Tales from the Amazon: The Electric Menorah and Un Dolla

Well, here we are cruising down the Amazon which is as least as wide as Boundary Pass only one he'll of a lot hotter. Today, for example was 42c and 80% humidity, somewhat like Toronto in the summer, only not smoggy. 
 
We stopped at Boca da Valeria this morning.  It is located near the mouth of the Valeria River and for those who may be interested it is located between Santarem (we stopped there yesterday) and Parintins and is on the way to Manaus. 
 
The un dolla ( see above) is a word we learned this morning from the kids who wanted to walk with us to their village. We did pass out a few though, especially to the little boy who was holding a pet sloth who peed all over him...you had to be there....then there was the cayman (small croc) that the locals had tied up on a lawn chair, a very large and toothy iguana that wasn't, a couple of parrots and love birds plus a few toothless old men who could still shake their booty to the music in the local pop stand. 
 
It was a pleasant surprise that the children, unlike their parents and grandparents, have excellent teeth and appeared to be looking after them although the un dollas generated cash for the ever present candy and chips.  Interesting there was some electricity in the village thanks to a generator and an satellite tv antenna.  Change has come for the Caboclos, who are the descendants of the Portugese settlers who intermarried or lived with locals.

A word about the landscape along the Amazon.  It is amazing in it's monotony of green.  That is it is trees, water, sandstone soil intermixed with small farms along the river.  Hard to see much variety of plant species because the vegetation is so dense.  Yesterday we took a small river boat and looked at birds and pirana along one of the tributaries feeding into the Amazon.  We never did get in to walk around Santarem because by the time we got back from our bird and river tour it was too hot to be outside. 
 
Ian says the forest along the Amazon is not unlike the feel of Northern Ontario except the trees are tropical. Interesting because I have heard somebody else say the same thing who had visited the region years ago.
 
As for the forest, our guide yesterday went to some length to inform us that there is no more clear cutting but I call tell you that the land on either side of the river has been clear cut and there is a dwelling of some kind or other every 3 to 4 miles, it is a lonely sight-- one of which, as Ian has said, the trees get in the wAy of the view.  As for clear cutting, The Amazon is thick with tanker traffic and log carriers, at least east of Santarem which is a big (relatively speaking) regional centre. And, we learned that Brazil is the biggest exporter of soybeans in the world and they are growing them in the Amazon basin and shipping them from Santaren so don't tell me they aren't cutting trees.

Fact of the day: the literature provided by our cruise line tells us that the Amazon discharges in to the  Atlantic more fresh water than the combined total demand of all the municipalities in the world.
 
Now for the electric menorah, for those of you (goyim) who may not know that it is the 6th night of Hanukkah.  Each night there is a blessing ceremony on the ship and there is a respectable turnout for the illumination of the daily candle which is in this case electric. I do this for my mother and grandmother. Ian does it because he like latkes but unfortunately  none of the chefs on the ship know how to make a good one.  Ian says you don't have to be Jewish to hate bad latkes but it helps.

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