Wednesday – Parintins
Today was a half day, and my turn to run two classes just in the morning. I didn’t mind; it gave me an opportunity to show off my new paintings, which I’ve attached to the window of the door to the craft room so that all passengers can see them in passing (I’m hoping, of course, that it prompts an equiry or two…)
After lunch, we took the tender boat ashore to see Parintins. Last year, we went to the Boi Bumba Festival show; having seen it once, we didn’t feel the need to partake again, so we opted for a gentle meander around the village. Not that there’s a huge amount to see; we walked along the river’s edge in a direction we hadn’t been before, until the buildings started thinning out, at which point it felt like the right moment to turn around and head back. We joined a group of lecturers and entertainers in one of the bars and finished the afternoon off with a pleasant drink before catching the tender boat back to the ship.
This evening, a slight change to the itinerary has been annnounced. It seems the Brazilian authoriities have made a change to berthing requirements at Macapa, meaning we have to head stratight there from our stop in Alto De Chao tomorrow to get to Macapa before 2:30pm on Friday, meaning we’re having to miss out Almeirim. This is a shame, since we really liked Almeirim last year – it certainly has a lot more going for it than Macapa. Unfortunately, I suspect the decision to change things this way has somethinng to do withh shore excursions that have already been booked for Alta de Chao and Macapa – Almeirim would only have been a half day and didn’t include any excursions. Never mind…. it’s not the end of the world.
Tonight, we put the clocks forward one hour, which will mean we are oonly 3 hours hours behind UK time. This also marks the exact halfway point of our cruise.
