Travel Blog -Thursday,
January 9, 2014
Return to Boca da Valeria
One week ago, we visited the village
of Boca da Valeria. We were enchanted by the simple lives of the
people here, especially the children. In
many ways, the settlement is reminiscent of a century ago.
We decided on today’s visit to take a ride to the backwaters
of the area aboard one of the wooden canoes operated by the villagers. Unlike a
century ago, the canoes now have outboard motors, of a fashion. The chugging outboards more closely resemble
lawnmower engines connected to very shank propellers. Even without a reverse gear, they navigate
the shallow backwaters handily.
The two of us were the only passengers in the canoe and the watercraft’s
owner, Paolo, spoke no English. We
traveled through narrow channels, beneath overhanging branches and viewed homes
sitting high on stilts, ready for the next rainy season. This was a rare opportunity to view how so
many of the residents of Amazonia live.
 | |
| Typical Boca da Valeria home |
Although threatening clouds that mark the start of the rainy
season appeared to be heading our direction, they held off for us. The temperature was much more pleasant than
our visit last week and we returned after an hour, ready for some cold drinks,
before boarding the tenders for our return to the ship.
The children, with warm smiles on their faces, gathered
around us, ready for any handout we might have had. Unfortunately, we had disposed of many of
these on last week’s visit. We didn’t
think we could get away with bringing one of the little girls home, but the
thought was on the mind of nearly every one of our shipmates.
After our one hour duty at the Port Lecturers’ desk, we
headed to an excellent dinner and a fantastic music/comedy show.
We turned in earlier, ready for the time zone change and
another busy Friday.
