April 11, 2018

Boca da means “mouth of” and is an entrance to the Valeria River and overlooking the Amazon.

We boarded a tender to go to shore.  And here is Tom with the most unusual visor I have seen!

There were no planned excursions here as the town is the equivalent of about a city block and a half long.  It contains a few wooden houses on stilts, a small one room school and a small church. There is a lot of wildlife.  The people are called Caboclos, decendents of the Portuguese settlers who intermarried with the local Indians.  They live off the land by fishing, keeping pigs and chickens and by planting vegetables in raised beds. The population is about 75-100 people.  When ships stop here, people from nearby villages also come to participate in the tourist trade. 

You can also observe the distinct line where the waters of the  Valeria River meet the Amazon.

We brought lots of American dollars and gave them out to everyone we took a picture of. Here are some of the local people and their homes and school.

Here’s Alice in a local house.

And more shots of the house and the raised gardens.  And, the puppies!

We did have a lot of interactions with the animals too!

Here’s a shot of the school where some of the children were having lessons. We were going to bring wrapped chocolates from the ship for them but were told that they do not have dental care, so we didn’t bring the candy.

Another hot Amazon day with a nice up close glimpse of Amazonian life.