The Mouth of The River Amazon

This morning we awoke to find ourselves in the mouth of the great River Amazon. Tracey was up at the crack of dawn, heading upstairs, loaded down with cameras hoping to see lots of moths and bugs on deck, while I grabbed a few extra minutes before joining her (don’t get me wrong, I like bugs too, but I can’t quite match Tracey’s enthusiasm for the little critters).

The bug count was a little down on previous visits, but we fully expect that to improve from tomorrow onwards as we head upriver and the local moth and beetle population passes the word around that we’re in the neighbourhood. There were a few moths dotted around the ship, though; enough to keep the cameras snapping eagerly.

We dropped anchor by the pilot station near Macapa, for what was billed a ‘technical stop’. In other words, we were there to welcome several representatives of the Brazilian Immigration Authorities on board. These men will be lording it in the Craft Room for the duration of our stay, glancing at everyone’s passport, being wined, dined and generally looked after, and occasionally even trying to look really busy in there; in short… a bit of a jolly.

It must have took about three hours for the necessary paperwork and formalities to be completed in order for us to be on our way, after which it was nice to finally get moving again.

All morning, through lunch, and well into the afternoon, we stayed out on deck watching the forest as it passed by. The morning had started well with a sighting of some pink dolphins, and a glance through the binoculars revealed lots of black vultures circling over the trees. Small riverboats passed us by often, and we enjoyed looking at the sparsely distributed, but very interesting, homesteads, built on stilts to cope with the massive changes in river height throughout the year. The river isn’t at its highest at the moment, but it is the start of the rainy season, as evidenced by the occasional passing rainstorm.

Mid-afternoon, I disappeared downstairs to the cabin to spend a couple of hours working while Tracey stayed up top. By the time late afternoon came around, the light was fading and everyone was sat around reflecting on what a magnificent first day it had been.