19 October 2008, Boca de Valeria.

From Santarem to Boca de Valeria it is 140 miles on the river but with 3 knots against us that is closer to 170 miles for the distance that the ships engines have to produce power for. Thus after leaving Santarem we cranked the Veendam up to warp speed as I wanted to arrive a little bit ahead of schedule. Boca is an Indian village with a tidal plane in front of it and that can result in some interesting logistical problems when you arrive.

The main problem is the tender dock, especially whether it is there or not and if it is there, whether it is fit to receive our size tenders. During my last visit in 2006 they had built something for us, but we needed to jerry rig mooring lines and shore anchors in order to get the tenders alongside. The contraption they had then was mainly fit for small local boats and rather rickety. During the rainy season, the Amazon reaches all the way into the village and during the dry season, you have to walk up to 10 minutes to get to the village. Thus any jetty or pier is simply flushed away with the rising water. Thus nothing very permanent is ever constructed.

Because of that I wanted to be early to make sure that we had time to build, or spruce up, the tender place before I let our eager Amazon Explorers loose ashore. The chief officer had sailors on standby with ropes and anchors and the Facility Manager was lined up with carpenters and upholsterers. So we were ready for everything. So great was our relief to see a nice floating pontoon. A pontoon that was strong enough to handle a cruise ship tender. Thus we only needed to bring a bit of carpet ashore to reduce the slipperiness and all was well.

The most advanced Tender Pier yet seen in Boca de Valeria

We were treated to a great show all day from dolphins playing around the ship. These are small dolphins and look a bit like Beluga’s but they are not white but pink. The skin color is caused by the sediment in the water. The soil around Boca de Valeria is bauxite based and that is pinkish in color. As these dolphins live in this area all year around, their bodies get saturated with the color and they end up being pinkish. Occasionally they get excited when a tender comes by and then they jump out of the water and then they just look like flying pigs. Hence my remark in yesterday’s blog.

Pink Dolphins in the bay of Boca de Valeria

Apart from our guests going ashore to enjoy the interaction with the local Indians of the town, the ship was also involved in some benevolent activities. Guests and crew alike had been collecting clothing, children’s’ materials and all sorts of other stuff for the local school and that now all went ashore. A gentleman went ashore with a bag full of soccer balls and the Cruise Critic group on board had accumulated sufficient stuff to have a whole tender full to take over. Also the veendam crew, spearheaded by my Security Officer John Cabalde were good for several boxes of goodies for the locals. You can see that the now regular visits of the cruise ships are doing well for the local economy. Currently a new church of stone is being constructed and also the local school had been much improved. They only thing I did not like was the fact that the local chief welcomed my guests while wearing a Seven Seas T shirt and a Princess name tag, so I told the chief officer to rectify that at once.

Shopping is not so bad overhere. Everything costs “only one dollar” and they do not accept credit cards, so for most guests it is not a stop that breaks the bank. That one dollar includes taking pictures of the childeren. Breaking the bank will happen tomorrow when we arrive in Manaus. Young Boca de Valeria Residents in full “battle” gear

Indian House on stilts as protection against the rising waters of the Amazon in the winter.

The basic needs in life are also available in Boca de Valeria

Boca de Valeria is only a short stop. Even for 1200 guests there is only a limited amount of things you can do in an Indian village so by 1400 hrs. we were on the way again. Sailing past Parintins, where we will stop southbound and also passing by two other highlights. First the moment when we transversed the deepest part of the Amazon. The water depth here is 109 meters or around 350 feet during the dry season and shortly after we came across the narrowest part of the river, where the river is only 200 yards wide. Not above water but under water for the necessary depth. So we hugged the south shore line very close, where the water was the deepest and all eyes were focused on the echo sounder to see if we stayed in the channel. The Amazon was still half a mile wide here at the surface.

At midnight we changed Pilots for Manaus at a place called Itacoatiara, as Manaus is located in a different pilot district. With the midnight change, I could make certain that I would arrive at least an hour earlier in Manaus. That is what I had promised to the guests, due to the delayed arrival in Santarem, after the clearance of the vessel took so long in Macapa.

Tomorrow we are in Manaus. The weather forecast looks very good, so we should have a nice arrival, as the Rio Negro curves all the way around the city while we move towards the dock.