Boca da Valeria

Boca means "mouth of", so this tiny hamlet is at the mouth of the Valeria River. We arrived at Boca on time at 7:00 AM and the tenders started taking pasengers to a tiny wharf. As soon as the tenders started loading, boat loads of locals came along side and offered their necklaces for sale. They did a booming business all day until we departed at 2:00 PM.

Ruth did not want to go ashore and I almost decided not to go either, but I changed my mind and went ashore after a short rain shower around 10:00 AM. There were these long, narrow boats with tiny outboards that had a long shaft extended at about a 30 degree angle with a propeller on the end. Typically the boats were filled with one family group. This included mother, father, sons, daughters and babies.

Everything seems to be worth a dollar in Brazil. Take a picture of a person, the person's pet, the person's baby or anything else associated with the person and it costs one dollar. As soon as I got on shore a little boy about 8 years old came up and held my hand and led me to where everyone else was headed. I tried to disentangle myself to no avail. After ten minutes or so we approached a little hut selling Coke and other soft drinks. In order to free myself - you guessed it - I gave him a dollar and motioned him to go get a Coke for himself. That worked really well for about 10 yards when his relay team member met me. This one was about 14 and did not try to hold my hand. He talked incessantly in Portugese as he led me up the trail. He stayed with me all the way until my return to the general area adjacent to the landing area. Another dollar.

I was just standing around taking pictures when a fellow passenger approached me and asked if i would go with her on one of the motorized canoes. She said the couple she was with had just left and the canoe only carried two passengers plus the Captain. I finally said yes and I was happy I did. It turned out this lady was a Christian, who had a disabled husband onboard that could not do shore cursions. She told me her husband was involved in an accident that left him both mentally and physically impaired. She related how evident the Lord's hand was for he almost died of his injuries more than once during his recovery. It was so refreshing to meet another Christian who appreciated the Lord's good hand.

I took many pictures on this 45 minute canoe excursion including egrets, huts, birds I could not identify, churches(two), other canoes with either local famiies or fellow passengers and a brahma up to his (I think) neck in the water cooling off and chewing on some grass clumps brought into the water with him or her. We each paid five dollars for this ride, which was worth every penny. I ended up buying some of the local's necklaces (for a dollar a piece) before returning to the ship.

From the time we arrived until departure, we saw many pink dolphins playing around the ship and in the wake of the tenders as they made there journey back and forth to the dock. I tried to get photos, but it was impossible as they just surface momentarily and go under again. Ruth saw a group of four together, but mostly they were singles or doubles. These particular dolphins are fresh water and never go into salt water. Another species of greys go back and forth from fresh to salt water.

Our ship was the first one to come this season, so some of the natives had come from as far away as Manaus for the event. I'm sure it was worth their time.

Currently our position is 02 degrees 33.15' S 057 degrees 01.02" W. The skies are partly cloudy.

The Captain just made an announcement we are currently going through the deepest part of the Amazon where the depth is 300 feet. In about 20 minutes we will come to the point where the Amazon has three channels. We will take the most Northerly of the channels which also happens to be the narrowest part of the Amazon with the shore just 200 yards on each side of us. I'll take some videos and check them with JohnMark as he shows me on Google the channel we will soon navigate. JohnMark: we are just 78 miles upstream from Boca da Valeria, so try to find it and show it to me when we get home

Love to all.