Tobago

Today we docked in Scarborough, Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago became independent from Great Britain in 1962. Tobago is a "little" island in comparison but most of the islands around here are little. 

We took a tour to the old fort built by the English way back when 

We drove thru some neighborhoods which are dotted with vibrantly colored homes. I asked what a 2 bedroom home would cost and our guide said about US$70,000. 

We also went to a folkloric show with dancers and 

Musicians playing steel and conga drums.

Tobago is a pretty place with friendly folks

And a few pelicans too.

 

Next Blanket

People

 

A boatman who was our guide.

A little girl and her dad

Lonely Bull (notice how low the grass is? It's been grazed off by the cattle)

Traffic Jam

This is the outskirts of Manaus!

 

Cruisin' Down the River

This is our second trip on the Amazon. The first was on a small 20 pax boat on the Upper Amazon out of Iquitos, Peru. There we saw a primitive Amazon with people who were living in the back of beyond. It was more pristine and more primitive than where we are now. The Lower Amazon in Brazil is not a backwater. It is still remote. It takes days to sail to Manaus, but once you get there, you are in a city of 2.1 million souls. There are other large cities here too such as Santarem, Boca de Valeria, Pintarins, Macapa...to name a few. Then there are small villages that dot the smaller rivers that feed into the Amazon. 

These communities work like communities everywhere.  People are trying to earn a living, rear their families, and have "the good life." We float by in our lux ship and wonder about how they do it...while they wonder the same about us.

In this part of the Amazon, there are fires burning all the time. The air smells of smoke. It's the result of slash and burn agriculture that is used by the folks along the River. 

The Market at Manaus along the waterfront. This Market was built at the turn of the last century. Manaus is an "old" city.

A floating "gas station" outside of Manaus...but we saw them in the other larger towns too. Just drive your boat up to the dock and get filled up.

A boat ramp. The water is low now but during the rainy season, the ramp will be underwater up to the narrows. You can see 2 intermediary ramps too.

You will see these big lily pads in the tributaries but not the main river. We found out yesterday they are pollinated by the scarab beetle.

One of the larger towns on the River with skyscrapers, cell towers and beach front property.

And day after day we sail by the rainforest that hides so much. The forest is dense and lush--the lungs of the planet. 

Lonely huts dot the River.

One of hundreds of tiny streams flowing into the Amazon.

Life on the River

Blanket #31

The cruise diretor gave the aqua blanket to this girl in Boca de Valerio. She was so happy to receive it. You might think that blankets are not needed in this climate, but it does get cooler at night and a little coverup is needed.

In the meantime, I made another one...lavender this time, that Silky has decided to keep for himself (at least for now). 

Manaus. Etc.

Today we took a shore excursion to a village named "January Lake" (in Portuguese). We took a double decked boat to a meeting place

 

And transferred to these tiny covered skiffs. They are motorized with a 2 stroke Yamaha engine causing lots of choking smoke and smell. Nevertheless, we plied thru the River looking for birds and stuff. We had success.

My best egret picture

I have no idea what this bird is, but he was wading along the shore. We also saw black vultures which are spooking looking.

After awhile we saw some villages. The first one even had a satellite dish propped on top of a hut. We might be in the middle of nowhere, but there is satellite TV!

Another hut had a window air conditioning unit. In this heat, that makes a lot of sense, but none of us expected to see it!

We saw a few people in the village, including the following

Bath time for baby

Mother and Child

Sisters

Don't Fall!

Laundry Day

Life on the River is not easy. It's hot and humid; lacking in most mod-cons; the water is ever present; yet 

Folks work together and make it work. 

 

A Night at the Opera

We are in Manaus, about 1000 miles from the ocean on the Amazon River, and we went to the symphony tonight! You gotta just love this. Manaus is not your typical river town, it's a city of 2.1 million souls and when Rubber was King, it was the place where the Rubber Barons had a grand time. Of course that time was at the turn of the last century...since then the flower has faded some. 

In 1896 a grand opera house was completed.  Manaus, which was called the "Paris of the Tropics" had it all! 

They listened to music and saw performances as though they were at the Opera House in Paris or LaScala in Milan. This was "the place to be."

The lights were imported from Venice; the metal work from Glasgow; and modern electricity from the USA. The Manaus Opera House has been alive and well for 120 years. Tonight we went to a performance of the Orquestra Experimental da Amazonas Filarmonica. What a treat! 

Santarem

We took a cute little boat on the River yesterday. We looked at the frown of Santarem, which is far bigger than I thought it would be while we learned about the meeting of the waters. At that point in the River, one of the many tributaries of the Amazon joins in, causing the muddy water of one to blend into the less muddy water of the other. It's all relative...some mud is darker than other mud,  but it's still mud.

Santarem on the banks fo the River is one fo the oldest cities in Brazil with a population of 300,000. We have been on the Amazon in Peru and there are NO cities that size there, so this city as a real surprise for me.

The blue church, the Cathedral of Our Lady Conceicao was built in 1761. As you can see there is a thriving modern waterfront at the steps of the Cathedral. 

We did not stop in the city, instead we took a boat to fish for piranha in Maica Lake. We thought we were going to a real lake, instead we went to a flood plane -- in high water it is is a lake, in low water (now) it's more like a canal. Along the way 

Our little boat with 30 pax plied past birds, small villages, farms, and even a sloth hiding in a tree.

Can you find the illusive creature. I actually saw this fellow move...but the motion is so slow it's almost impossible to catch. 

In the end, one for our friends actually caught a piranha -- a five inches of fury and a mouthful of teeth. I had two bites on my line, but but he time I brought the line in, the fish had eaten the bait and gone away. 

The villagers ride in motorized canoes

Kids sit on the steps in front of the home and wave at the people in the boats passing by.

Sometimes there's a derelict home and boat, leaving me to wonder what happened? Life is hard on the edges of civilization.

A tiger egret near the River.

Canoes waiting for their owners to take them to another place on the River.

The weaver bird nests hang from a tree and in the background you can see the rainforest. It is not never ending, as on the horizon there were fires where part of it was being burned for a small patch of farmland.

One of several small farms we saw.

Our time on the River was cut short as the sun was beginning to set. Time to return to the plush comforts of The Prinsendam ... a completely different world from what we were exploring on our little boat.