Jan 19, 2016; Guama River Excursion
Weather prediction for this morning was a chance for rain, but the day dawned with beautiful skies and soon it became very, very warm and humid. I thought living in South Florida would prepare us for being in tropical Brazil....not so much!!
After annointing ourselves with sunscreen (!!) and bug spray, we took off. We read Consumer Reports study on insect repellent before we left so we're currently using lemon eucalyptus, which smells much better than DEET. We also have a set each of clothing in a plastic bag that have been sprayed with permithrin for those areas where the incidence of malaria is much higher according to the CDC.
We boarded a wonderfully painted excursion boat directly from Insignia. Somehow the blue, green and orange paint just fit the scene perfectly. We were taken into Belem's port but immediately transfered to a similarly painted ship for our sail up the Guama River.
The Guama is all part of the Amazon river system so we were pretty thrilled to be sailing such a famous river. The houses are quite separated from each other, many brightly painted, and every one I saw had a long pier into the river. The piers served a wide variety of purposes; boats were tied up, men fished, and clothes hung to dry while dogs slept.
Since the students were on vacation, many were out on the family piers and waved at us as we went by. Some jumped into the water, we cheered, and other kids then quickly followed, each with a more spectacular leap than his/her predecessor. Applause from everyone! Awesome experience!!!
We then landed and were taken on a walking tour of the jungle. We visited a school, obviously not in session, and saw young men wearing blue shirts with "taxi" written on them on motor bikes transporting women with grocery bags down muddy paths back into their homes in the jungle. Sometimes whole families were on the bikes!
One man shinnied up a very tall palm tree, using a twisted vine as a foot support, set the tree swaying, transferred to another tree in mid-air and then came down that tree in a controlled fall--he was 75+ years old. Amazing!!
We were shown various trees and smaller plants with a variety of medicinal properties. Our guide offered to let us hold a ginormous tarantula but notice I did not get close enough to take a photo and I believe David was somewhere behind me!
One young man showed us how he trimmed Brazil nuts with his machete and gave us the nuts to taste. I complimented him on his fine hair and got the sweetest grin! Who knew you could get blond tips in the Amazonian river system!!
Returning to the Insignia in a ship's tender was what we refer to as a Disney "E Ticket Ride" and was perhaps a little more "E" than I would have liked. I scored 2 great seats so that David could get fresh air from both open sides and could see out. He successfully rode the tender back!!
My sage advice for getting on and off tender boats--think about what your feet are wearing. Flip flops and flimsy sandals are not the safest thing to wear. Kudos to the young men of Oceania who brought everyone on board the tenders. I'm sure the passengers must sorely try their patience.
Boa Noite (Good Evening) from Cynthia
Weather prediction for this morning was a chance for rain, but the day dawned with beautiful skies and soon it became very, very warm and humid. I thought living in South Florida would prepare us for being in tropical Brazil....not so much!!
After annointing ourselves with sunscreen (!!) and bug spray, we took off. We read Consumer Reports study on insect repellent before we left so we're currently using lemon eucalyptus, which smells much better than DEET. We also have a set each of clothing in a plastic bag that have been sprayed with permithrin for those areas where the incidence of malaria is much higher according to the CDC.
We boarded a wonderfully painted excursion boat directly from Insignia. Somehow the blue, green and orange paint just fit the scene perfectly. We were taken into Belem's port but immediately transfered to a similarly painted ship for our sail up the Guama River.
The Guama is all part of the Amazon river system so we were pretty thrilled to be sailing such a famous river. The houses are quite separated from each other, many brightly painted, and every one I saw had a long pier into the river. The piers served a wide variety of purposes; boats were tied up, men fished, and clothes hung to dry while dogs slept.
Since the students were on vacation, many were out on the family piers and waved at us as we went by. Some jumped into the water, we cheered, and other kids then quickly followed, each with a more spectacular leap than his/her predecessor. Applause from everyone! Awesome experience!!!
We then landed and were taken on a walking tour of the jungle. We visited a school, obviously not in session, and saw young men wearing blue shirts with "taxi" written on them on motor bikes transporting women with grocery bags down muddy paths back into their homes in the jungle. Sometimes whole families were on the bikes!
One man shinnied up a very tall palm tree, using a twisted vine as a foot support, set the tree swaying, transferred to another tree in mid-air and then came down that tree in a controlled fall--he was 75+ years old. Amazing!!
We were shown various trees and smaller plants with a variety of medicinal properties. Our guide offered to let us hold a ginormous tarantula but notice I did not get close enough to take a photo and I believe David was somewhere behind me!
One young man showed us how he trimmed Brazil nuts with his machete and gave us the nuts to taste. I complimented him on his fine hair and got the sweetest grin! Who knew you could get blond tips in the Amazonian river system!!
Returning to the Insignia in a ship's tender was what we refer to as a Disney "E Ticket Ride" and was perhaps a little more "E" than I would have liked. I scored 2 great seats so that David could get fresh air from both open sides and could see out. He successfully rode the tender back!!
My sage advice for getting on and off tender boats--think about what your feet are wearing. Flip flops and flimsy sandals are not the safest thing to wear. Kudos to the young men of Oceania who brought everyone on board the tenders. I'm sure the passengers must sorely try their patience.
Boa Noite (Good Evening) from Cynthia
3 comments:
Really like the multi-colored boats. Kid/people shots great too. I feel like I'm actually there. Thx for taking me along! I'm curious, did you lemon eucalyptus bug repellent work well? What brand is it? Francie
Francie,
We didn't have a single mosquito bite although they were flying around but left us alone. The area we were in was rated "low" risk by the CDC.
the name brand is Repel and we bought it at Walmart in a 4 oz atomizer. It is the 2nd highest rated by Consumer Reports and smells waaaay better than DEET. The label says it is DEET-Free and repels for 6 hrs and the size we bought would be great for a backpack or purse to reapply if necessary.
David loves the Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus and says he'll use it as much as possible rather than the DEET. I haven't decided!
glad you liked the pictures. Easy to take them when the area is so wonderful for photography.
Great people shots ... I'm usually too shy to photograph the people we encounter in our travels, so I enjoy seeing the ones others take.
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