Day fifteen, Sunday 13th February – Boca Do Valeria

Last night we put the clocks back another hour, so we are now 4 hours behind you lot.  Today has been incredibly hot and our clothes have been stuck to us with the humidity. We have no signal on either phone and we are not even getting texts in or out, but..........

ANOTHER FANTASTIC DAY!

 We were up early to see the little village of Boca Do Valeria.  According to the info we have, it is one of thousands of tiny settlements in the Amazon basin, with a population of less than 100.  The community makes it’s living from the river and every house has a boat.  When a cruise ship full of western tourists anchors up in the river, everyone from the surrounding villages brings their crafts, children, and boats to the little village of Valeria to earn the jam for their bread. 

The only way to get to the village is by tender.  The lifeboats double up for this task, and because 800+ passengers and crew want to go visit, there is a system devised for queuing in the Neptune lounge.  You get a ticket and wait your turn, which we did.

When we got to the tender, you could see how the local people were taking advantage of the tourists. There was a mass of their little motorised canoes at the back of the ship.  In turn they pulled up alongside the tender, and the children try and sell beaded necklaces and local crafts.  In our case, the child was lifting his pet sloth for photographs.  The fee is a dollar, but they were happy to take anything......  I saw one lady hand over a couple of apples she had just taken from the restaurant.

The tender boat took us to the village pier.  Before we came, I’d read other cruising blogs about this place, and one tourist described how the pier had been destroyed a couple of years ago, and the crew of his cruise ship came out and rebuilt it before the passengers could come visit.  Anyway, as we were walking off the pier, I saw the signs written in English offering river tours in the local motorised canoes at $5 each.  I had read about these previously too.  Peter knew I was keen, so off we went.

Our guide/canoe driver was an older guy who looked a bit rough.  When we were shown the canoe, we thought we’d been given a bum steer. It didn’t look in that good a state of repair, and as we started out on the little tributary river away from the Amazon itself, the canoe motor kept giving out.  We were totally wrong and our guide was perfect.  Without a word of English, he slowed to let us see better when I pointed out something to Peter, managed to tell us to hold on when the boat came in to the side of the river to stop, and then showed us round his village, and even his home.

I have to say, I was amazed.  The houses are made of wood and built on stilts, with kids and chickens usually roaming around underneath.  His home consisted of 4 rooms with virtually no furniture.  One room had a small cupboard supporting a tv, a young man, and a hammock in.  My guess is that was the “lounge”.  Another was the kitchen, with a large table and benches, another cupboard, and a full size gas cooker that used calor gas for fuel.  The two rooms between were very sparse, with odd items dotted around on the floor.  What surprised us was that they had got hold of a catalogue, like Littlewoods or something, and stuck the pages to the wall like posters or decoration. 

Our guide showed us the school, which I have to say was of much higher standard than his home.  The walls were brick or solid or whatever, not wood.  The classrooms were lined with little chairs and desks.  He showed us the stock room with its books, there were proper toilets, a headmasters office, and a little craft room type place where he showed us the items the children had been digging out of the ground – pottery and crafts of people who lived in the area long before our guide I think.  I think the village are very proud of that school.  Rightly so. 

Then there was the church and the rest of the village.  It was amazing to see electricity lines, and satellite dishes for homes without furniture, curtains, or any signs of comfort. He showed us a view over the river where we could see the Boudica  and then we made our way back down the steep slope to his canoe and back to Boca Do Valeria.  That was the best £7.50 we have spent in a long time.  Our guide was a real gentleman and we now have a lot of respect for him and his people.

We continued the rest of our visit in Boca de Valeria under the very close watch of four young girls who attached themselves to us during our wander.  They took a hand each and remained with us until we got back on the pier, even sitting with us whilst we had of a couple of very welcome cold drinks in the local “bar”, absolutely adamant they were not letting go.   But they were sweet, laughing at Peter’s antics, and eventually showing their curiosity about our sunglasses, hats, and my earrings.  What they really wanted was for us to give them to them. 

The whole village was basically on a begging spree.  A couple of girls were dressed in beautiful costumes of bird feathers - $1 to take a picture.  There was a pet crocodile, a pet sloth, a couple of Kappibara’s and loads of parrots -  $1 to take a picture.  There was a boy with an insect like a giant cockroach in his hand, and I mean giant, I think it was easily 6 – 8 inches long.  Ugh!  No we didn’t want to hold it!  And we still had the girls very firmly attached to our sweaty hands.

