Spiders, Monkeys and Capybaras Oh my!

Our second stop along the Amazon is Boca da Valeria. This is the only port we had to tender into the dock from the ship. Notice the innovative and modern floating dock in the photo below. It may have come from one of their old houses.

The dock is about a five minute walk to the town. When the river comes up later in the rainy season the tender can cruise right up to the town dock and you can disembark right at the main part of the town. I really should call it a village and not a town. When you get off the tender you run a gauntlet of children from the village. They come down to meet the passengers from the ship and of course reap the bounty of candy and gifts that the passengers bring with them.

The next photo is of our tour guide. He was aiming at one of the passengers from the previous tour who did not tip him! Just kidding. He is dressed in their traditional tribal attire to show off for the arriving guests. He also makes out well by getting a buck from you for taking his photo.

The next photo is Cindy petting a real small monkey. (This is like the monkey I told you about yesterday.) Look hard and you will see a grey and black monkey on the guy's arm. The kid in the back is just monkeying around. Yuk! Yuk! You could also see and pet spiders, parakeets, crocodiles and a few other animals.

This next photo is Cindy again. She is now with a toucan. We saw several toucans and each one had a different color beak. This one had a yellow beak, another one had a red beak and a third one had a blue beak.

Now, from Cindy- The next native animal we came to was a capybara. I was so excited to see one in person because I used to read a book about capybaras to the 3rd graders. Now athat I've seen a real capybara, I want to find that book and read it to our grandchildren! Anyway, capybaras are in the same family as guinea pigs, and I was interested in them ever since Heather and Melanie had them as pets when they were little. I had to take this picture quickly because Bill was afraid the capybara was going to eat his watch!

After we passed through the pet display area, we ventured into the rain forest on a well-traveled yet narrow path, accompanied by 4 teenage boys. They pointed out various plants along the way (coffee beans, guava, banana, cocoa & more). We really wanted to see some wildlife, but were able to spot only a frog and some butterflies. We walked about 2 miles in, then met a fellow passenger on his way back that had seen a large green snake. He showed us the photo he took and we tried to ask the boys (who only spoke Portuguese) if that kind of snake was poisonous. We didn't think they understood our question, so we decided to turn around and go back into the village.

The last photo shows a typical house in the village we visited. Like all of the buildings, it was built on stilts to stay above the water level as it rises each year during the rainy season. The change in depth can be as much as 90 feet. Worth noting: this is the only place we've been that had no satellite dishes or cell phones!