PART 2 - DAY 59 Mar 12 - Manaus, Amazon River, Brazil

During the morning the update from the Captain on our docking plight was given every 30 minutes. At least this delay gave me time to prepare the blog I posted yesterday lunch time covering just half the day.

At about 12.30 we received some good news and bad news. Firstly, we were not being allowed to dock but the good news was that we could anchor and use our tenders. The Captain added that we would start transferring passengers from the ship to the quay at about 1.30. Thus we would be running about 3 and a half hours behind.

Later the Captain hoped he would be able to actually dock the ship and do away with the tendering service all together.

In the meantime the Royal Princess had been given permission to moor-up at its pre-arranged spot on the dock.

Our dear friends Uli and Inge would be off their ship at least an hour and a half before we would reach land. We tried to phone them from our mobile phone but were told there was no service.

We decided to have a quick lunch and immed-iately met the Gonsalves and Fowlers (our lovely Canadian friends) who were supposed to be on this same privately arranged tour with us and others. We also exchanged thoughts with a group of the others on the tour. The consensus was that we should take an early tender and see if our tour people were still waiting for us.

It was also hoped by us that our German friends from Naples would be somewhere on the quay waiting for our possible arrival.

The tour was supposed to have started at 10 o'clock and lunch had been inconcluded in the price.

In the event just nine of us turned up, Don, Lee, and Lin, plus us two and the four Canadians, making it nine in total.

Despite searching the immediate area around where the ship dropped their passengers, there was, unfortunately no sign of Uli and Inge.

By 1.45 we had identified our tour guide, negotiated a small reduction in price (for lack of lunch and slightly shorter hours on the tour) and we were off.

The tour was to take place in a 15 seater motorised narrow speed boat. The a/c was of the open windows type that I must say was extremely successful in keeping us cool. As well as a 'driver' we had two English speaking guides, two because they expected more of us not just the nine.

We were soon whizzing along at high speed, spray flying high in the air as various points of interest in Manaus were pointed out to us.

We passed many of the 'pushers' that were lying idle with anchor dropped.

Further on we passed a large natural gas installation on the outskirts of the town. This contained locally produced gas that is shipped some 500 miles down the Amazon river network to Manaus.

A new pipeline was being installed that would also utilise the new bridge being built across the river and was expected to be ready in a couple of years time.

The tour boat then took us to the impressive 'meetings of the waters'.

The black waters of the Rio Negro and the brown silty waters of the Amazon. This is another place where the rivers run sight by side for some distance keeping their separate identity and colour as they flow.

Incredibly the Amazon waters had a temperature of 29C (91F) while the Negro's temperature was just 26C or 85F. This was hot bath water temperatures.

After a thorough examin-ation of this water phenom-enon we moved into a tributary of the main river where there were many 'boat' houses scattered along the side of the river.

We were told that many of the indigenous tribal people lived in this type of accommodation. The Brazilian Government had introduced a policy of bringing electricity to the people of the Amazon Delta so most homes had some form of lighting.

Many of the 'homes' were basic and nearly all had little outhouse toilets that went straight into the river. It was surprising to see the number of dogs kept by these boat people.

The backwaters were quite fascinating areas to explore. We were right in the rain forest jungle now.

For a living most of these local people just fished or grew some produce on small holdings they had on the river banks.

Our guides were well informed and we learnt much about the Amazon and this area in particular.

Soon we stopped at a one of the floating boat homes that also served as a small café and had two adjacent penned in area were all kinds of species of fish from the Amazon were kept.

We were handed rods with fish attached as bait and told to just put them in the water where the fish were retained. Well suddenly, with some violent splashing of the water, massive fishes, maybe 6 feet long, grabbed the bait. This was really quite amazing to see and also to feel the strength of these creatures.

This certainly kept us all occupied for some time despite having to stand out in an almost unbearable heat from a penetrating sun.

Thankfully cold refresh-ments were available in the small attached café. Here is a picture of Rosalyn and Maria cooling-off out of the hot sun

We were next taken on to a beautiful lily garden with huge water lilies, not dissimilar to what we had seen in Boca yesterday. It was a bigger area than the previous one seen and it was interesting to view it from above.

In addition there was a big Cayman (members of the alligator family) lurking presumably hoping one of might fall in!!

The ten minute or so walk really was quite a difficult task in the heat and humidity and we were soon all feeling exhausted.

How the locals put up with it only they know.

To arrive at this point of the lilies and the Cayman we had to walk along a slightly rickety walkway that had been built on stilts up in the air and that traversed the densely forested jungle.

Maria is photed here with one of our two guides.

Monkeys and parrots were there in abundance and the sounds they and their other neighbours made was quite National Geographic in nature.

This break in the tour was on land and gave us the opportunity to look at and buy if wanted, some of the locally made handicraft of the region. We had enough 'extra baggage' already stored in our cabin so gave this one a miss.

I took the opportunity to photo Maria next to our little speed boat as the others visited the craft shop.

We continued winding our way slowly through other parts to the river system sometime in deep jungle. The sights and sound we experienced were why we were on this eco trip in the rain forest.

Eventually the guides took us to a marvellous spot on the small river where we could enjoy an amazing sunset.

Maria and I had taken anti-mossie spray with us and this was liberally used as we waited for the sun to go down.

After a further period of 'Cayman hunting', using a flash light (touch) as bait to attract the animals, we headed back the considerable distance to our ship. Despite it being pitch black our driver manage to deliver us safely to the 'front door' of the Prinsendam.

Yes, we pulled-up at the entrance of our mighty ship at a point reserved for unloaded and loading passengers from the tenders.

I went to the bow of our little tour boat and shouted “Ahoy there” several times until the on duty security office's head appeared peeing inquisitively round the corner looking out into the black river where we were now stationary. He must have been wondering where the unexpected voice had come from.

Once adjusted to the unexpected situation and with walkie talkie raised to his mouth we heard him say “ The entertainers have arrived in their own private boat...over”. Well we laughed and laughed as I explained that we were not the local Samba Dance Group or whatever, coming on board to entertain the passengers tonight but nine hot and hungry passengers looking for permission to board.

This was a lovely end to a great day that we had all thoroughly enjoyed. Here we said goodbye to our two excellent local Brazillian guides who had performed so well during our nearly six hour trip.

For us there was just time to visit the Lido restaurant for cold drinks and some most welcome dinner before retiring to the cabin for showers and a change of clothes.

As we finished our meal the Capitan announced that the problems with the authorities had been resolved and that within an hour the Prinsendam would be docked at the original spot it was supposed to have been in and the tender service would therefore cease.

Our tour guides, incidentally, had told us that this whole unnecessary mess had been about local politics as elections in the City and region were due soon.

The question had apparently been how safe was it to unload two ships at the same time despite this having been the practice here for a considerable time.

At about 9 o'clock we walked over to the Royal Princess and were informed that Uli and Inge were indeed on board but not answering their phone. We left a message that we would be at their gangway at 9.00 in the morning.

It was now time for bed after a tiring day in the massive heat and humidity. I was so tired I couldn't even finish the day's blog.

PS Interesting comments filed earlier in the blog pertaining to Brazil and dealing with the authorities. Incidentally four days ago a steward came into my cabin opened my fridge (ice box) and said he was inspecting the soft drinks to see if any there that had passed their sell by date. Interesting! At the time I wondered what that was all about