very little about.   I’m coming to the conclusion that this ship is different.  Maybe the engines don’t hum in the right way, maybe the lights aren’t as bright.  I don’t know, but whatever the reason, there isn’t a lot for me in the early mornings. But there is still always something new.   I came across a German woman carrying a lovely little moth with zebra stripes, and I found a mangrove flannel moth, which I don’t think I’ve seen since the first cruise.

Now Boca Do Valeria is described as “typical of the thousands of small, isolated communities within the Amazon basin”.   It probably is, except none of the others regularly receive visits by cruise ships carrying several hundred people, which is when the residents of Boca Do Valeria and all the surrounding villages eagerly come out to welcome the visitors

Last year, a passenger described the village as fake, and many passengers can be heard to comment about how it is all just a display.  They are right in a way, because the villagers all leave their normal routines to see the cruise ship passengers and hopefully earn a few dollars from them.

The schools close and entire families climb into their respective little boats, bringing their items for sale, pets, and anything else they think will be of interest , and descend into Boca Do Valeria, which normally only has about 75 residents.  The adults set up stalls and the children rush to greet the visitors, showing off their pets and hoping to be rewarded with sweets or trinkets or dollars.  The children have practised the puppy dog look and can be demanding and ungrateful, but they will leave you alone if firmly refuse to let them hold your hand.  And I discovered during this visit that not all the crafts come from the village, and that they probably go to Manaus or Santarem to get stock.  Even so, there is still some local stuff if you look, such as hand painted table runners, crochet and little cloth dolls, and the people are friendly.  A couple of the women spoke a few words of English, which they learned at school which I thought was nice to hear.

As usual, Peter and I took the little river boat ride that we love, this time we were accompanied by Chris.  Peter took loads of photo’s of the boats and houses on the riverside so that he can paint them later. I just enjoyed the views.   We were taken to the village of Santa Rita again, where we were shown the school and the church.  Peter and I noticed the floor of the church was covered in really nice square wooden tiles, and that there were glass doors that we didn’t remember from previous visits.  We’ve checked old photographs and there weren't any doors at all before, and the floor was black lino.  It looks like our donations have been put to good use.

The visit ended in the bar and a quick walk around the village.  As usual, all the pets were on display, with the hope that people would take photographs for a donation.  The way the sloths and some of the other pets are kept doesn’t seem right to my western, animal right beliefs.  But then parrots and macaws are kept by Europeans in houses back home and at least here they are in an environment with plenty of wildlife and greenery going on around them, and are probably not as bored.

The ship pulled up anchor a little after three in the afternoon, and we set sail for Manaus, once again spending time on the decks, watching the jungle go by.  Such a  privilege.

We ended the day watching guest act Gerry Graham – very entertaining.  Tomorrow we should arrive in Manaus a little before lunch.  I know we’ve visited all these places before, but I always look forward to new experiences at each port every time.  Manaus here we come.