The Amazon!

After 2 days of rough sailing (probably 50% of the passengers were seasick), we arrived at the mouth of the Amazon Wed. night about 8 pm.  The Captain had warned us that he was pulling in the stabilizers about 100 miles before the entrance to the Amazon because the entrance was too shallow.  We were told to batten down the hatches because it could be rough.  We secured everything in the cabin and went to bed.  Never felt a thing.  It will take us 3 days (1000 miles) to sail down the Amazon to Maneuse. We woke to fog and rain and couldn't see a thing.  However, when it cleared it was incredible to see this river that looked like huge lake, brown water, green shores and today we even saw cattle and horses on the banks.  Plenty of boats of every shape and size up and down the river.  One man in an outboard circled the ship, videoing the entire time.  Must have been plenty of passengers waving to him because he waved back the entire time.


 We anchored yesterday afternoon in the middle of the river channel  to pick up some diplomats (including the wife of the U.S. Ambassador), Brazilian officials and banking exchange personnel.  I watched the crew put together a small dock and steps for them to board, using the same steps that we disembarked on from the 5th deck.  But the amazing thing was that oil tankers, container ships and cruise ships were passing us on both sides! 


The diplomats are lecturing tonight so I'm anxious to hear what they have to say.  We are not flying to Rio de Janeiro like many passengers are but will stay on the ship and take day trips. We still have the extra bed and there is an airport in Maneuse!  The humidity is high but will get higher in the rain forests obviously.  On some of these trips inland, you sleep outside on the deck of the boat in hammocks, inches apart and we decided that that was not our cup of tea.


We finally got the computer fixed after a frustrating 4 days,  and Rick will try to put photos on.  Access to broad band is very limited as 600 students, faculty and staff are on computers all the time.  The students have to pay for internet, but LLLs do not, which is great, if you can get on!  If not, we'll try an internet cafe in Maneuse.  Joan