Day 12 - 12/01 - Manaus - Day 1

Making more Lemonade

It's hard to believe we had an opportunity to make more lemonade out of lemons. But we did. But first, it was a terrific day in Manaus including the scenic cruising up the Amazon. We were docked and passengers were allowed to disembark at 11:30am. Our group of 18 met in the 3rd floor Atrium and we left the ship just after the announcement we could disembark was made. In this port, passengers are not allowed to walk through the port, so we had to then board shuttle buses for the short 5 minute drive to the terminal building. Our guide, Herman, from Oropendola Tours met us and we made our way to our little boat which would carry us to today's adventures.

We ran down river to the point of confluence of the Amazon and the Rio Negro Rivers. The Rio Negro is a dark color and the Amazon is a muddy brown. The convergence line is quite pronounced and clear. But eventually the the muddy Amazon prevails. The separation is caused by three things: 1. Difference in acidity; 2. Difference in river speed (Amazon is faster); 3. Difference in temperature (Amazon is cooler). From there we turned around a went back up river to a floating farm (Piexaria EL SHADAY) that raises the largest fish (pirarucu) in the Amazon. There we had the opportunity to dangle small fish tied to a cord from a pole. When these large fish grabbed the little fish, it was all I could do to hold onto the pole. It was great fun and I did it a couple of times. Near the farm was a little village of about 40 families living on houseboats which float on special logs that are long lasting in the water. The community had an elementary school, markets, churches, and the like. All of these were floating. This is really important because in the rainy season, the river rises about 25 feet.

Our next stop was about a half an hour away and it was a floating restaurant (where we enjoyed a terrific buffet lunch. After lunch we climbed up a rickety board walk to walk to a nearby lake to see the giant water lilies and see some of the flora and fauna of the Amazon. A high point of that jaunt was the dozens of small monkeys. They eyed us suspiciously and I fully expected one to jump on us from their perch on the railing. They were cute little devils.

We then rode further up the Rio Negro an hour Brazilian time which was probably closer to an hour and twenty minutes. At the pink dolphin event, 3 ladies in our party donned their swimsuits and joined the handler in the water where the pink dolphins swam around them, under them, and even came out of the water over them. They were a brilliant pink color. My wife said that event was the high point of the trip, and I would have to agree.

Our next and final stop for the day was to visit an Indian village which was on the other side of the river. The first two villages we visited weren't able to accommodate us, but the third village could. We watched a number of dances, chants, and musical instrument playing before we were finally asked to join in the dance. An older lady with a young child came and grabbed me and we were off to the races. I'm not much of a dancer to say the least, but I gave it the old college try. Afterwards in the darkening twilight, we re-boarded our little boat and began our over an hour ride back to the ship. By this time, it was getting pitch black as our little watercraft acted as a land speeder like found in Star Wars.

About 10 minutes before reaching the Rio Negro bridge and in complete darkness, suddenly the outboard engine stumbles and dies. So here we are in the middle of the Amazon in the pitch black and in a shipping lane and just bobbing around. Our guide and the boat driver try to assess the situation (the guide's opinion is that we ran out of gas). They put out a call for help and were told that help is about 20 minutes away. What can we do but bob away in the darkness and take note of the several boats that pass by without rendering assistance. What a tale: running out of gas in the Amazon in the dark with 20 people on board, near a shipping lane and who knows if there are piranhas below us! In about 20 minutes a spot light appears and our rescue boat approaches. Now the trick is get 18 people all over the age of 65 transferred from a disabled boat to a much larger boat. Each of us had to traverse a railing, but all did it. We were motivated. With the transfer complete our rescue boat headed for the barn. I asked our guide what happened to our original boat and driver and he indicated that the rescue boat gave him some gas and oil and that he was underway.

Coming back to the ship, it was pretty cool to be dropped off at the dock across from the gangway of the Volendam. We could skip the shuttle bus trip! Back on board, we missed dinner, so we went to the 9:30pm show which was a local dance presentation. My wife even got to dance in the show and she loved that. Afterwards we went to the 10:30pm feeding for our delayed dinner meal.  

As I reflected on the day, it would have been easy to get bitter about the screw-up by the boat driver. But we turned it into a positive. As a footnote, the next day, our tour guide told us that within 1/2 hour of our event, all of his business associates and fellow tour operators knew of it and they were not going to let him live it down. Would there be more lemons presented tomorrow? Stay tuned.