We visited the school, which was not as good as the one in our guides village, and their church. There were loads of little stands selling the local crafts, and things like python skins which to be honest seemed a much more reasonable way of getting money out of us.   Peter bought a hand carved parrot image as a gift for his mother.  Finally, it was time to go back on board, so we took a group picture of me, Peter, and our adopted daughters ($1 each), before we abandoned them.

As we got back to the ship, we could see the hoard of canoes at the back of the ship were still there.  The villagers in the canoes were looking up and we saw things being thrown down. So, as soon as we’d checked in dumped our stuff off, we went to see what was going on.

Basically, these people were ready to take anything we could give them.  Having seen the inside of our guides home, we now understood why an empty 5 gallon drum, or a tin of paint, were so coveted.  Some of the stuff was thrown down to be caught or retrieved from the river before it sank. Clothing, inflatable dinghy’s, baseball caps.  Other items were lowered on a rope in carrier bags. The villagers filled the bags with mangoes to be hauled back into the ship in exchange.  (Looks like mango on the menu tomorrow then). 

In some ways it seems a shame that these people appeared to be begging, but it was easy to understand why us tourists were happy to oblige.  They have so little, and were so pleased with things like empty containers and cardboard boxes, you can’t help but want to give.  Normally, there are collections on board ship for the local schools and children, and many people take paper and pens for them.  We ourselves left donations for the schools in the boxes provided.

The ship left Boca Do Valeria at 1pm. After all that excitement, we were shattered.  So lunch then a nap. 

Later this afternoon, we were back out on deck, binoculars and cameras at the ready, watching the Amazon Rain forest sail by.  I managed to see a large, red brown monkey in the trees, and a pair of parrots, (scarlet macaws our resident bird expert thinks).  Peter got to see a toucan and a great egret.  And of course, there are all the local residents, their homes, boats and livestock to see.  There was even a sort of farm with loads of horses.

Our last act today was to go out on deck after dinner, just to see what it was like out there in the dark.  We were treated to an awesome display of lightning flashes that went on and on and on.  There must have been at least 3 different storms going on across the horizon, and they filled the sky with constant and massive flashes of light, with barely space in between for it to go dark again.   We stood for ages just watching.  Absolutely wonderful.

So that is the end of another day.  Tomorrow we get to Manaus, where the ship will stay for two days before turning round and heading back for the ocean.  We are going on a “River Exploration “ tour – cool eh?

Boca da Valeria, Brazil, 2014
Boca da Valeria, Brazil, 2013
Boca da Valeria, Brazil, 2012

Day fourteen, Saturday 12th February – Santarem

It’s been a wonderful, busy day.  Really hot and I have taken so many photographs, I can’t choose which ones to put on the blog.  You’ll have to make do with what I manage to get on. 

We were up on deck almost as soon as we woke up.  We wanted to get our first sight of Santarem,  watch the ship dock, and (in my case especially), check out the moths that landed on the ship last night. 

My first impression of Santarem was that it was sprawled out alongside the river.  Not much in the way of high rise buildings.

The ship didn’t do too well at the docking thing either. It tried once, but the gangway on that side of the ship didn’t fit, so the ship had to sail away from the pier, turn round to face the other way, and try again.  The second attempt worked but it meant everything (tours and stuff) was running a little late.

Peter filmed all this docking malarkey while I wandered the decks taking pictures of the latest wildlife to attach itself.  It’s brilliant really, they all pose so well.  We wouldn’t even see these moths if they were in the forest, but on the ship they just smile and let hundreds of people take photos of them.  

Pics are of the small, normal size moths

Once the ship and passengers had clearance, and the queue died down, we sunscreened up and disembarked. I needed and decent hat, and hey presto, the first stall we came across 30 secs out of the port gates was selling them for $5 (£3.75).  I didn’t even haggle. 

Then we walked for at least 2 miles, maybe three.  Santarem is not a modern city.  It’s roads are poor, the paths are dangerous if you don’t watch where you are going, the drainage smelt bad and  most of the buildings were run down and unkempt.  But we loved it.

We visited the fish market first.  It’s built on stilts over the river, and at the back, a boy was using fish as bait to attract the famous Amazon pink dolphins.  They were fascinating, and both Peter and I filmed them for several minutes.

We carried on walking, along the riverside in the baking heat.  We saw vultures, big white birds we think are egrets, some big lizards eating carrion, yellow butterflies, massive dragonflies and a yellow and black bird that needs Moss to identify it, amongst other things. We got to the market and the main shopping street in Santarem.  To be honest, there was very little there to interest us, but we can tell you the Amazon Brazilians like hammocks, colourful clothes, shoes, football, and buying in bulk.  We checked out the local cathedral, which is bright blue on the outside, sparsely decorated inside and actually quite small. 

