Sunday – Boca Do Valeria
Today we arrived in Boca Do Valeria, a small indian village only accessible by tender boat, billed as the genuine Amazonian village experience… which it is.
Boca Do Valeria represents a meeting of cultures; Indian villagers who apparently have very little, being visited by hordes of cruise ship tourists, who apparently have everything. It’s a village with a population of only 75, yet, when a cruise ship comes in, those numbers are swelled by people from other villages, aiming to capitalise on the moment, looking for the opportunity to make a few dollars… so, who is exploiting who here?
From the minute you step out off the tender, and onto the small wooden quay, passengers are besieged by children. They want to hold your hand and be your friend for the duration of your visit – for that, they can demand one dollar. Some don’t even go as far as that pretence; they just stick out their hand and ask for a dollar…
We’ve been here before, of course, and have learnt to keep our hands well and truly in our pockets. People who have never been here before are easy to spot; they’ll have at least one child on each arm, possibly more.
So far, the weather in the Amazon region has been very kind to us; today was no exception. We wandered down the village’s length looking at the crafts on display, and the wide and varied collection of animals; sloths, spiders, big bugs, parrots, alligators, and a couple of massive cat-fish. A few villagers had gone to the trouble of dressing up in their native costume, and were willing to pose for photographs – for a dollar, of course.
After a welcome, cooling drink in the bar, we took one of the $5 per person boat rides on offer. The ship’s blurb on visiting Boca Do Valeria distances itself from these little tours; we’ve found in the past, and certainly again today, that they amount to one of the best $10 we’ll spend on the whole cruise. Our boatman took us along an assortment of small river tributaries, slowing down at appropriate moments for us to take photographs, and delighting in showing us a little bit of his homeland. The trip lasted about 20 minutes.
On our return to Boca Do Valeria, we had another swift drink in the bar (I should say at this point; they were serving small cans of Skol – a drink I wouldn’t be seen dead drinking at home in the UK – at $2 per can… the big selling-point being that they are highly chilled, and perfect for the moment) and then decided to take a walk into the jungle. An easy-to-follow path leads into thick forest, where the star attraction is the sound; insects buzz and birds chirrup in a fantastic cacophony of surround-sound. Somewhere not too far away, we could hear the sounds of monkeys and other beasts, although the only wildlife we saw were ants and a small striped frog. Others we passed going in the opposite direction claimed to have seen a humming bird, and snakes had been spotted, too… alas, no such sightings for us today.
Boca Do Valeria never disappoints. At first glance, it would be easy to dismiss it, offering very little for the visitor to do. You have to remember, though, that this is the way they live, and trade-offs with visiting cruise passengers provide them with much-needed income. As for there being nothing to do; we always find plenty to do here. The boat trip is a must-do, and the walk into the jungle feels like you’re really getting to the heart of the rain forest.
It was a short day today. We’d made the most of it mostly because I forgot to put our clocks back an hour last night; we’re now 4 hours behind UK time. I spent the latter half of the afternoon, after lunch, painting in the cabin, producing my first two Boat and Stilt House paintings of 2013. Tomorrow, we’ll be arriving in Manaus, but not until after lunch, so I’ll be painting in the morning as well, making the most of the non-workshop time I have available to me.
