Thursday December 31, 2015 – Boca da Valeria, Brazil – New Years Eve

We dropped anchor about 7 am in Boca da Valeria, but we didn’t get up until about 7:30.  We had some breakfast in La Veranda and then went to the tender to go ashore.  Boca da Valeria is a very small village on the Amazon and it gives us an opportunity to see how they live along the river.

The villagers were out in force, especially the children.  We brought the chocolates from our room and we handed those out.  They ate them with great abandon, but the down side of it was they threw the paper wrappers that the chocolate came in on the ground.  Not so good as all of this trash will end up in the Amazon River.  Oh well, the children enjoyed it.

We followed Mirjana for a while as she was in search of the local shaman.  She got way ahead of us and we ran into Robin and Michael from Plantation.  They had met a local man, Sergio, who showed us around.  We then found John and Janet and I asked Sergio to take us to a boat for a ride up the river.  He took us to Ishmai, who had a covered dugout with a longneck motor on it.  We started up the river. 

Panorama of the very muddy and very wide Amazon River

The muddy Amazon River

Some of the locals in Boca da Valeria came out in traditional costume

The village built up on stilts because of the rainy season when this is flooded

A young boy with his pet

Inside the church on Boca da Valeria

The small village of Boca da Valeria

Tim, Sergio, Robin, and Michael

There was beautiful jungle scenery on both sides.  We rode inland for about 30 minutes and then stopped at a landing site.  Young boys were there with a giant pet rat and other animals, including sloths and monkeys.  We walked up a steep hill to the village where Sergio lives.  There was a great lookout point and we could see The Mariner at anchor off shore.

Sergio then took us to his home where he lives with his wife and six children.  Amazing is all I can say.  One of the grandmothers lived there too.  He was very proud to show us his home.

Loading on the canoe for our ride up the river

Ready for our river ride at Boca da Valeria

John and Janet from Newport Beach, CA

The muddy river off of the Amazon

Our canoe driver in Boca da Valeria

Lots of marshland

Homes along the way

A young boy with his pet rat - a VERY LARGE pet rat1

A selfie up river at Boca da Valeria

The small village where Sergio lives

Sergio's home and family

Janet with Sergio's wife and twins

Sergio showing us his pet turtles - I really think they are for meals!

The Festival grounds in Sergio's small village

Janet with 2 young boys

Boats along the river

We then bought a beer at the local pub and walked through their festival grounds on the way back to the dugout.  We loaded up and headed back to Boca da Valeria.  A great river tour.

When we got back, I paid Sergio (50 reales) and Ishmai (60 reales) for the tour.  Tim and I went and had a cold beer at a small hut serving cold drinks.  The beer was Kirin Brazil beer and was only $1 USD each!

It was VERY hot and the beer tasted so good

Back to the Amazon - we saw pink dolphins here

We then headed back to the dock and while waiting for the tender, a pink dolphin broke the surface right off shore.  We saw it several times.

It was a short ride back to the ship.  We went to La Veranda for lunch.  Tim finally got his grilled fish sandwich that he has been talking about and I had the pasta bar and a salad for lunch.

Then it was cold shower time and nap time.  It was so hot outside and sticky – very humid so the shower felt good.

We relaxed in the room for a while and I took a short nap as the meds make me sleepy.  At 2:30 the Captain came on and we pulled anchor and set sail inland to Manaus.  We’ll be there early tomorrow morning.

The New Years Celebration in the theatre

We relaxed during the afternoon and then got dressed for our New Years Eve dinner in Prime 7.  We had a martini at Prime 7 followed by a wonderful New Years Eve steak dinner.  We rested in the cabin after dinner and then went to Observation Lounge for a glass of champagne.  We went to the Theatre at 10:15 for the New Years Eve Celebration.  The entertainers danced and sang while passengers danced.  The staff had made a huge ice carving of 2015 and at midnight they changed it to 2016.  It was a fun celebration.

We headed off to the cabin about 12:30 as we have an early day tomorrow.