Belem, Brazil – April 23

Belem, Brazil – April 23

Sunrise over the Amazon

When I woke up this morning I noticed that the light coming through the crack in the curtains looked pink – so I decided to check it out. The sky was just beginning to show some pink color of sunrise. Jim ordered our coffee and we sat out on the balcony drinking coffee and watched the colors change for a good half hour. We were into the mouth of the Amazon heading to Belem.

Local ferry used as tender

We have to anchor quite a way downriver from Belem because of the size of the ship. Large local tenders take people to shore – a ride of about 20 minutes – and then it is a good hour by bus to Belem. That adds up to a total of more than 3 hours in transport time back and forth so we decided to skip it. (We did the full Amazon to Manaus on the S America Grand Voyage just three years ago)

We spent the morning reading and watching the local boats going by and will probably do much the same this afternoon. The people that went ashore today have been lucky – the temperature is relatively cool and (so far) we haven't had any rain.

I was looking at pictures and realized I'd never posted this picture of the dolphins that I took as we were circling Ascension Island last week. It looks very different than the view outside today – the Amazon is very brown – not the pretty blue of the sea.