In the Amazon

I can’t believe we have been on the ship for 3 weeks already. It has whizzed by so fast. The plant is still alive, and I watered it today.

We left Manaus at 7:00 AM, passing though the meeting of the waters again.

We went to a talk by Caroline Keen, the wife of Patrick Keen who has been talking about his adventures in the jungle. She and her brother, Hamish Laird, had taken a sail boat around the Horn and through the Beagle Channel, and she had some lovely photos of the trip. The glaciers were particularly stunning. I am not sure I would want to do the trip on a sailboat, but it did look like fun.

We spent most of the day watching the river from our balcony and the Commodore Club. I never tire of looking at the trees and villages. Not another cruise ship in sight, but there have been tons of cargo vessels and barges taking much needed supplies to the towns along the river.

As we had missed dinner last night because of the concert, it was time to catch up with what our tablemates had been up to in Manaus. One couple had done the same river cruise as we had; the other had done the jungle walk, which they highly recommended. The couple who had done the river cruise decided to take a taxi ride around Manaus after they got back to the ship. On their tour they went past the Manaus jail. There had recently been a big fight between 2 rival drug gangs, resulting in one gang killing 25 of their rivals, and then 160 of them escaped from jail and were still at large. We then realized why there had been such a large police presence when we were in Manaus, and the police officer’s concern for our safety. The authorities must have been extremely anxious about anything adverse happening to the passengers and crew of the ship, especially as there had been so much publicity surrounding our visit there. 160 escaped drug gang members on the loose is a problem. Fortunately nothing untoward happened, but it does remind you that even in a place as beautiful as the Amazon, the dangers aren’t just from insects and flesh eating fish.