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Wednesday, July 18, 2007

On the good ship Rondovia!

We are onboard the large catamaran Rondovia for our 5 day trip to Manaus. As we wait for the tide to come in so we can leave, we are waiting in the covered bar watching a thunderstorm roll up the river. The music is cranking local tunes but no one is on that side of the ship.

Why you ask?

Abeyha Africanos. That's right, our friends the killer bees seem to have made a home inside one of the speakers and by the looks of the way they are swarming they don't like the music any more than I do. The crew is battling them with hundreds of casualties on the dance floor, and two swirling around me now.

For those of you wondering of our travels and if we are alive: yes. Although we were in Sao Paulo flying on monday, and we were on the same type of Tam jet flying into Sao Paulo last week we weren't on THAT jet. The air system here really is messed up but no one complains and everyone is friendly.

We are joined on the boat by our american friend Dave who is on a Vstrom. He has had 4 dates with 3 girls in 24 hours (scoring twice) and hasn't slept in 36. His advice to single guys in Brazil is to kiss the girls within 5 to 10 minutes of meeting them. Before someone else does!

We got up early to get to the docks at 9. At 12:30 our local friend Alfredo bribed the longshoremen $10 to let us ride our bikes up the plank so that he could get us to his house for a delicious meal. As he said "that is Brazil!"

Things are slow and tranquillo, with everyone only too happy to take a break and enjoy a cerveza or a caipirinha.

I will try to get pictures of clara steering the 200 foot boat up the river tomorrow as she has already charmed the Captain.

Land Ho!
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1 comment:

BIGjim said...

Bon Voyagee!

How's everything going?
Can't wait to see pics from the amazon...

That's a BIG river!