We carried on walking to a point where we could see the “meeting of the waters”.  This is a section of the river where another one joins it, but, the waters are different colours.  If I remember this right the Tapojas river is relatively clear in comparison to the muddy waters of the Amazon.  The two rivers run side by side, the water does not mix, for several miles. You can see the two types of water, side by side in the same river.  This happens several times on the Amazon.

The little park provided by the Santarem local authorities to look over the river and see this “non-mixing” was lovely:-  Benches, trees for shade and a little tower to go higher up in and see the river.  Not only that, free wi-fi!  And if that was not enough, there were power sockets all over the place for you to plug your laptop in.  Not necessarily safe, since these sockets were exposed, and the Amazon is noted for its rainfall, but the lad on the bench next door was quite happily working away plugged into one of them.

While we were here, we saw more birds and another iguana type thing clambered about in the tree above our heads.  We stayed for maybe an hour, taking advantage of the wi-fi, before setting off back to the ship.  Again, we walked for a good mile, before we got a lift, which we were beginning to need, because it was really, really hot.

Back at the ship we managed to get a sandwich (cos we’d not had lunch) before going out on deck. By now it’s about 4.45, and not worth us walking back into town again, so we watched the numerous boats go by, took loads more photo’s of birds, the river and Santarem, and chatted to other passengers until the ship until the captain announced it was time to leave. 

Dinner, a show, (the comedian) and back to the cabin to type this up.  We are worn out.   Tomorrow is an early start for Boca De Valeria.  I am really looking forward to it. 

Santarem, Brazil 2012
Santarem, Brazil 2103
Santarem, Brazil 2014

Day thirteen, Friday 11th February, Pilot Station at Macapa, Brazil.

We woke up this morning to see the first few islands of land in the Amazon delta passing us by.  Yes folks, we are actually on the Amazon River.  Amazing!

The ship stopped for the Brazilian authorities to do their thing.  We had been warned by the cruise director that it could take 4-6 hours..... and it did.  The ship dropped anchor at 7 am.  At 12 midday, the captain announced that they had been given clearance and a couple of pilots to carry on.  Fantastic!

We got up just before seven, and excitedly went out on deck to see what was what.  Well you have to don’t you.  Walking along the deck, passengers were talking about the moths, each passenger asking if you had seen the one on this deck or that corner?  These moths were huge and amazing.  I have added some photo’s for you.  One you can see is on a mans knee.  The others are equally massive, about the size of my hand.  We also came across a couple of bats, and there were loads of smaller moths everywhere.  Obviously they had been attracted by the lights overnight. It was fascinating, we spent a good hour just wandering the decks.

Breakfast, then back out on deck with the binoculars.  We went right up onto deck 9 at the front of the ship.  There were already loads of telescopes, massive photo lenses and binoculars there before us.  Moss, our resident bird expert was pointing out and explaining the vultures, terns and egrets that could be seen above the little islands of land to everyone that asked. (A very patient man).  I mentioned that our binoculars would probably not be the same standard that everyone else was using, but it turns out our jaunt to Jessops was a brilliant move.  Our £50 binoculars were keeping up with the ornithologists £1000 pair.  (OK, we know his were much better really, but the focus and sight were the same).  So with that endorsement, we carried on scanning the shores.

In fact, this is what we have been doing all day. The binoculars have turned out to be fantastic. We can see the closer shores and trees quite clearly.  We’ve watched families come out of their wooden homes and stand on jetty’s to watch the ship go by.  We’ve followed skimmers and vultures, and looked out for dolphins in the river and monkeys in the trees.  Unfortunately, we’ve not managed to see those yet.

It is mesmerizing watching the Amazon go by. My legs got burnt this time, and Peter is also looking redder than normal.  We started taking our Malarone yesterday, the Deet has come out of the cupboard and we will be covering up more on deck from now on.....   I saw one of those Mosquito’s, and they ain’t little.

We decided not to go to the show after dinner tonight, mostly because Peter has work to catch up on and we’ve been outside all day.  We did have a nap this afternoon, but I blame that on waking up too early.  (And before you say anything, I’ve been waking at about 5 in the morning and not been able to go back to sleep).

Anyway, it’s been a brilliant day, and tomorrow promises to be even better.  We stop at our first Amazonian port - Santarem.  

Santana and Macapa visit 2012
Santana and Macapa 2013
Santana and Macapa 2014