Jan 17, 2012

I’m sitting in the Observation Lounge on the Silver Whisper, watching …well, not much.  “Water, water everywhere..nor any drop to drink…”  So I’m drinking coffee.  It perhaps goes some way toward explaining why there is a “Martini Tasting” scheduled for 11:30 a.m. (about an hour and a half from now).  Martinis are not my cup of tea, so I shall give that a miss.  Am thinking ‘swim’ instead.

I love sea days—no scurrying around to be at the gangplank at a set (read: early) time.  Yesterday we were in Belem, Brazil for the day.  I didn’t go into town, opting to do a river trip instead.  ‘Twas a little underwhelming, to be honest.  The “key indicator” of underwhelmingness (Hah! See how easily I slip back into the old jargon, even after so many years retired?  I think it comes with being surrounded by “retired” business people who still think that way.  Give them time…)  But I digress.  As I was saying, the key indicator that I was underwhelmed was that I couldn’t stop thinking about how hot and muggy it was. I felt as if I had been dipped in molasses.  The local insects seemed to think so, too, as they couldn’t resist checking me out.  It did rain occasionally—briefly–which provided a fleeting respite from the humidity.  (When it actually rained, there were air spaces between the raindrops; the rest of the time the humidity was so dense it felt like I was doing the breaststroke just walking through it.

Amazonia is a remarkable place, but I won’t be remarking on it all that much.  There were several very knowledgeable guides on the river trip, and they each shared their considerable knowledge of the history, culture, flora, and politics of the region with us, but as I said earlier, I was busy doing the breaststroke.  Molasses, it turns out, provides an impenetrable barrier to learning.  I will, however, share a few photos I took along the way.  They speak for themselves.         MM