November 20 Santarem, Brazil

 

 

Since Santarem is a city of over 300,000, we did not go to the city center.  Found out from others that it is no big deal.  So we went ashore just near the ship.  And, no bugs or anything like that at the dock.  Tomorrow may be different as we are going to a small village.

 

First thing we saw whe we went ashore was this boat loading passengers and fruit.  The fruit was plantains, and papaya and potatoes.  The passengers didn’t sit on seats, they hung in hammocks.  I don’t know how long a trip they are taking, since most had coolers with them.

 

        

 

There was a small bunch of craft stands near the ship.  We went there and had to buy a piranha.  They cost either 2, 3, 4 or 5 dollars.  Those prices were right next to each other.  I even bought some earrings with fish on them.  Real dried fish.

 

      

 

And, no, we did not go swimming with the fishes.

 

   Last night’s sunset.

Our Itinerary, better late than never

It difficult to explain how this river works.  So I tried to get pictures off the TV.  Sorry about the quality.  Keep an eye out for all the islands.  They look little, but they are not.

 

   This where we enter Brazil and the Amazon

   Close up of the river near where we are.  Look at all those tributaries.  And those are the only ones that show up on the satilite map.

 

    see all the islands.  The Amazon is more of a meandering river than just a wide one.  We mostly sailing between islands and the shore, or maybe it is 2 islands.  I can’t tell.

 

 

 

   this is where we are right now.  Tonight we move over to Santaram, just to the right on the picture above.

 

I hope all this is not TMI.  It is just fascinating.  Maybe you can get some info at home and send us some questions.  Oh, yea, it is about 90 degrees with the same humidity.  Will let you know about bugs and stuff after we go ashore tomorrow.  We discovered, as we often do no matter how many times we travel, that when we go to sea level, after one week we get very tired.  Same thing will happen when we get home.  Each time we think we might be getting sick, when all it is is altitude adjustment.  Hopefully it will pass soon.

November 19 Alter do Chao, Brazil

 

So after yesterday’s excitement, we went back to the doctor, who removed Duane’s IV.  Then we carefully had breakfast.  Since Alter is a beach resort for this area of the Amazon, I took pictures from our balcony and Duane went back to sleep.  This early evening we leave here and arrive in Santarem, just up the river.

 

                                                                           

 

The beaches here are said to equal the most beautiful ocean beaches.  Notice the water is blue.  Up to now it has been brown, from the sedement (sp).  Here, a tributary comes in and has lots of clean blue water.  You could take a local canoe to where the river meets the tributary.  But we are staying on board to give Duane a chance to recover.  Maybe tonight when we get to Santarem, we might go ashore.  Since we are staying there overnight, I am sure we will see it tomorrow.

Nov 18 Macapa, Brazil

 

We are now cruising on the Amazon.  We passed over the equator at about 6:30 am, so I did not go outside to see it.  What “it” is, is actually nothing (as you all know).  Now water drains counter clockwise.  We found out why clocks go clockwise.  Because they were invented in the nothern hemisphere, it goes in the same direction as water goes down a drain.  Had the clock been invented in the southern hemisphere, everything would be backwards.  Yeah, we get 2 lectures a day and pick up all kinds of interesting and useless info.  We like it, tho.

 

                                                       this is what the “jungle” looks like from the ship.  We are told that it is not a jungle, but a tropical rain forest.  I will use jungle from now on, anyway.

 

                                                               The Amazon is, in places, 30 miles wide.  I expected to be on a huge wide river.  Not so.  Turns out the river has many channels and islands.  Even with that, this picture shows how wide it is between two islands.  There are even sharks here.  And more water comes out of the Amazon than any other river in the world.  There is fresh water out over 100 miles.  I think I told you that before, but it is just amazing.

 

The title of this post is Macapa.  We were fooled into thinking we were going ashore here.  But not so.  Immigration came aboard the ship instead.  We didn’t have to do anything, which is great.  I got out of the elevator today and 5 men were getting on.  They all wore either a suit or uniform.  So, I saluted and went on my way.  They smiled, so I am still a free woman.

 

Then things got interesting.  Not the kind we like.  I had trouble with my ostomy.  Nothing awful happened, I just had to clean up and start again.  That done Duane got jealous and wanted some attention (believe me this is a joke..)  During dinner something happened and he got a terrible bought of relux, or that kind of thing.  We ended up at the clinic on board.  They gave him some meds, some by shot, some by mouth and some introveniously.  He did not get any better until they gave him another shot 2 hours later.  He fell asleep and slept the whole night.  He was much better by the morning.