Thursday – Boca Do Valeria

Today, we arrived at Boca Do Valeria.

Described as an opportunity to experience a remote and primitive Indian village, it’s a stop that consistently divides people. A cruise ship of 800 passengers descending upon a small village of approximately 75 inhabitants sounds like a recipe for controversy. While it may also raise the hackles of those who are concerned about ‘Responsible Tourism’ and all its issues, Boca Do Valeria , it seems to me, is a community that has adapted perfectly to cater for its many visitors. Inhabitants from surrounding villages, who must get advance notice of an impending cruise ship visit, arrive in plenty of time to set up craft stalls and dress their children up in bright costumes, who are equally keen to show off their exotic pets; tapirs, monkeys, sloths, lizards parrots and spiders to name but a few. The children are also keen to take visitors by the hand as they disembark from the tender boats, to show them around and have photos taken with them, all for the customary price of one dollar a shot.

There’s a bar, serving cold beer and soft drinks, and the whole thing feels like a carefully designed business agreement, where it’s a win-win situation for everyone concerned.

While Boca Do Valeria bursts with visitors and locals alike, one of the best ways to achieve a more genuine experience, away from the madding crowd, is to take one of the small boat trips on offer. Having been here several times before, and knowing how worthwhile they are, I was talking to a couple from my art class about them on the tender boat from the ship. They agreed that it sounded like a good idea, and invited me to join them on a boat. I maintain that it’s one of the best $5 dollars per person anyone is likely to spend on a visit to Boca Do Valeria.

The trip was more or less the same as on previous visits; our young boat-driver (who had quite a new-ish looking, sturdy boat) took us along small waterways, past numerous houses on stilts and boatyards, to another village, built on top of a hill (so no stilt-houses) where we viewed their school and church (in a state of rebuild – the old church that I remember has gone), and a little old lady proudly showed us around her wooden house, complete with ceramic-tile floors and freely-roaming ducklings. Of all the houses that we could see dotted around the village, this seemed slightly more opulent than most, despite still being very basic. She had a TV and washing machine, and in the kitchen some sort of stew was bubbling away on a large gas stove (and it smelt lovely).

We were all delighted to have been shown around her house, and dutifully paid her a few dollars in return, finally posing for a few photographs with her before continuing on our way.

As we were about to head back down the hill to the boat, the heavens opened, and we took refuge in a half-finished building until it subsided. When it rains in the Amazon, it sure rains!

Back in Boca Do Valeria, I took a short wallk around, looking at the crafts and pets on show, before heading for the bar to purchase a $2 can of beer. The bar was crowded, and I couldn’t find anywhere to sit, so I headed back outside, where there was low wooden seat free. On one end of this seat was a large collection of empty beer cans, and as I sat there I realised just how odd it must seem to the casual observer, who might assume, however wrongly, that the empty beer cans had been mine. This drew the attention of a small group of young men who were standing nearby, who were trying to sell boat trips. To make light of the beer can illusion, I hiccuped and pretended to be a drunk, pointing to my ‘previously drunk cans’, which seemed to amuse and entertain them no end.

After I’d drunk my one beer, I headed for the footpath that leads off into the the jungle. It’s a path that doesn’t really go anywhere, but is good for the ‘Jungle Experience’. However, I hadn’t gone very far when it started raining again. Because it came down so heavily, the mud path soon became quite boggy, and I decided to abandon the walk, not really caring for the mess I was likely to get myself into. I caught the next tender back to the ship, in time for lunch.

We left Boca Do Valeria at just gone 3pm, heading for our next stop, Manaus.