Sunday, March 12, 2023

March 10 - A little detour on the Amazon

Because of water levels and because the Brazilian authorities gave permission, we stopped for a few hours in an area called Canacari  here on the Amazon.  This afforded some of the passengers another opportunity to go for a zodiac ride this afternoon.  The rest of us stayed on the ship and did the usual sea day activities.


The scenery is much the same as it has been on the days we’ve been sailing on the river except that there seems to be a lot more debris.  I’ve seen lots of whole trees moving downriver and lots of leafy branches.  There must have been heavy rainstorms  further upriver. It’s not the most exciting landscape to sail by.

Kind of boring scenery when you've seen it for close to 1000 miles

I'm guessing that the bridge watch keeps a close eye on things like these trees as we cruise along


In the morning I heard a lecture on the state of the Amazon region.  It was interesting in that this lecturer seemed to have a different opinion about how Brazil’s recent election might affect policies to protect the region from some other people who have spoken about it.  At this point about 16% of the Amazon rainforest has been cleared, primarily for cattle farming.


We had our last trivia game for this segment, and since two of our members are getting off in Manaus on Sunday, we had a team luncheon in the dining room. We didn’t win but we weren’t on the bottom either. In fact, I think we improved a little. Maybe there’s hope for the last segment of the cruise when we resume trivia on sea days.


In the evening I arranged for a girls’ night at the Thomas Keller Grill.  We had a lovely time and laughed a lot.  I think the Old Cubans, a new drink that I tried for the first time not long after boarding the ship, that we all had made us a little mellow.  Afterwards we went to the show which was okay, not as good as some we’ve seen. I don’t know where the days go but they sure are zipping by.


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