Rats and Bats!!!!

Note- I started writing this post on Monday, April 28th - Enjoy!

Hi, its Monday April 28th and we are in Obidos. We have been here since about 5 am on Saturday morning. Since I last wrote we took an overnight boat on the Amazon from Santarem to the small town of Obidos. We took a typical passenger boat that left at about 7 pm in the evening. Most of the people were traveling all the way to Manaus which is a 3 1/2 day trip. There are no seats on the boat as people will hang there hammocks from the ceiling so it is very crowded throughout the boat. We were booked in small cabins that were big enough for 2 people with bunk beds for us to sleep on. So our team split up into the 2 rooms. Upon arrival in Obidos, Paulo, a local Rotary member greeted us at the dock and he brought us to his house where we slept for another 4 hours. The next morning we woke up and had breakfast and Paulo took us on a tour of the town. This is a very small quaint town, which is much different than Manaus and Santarem. The town is built on a hill over looking the narrowest point of the Amazon. The views are amazing from the old military fort built at the top.

After our city tour we drove about 15 miles down this long dirt road to a tributary of the Amazon. To our surprise, there was a restaurant and bar built at the stream crossing. This place had walkways and decking that criss-crossed the stream. There were tables and chairs setup all throughout. We ended up having lunch and spending the afternoon here. We went swimming and played some UNO to pass the time. That evening we returned to town and had dinner and called it night as we were all tired from the long day.

Yesterday (Sunday), we took a ride out to Paulo's Uncles farm. His uncle gave us a tour in which there were cattle, chicken, and ducks. On the property was a long elevated wood walkway that took us to another tributary of the Amazon. We were lucky no one fell in the swamp as the boards were rotted and many were falling in the water below. After the farm we went back to yesterday's oasis and spent more time eating, drinking, swimming, and of course more UNO.

At about 7 pm yesterday we returned to the city and went down to the docks to wait for our boat back to Santarem that was supposed to arrive and then depart around 8 pm. We sat at the docks and had a couple sandwiches thinking this boat would show up. Well at about midnight Paulo and his wife were getting very tired and wanted to go home to sleet so we stayed at the docks. Well midnight turned into 1am, 2 am, 3 am….. 6am. Our boat never came. The hard benches were had no comfort at all. We did see lots of wildlife such as rats, bats, cockroaches, and lizard that ran into my foot. This could be one of the worst nights ever. Here in Brazil people don't know exactly when boats will arrive at the port and waiting at the docks for 6 hours is not out of the ordinary here. But this boat was 12 hours late which is so ridiculous. So at 6 am we went back to Paulo's for some rest and he woke us up at noon for lunch. Its after lunch now and we are waiting for the boat here at Paulo's house. It looks like we will be taking a boat that originates out of here so we won't have to sit and wait for a boat to come because it is already here. So this is where we are now (posted April 28 at 4pm) …… to be continued

…….. Now it is April 29th at 10 am on Tuesday morning and I am happy to say that we are back in Santaram. Last evening at 5 pm we got an alert that our original boat the "Cezar" was headed to the port in Obidos. Apparently, it was broken down for several hours up stream. At this point it seemed to whole town was aware of our plight so the news of our boat spread quickly to get the message to Paulo that our boat was arriving. So after spending the afternoon relaxing we hastily repacked our gear and headed off to the docks. To our amazement the boat had arrived it was only 21 hours late. We boarded the boat and got back here at midnight. We have lots of free time the next couple days heading into the Rotary district conference so I will be sure to take advantage of it.

That's it for now. Have a great day!