Boca da Valeria, Brazil

Boca da Valeria, Brazil

When we woke up this morning a little before 6 we were already at Boca. This is a stop that I’ve really been waiting for as it is a small primitive village on the bank of the Amazon. We ordered our room service breakfast and ate as we watched the ship getting ready for the tendering operation. At 7:30 I decided to head for the Showroom to get a tender ticket since I wanted to be there (hopefully) on the first tender… the showroom was empty - everyone else apparently slept in. There were about 15 of us on that first tender and we were greeted by about 100 people - mostly children. They actually let school out for the day when a ship stops. Many of the children brought their pets and others were dressed in costumes. The only thing that spoiled it was their cries of “one dollar” “picture one dollar” We ran out of $1 bills pretty quickly but I did get some good pictures and I got to hold a sloth and a toucan. The sloth was darling… I’d like to take him home - he could live on the patio with Fred. They move so slowly it’s hard to believe he was real and his face was so cute and tiny - his whole head was probably smaller than a golfball. There were several monkeys, but this one was the cutest by far… very tiny hardly bigger than a mans hand and the baby was sooo cute.

There were several new buildings made of concrete, a church, school and a recreation/gathering center. The houses were all wooden and built on stilts. Some houses were decorated with artsy-type painting. I was taking some shots of one and the lady invited us in. There was a porch surrounding the whole house and then three rooms, kitchen with a gas stove and a rusty looking chest freezer (no fridge), bedroom and living room which was probably also the childrens’ sleeping room. We thanked her and tipped her and then walked back to the area where the tender docked to take a canoe ride up the river.

As soon as we had gotten off the tender we were adopted by about a dozen children and one young man… they stayed with us the whole time… the little girls taking turns holding hands with me. The young man had one of the boats and since we had said we would go with him I guess he didn’t want to loose us.

We got in the canoe and he headed up the river using a paddle at first and then a very small Honda motor mounted at the side of the canoe. We passed more houses - some with a cow or goats and a number with dogs. We also saw some different types of birds and then he turned the boat through the reeds and we were in a pond-type area that was full of the giant lily pads. Spectacular! He kind of paddled and poled us around there until we had our fill of pictures and then we headed back. I was about melted into a puddle of goo by this time, but that canoe ride was the best thing we’ve done since the Antarctic - it was actually worth the heat. But, good heavens the air conditioning felt good back on the ship.

We cooled off and then headed to lunch… then a bit more reading then Trivia and now we are sitting on the aft deck behind the Lido (at one of the three smoking tables) and I’m writing and running side to side taking pictures. We are just now going through a rain shower but it will clear in a few minutes. It’s hot and muggy but there is just enough breeze to keep it tolerable.

Tomorrow Manaus.