Boca da Valeria, Brazil

This little place is somewhere you wouldn't think a big cruise ship would stop. There are about 300 inhabitants on any given day. But when a cruise ship comes to call kids come from far and wide. It is the tradition that a cruiser shall give money to all children. So when you get off the tender you are very politely attacked. They want to help you down the path, they want you to take picture of them. They want you to take a picture of their turtle, alligator, parrot or sloth. All for a price!!! So after all of your dollars are gone and you still want a picture you have to be very sneaky.

We hired a small boat for $5 a person to go up the river for 30 min. We asked our guide to go for an hour. He took us to his house and showed us around while his family of 6 kids were bartering with other cruisers.

He is very proud of his Kitchen on the deck.

The pig

The front door

Our friend, Gerald, greets us on our return.

Some of the guides 5 kids and his wife were waiting for him. She really didn't look very happy. Maybe she was wondering where in heck he was.

Tomorrow our night in the Jungle in Manos

Santarem, Brazil

We are in Santarem today. It Is Sunday but we aren't going to church because it is Stake Conference and who knows where the Stake Center might be. So we will just meet in a cabin and have a little meeting. We thought we might be able to make it to a Catholic service but when we got to the church we found it locked with a post that said 7:30am and 6:30 pm, so no luck there. The shuttle dropped us in old town and we walked 2 miles back to the ship. Not much going on in Old Town on a Sunday morning but the bay was lovely and we did find a few things of interest.

A phone booth in the shape of a parrot

The closed church built in 1784

The fish market and fruit stands

No yachts here

The crafts market on a Sunday

Another closed church

On the sail out of harbor we saw how the water fromth

Rio

taipans river flowing into the Amazon is so blue and the Amazon is so muddy, full of silt.

There are thousands of bugs at night which requires the ship to cover all the intake passages.

Forteleze, Brazil

Again we went to a huge shopping mall. It was an amazing 4 levels and each level was warmer than the last. Packed with people. It was a very hot and humid day.

There were buffets everywhere, but it looked like it had been out for quite a while.

This is the second largest cathedral in the world.

Second only to St. Paul's in Rome

Recifi, Brazil

The shuttle bus took us from the port to a prison which is now a shopping mall. The prison was laid out in a Plus sign, 4 identical wings of cells, 3 floors. The cells are now shops.

Next we caught a cab to a small town on the outskirts of Recifi called Orofino.

Looking from Orofino to Recifi

The teenagers were wild to see us and speak a little English.

The taxi dropped us back at the prison/mall, and we walked back to the ship.

There are many beautiful old buildings that are being restored.

We crossed a few beautiful rivers that were pretty smelly.

Did you know there is no drinking water anywhere in Brazil? You must drink bottled water.

Macio, Brazil

Hot! Hot! Hot!

Macio was great little town. I left my phone at the ship, so no pictures. We went to church again and met some really nice people. Two girls spoke English. One had just returned form her mission in Chile, the other was preparing to go hopefully to U.S.