2009 01 12 Amazon River and Boca da Valeria

Boca da Valeria, Brazil – Our visit to this village on the Amazon required transport by tender. Once on shore we arrived to a festival environment. Holland America started providing much needed school supplies here a couple of years ago, and when the ship is in port it’s a party. The community has seen a bit of progress - they are building a new school. Local families put up temporary stalls and sell their arts and handicrafts. Adults and children alike display their pets. Lizards and tarantulas on strings, parrots perched on sticks, monkeys, toucans, even snakes. It is thrilling to see all this up close, but our enthusiasm is dampened when they ask for “a dollar” once you’ve snapped a photo. All the children flock around you wanting to walk with you and hold your hand – some ask for money. We bought a bag of candy and passed it out as we went along. Some visitors on the tour took children to the “café” and bought soda pop. In one sense we’re not sure if we’re helping the community or destroying it. What we really wanted to see was how the Indians live and get a sense of their culture. One part of the visit we especially enjoyed was a motorized canoe ride up the river. The locals charge $5 and it lasts about an hour. There was no life jacket, just the driver and us in this narrow wooden canoe scooting up the Amazon. There are no cars here, only boats, and they have steered them their entire lives. It was exciting and we were so happy to finally be seeing the real Amazon. He took us up the tributaries and showed us his home. Children wave from the shores. We even pulled up to one shack and motioned for the little ones to come down to the water line. Joe gave the little fella a handful of bubble gum and the driver told him to share it with the other kids playing under a tree. There is no comparison to our standard of living, it is very primitive here – they wash their laundry in the muddy river, no windows on their homes, no soft-upholstery anywhere. They sleep in hammocks their entire lives. They even have 2 person hammocks. The joke is 2 people go to sleep, 3 climb out in the morning. But they are healthy and happy – so maybe we’re the ones who have the difficult life. Our feelings are mixed - on one hand we loved it, loved seeing the people, especially the children and their pets. But it made us a little uncomfortable that some of the parents were forcing their children to wear costumes and stand “posed” in the heat for so long. There was something sad about the whole thing.