(^164) Day 4
At around 5 in the morning, we woke to a huge commotion. Passengers were getting
ready to disembark at Santarem. Our early rise resulted in our first sighting of a
sunrise over the Amazon. Santarem was quite a large town, for the Amazon, and
much was loaded and offloaded. The Rondondin only departed Santarem at midday.
We didn’t venture into town as Amanda, again, didn’t feel well. Santarem was
situated at the confluence of the brown Amazon River and the dark Rio Tapajos. The
incredible thing is that the two rivers flowed side by side for quite a distance without
mixing.
The remainder of the day slipped by as our boat putt-putted upriver past various
scenery—sometimes flat, grassy islands and at times thick jungle. Tiny wooden
houses popped out of the forest to remind us that people indeed lived in this remote
part of the world. The river was massive and hid its treasures well.
With it being the last day of 2011, we drank a few beers in the company of our
friendly fellow passengers but retired before midnight. We woke again a few hours
later as our boat pulled into another small harbour to offload cargo. Anchoring and
casting off brought great excitement as little else happened on board.
Day 5
The first day of 2012 dawned with thick, dark clouds in the distance. As it was still
pretty dark at 7h00, I was unsure if this was due to the cloud cover or if we had
moved west. Breakfast, like every morning, consisted of fruit, coffee, juice, bread,
ham and cheese – a typical Brazilian breakfast.
I felt slightly disappointed, not because I hadn’t seen any spear-toting tribes or man-
eating piranhas, but because I had failed to get any decent photos. Instead, they
were all hazy or blurry. I tried almost everything, but to no avail, they stayed blurry
and hazy.
leana
(Leana)
#1