July 31,

I awoke at 0136 and our FB had docked at Santarem, population 360,000. The last truck that boarded was off and parked on the dock, so who knows how long we’ve been here. Our FB seemed to just sit here. I could see the lights on below in the cargo area, but nothing’s happening. Then slowly other FBs showed up and off-loaded – from big box trucks to motorcycles and then people trickling off. Finally I saw one person coming off our FB. We obviously will be here awhile. At 0530 Jeff woke up and we posted yesterday’s blog, as we still were docked with a good internet connection. At 0800 I still was awake and decided to eat some breakfast, having some Nutella and peanuts as a sandwich. It was better than it sounds. After eating I was able to nap for around an hour and half…we were still docked at the port. Jeff said he did not nap, and he only had some crackers and some yogurt. Around 1100 we were heading out and they just rang the “dinner bell.” So we decided to go on down to get lunch. I saw S basically said hi, asking him if he knew when we docked and if he’d heard how long we’d be here. He didn’t sleep well; we’d been docked since five minutes to midnight and supposedly will be 12 hours!!! Well, it’s almost been that! We got a chicken and a beef meal, but both were beef, with rice,…you know the ingredients. Huh, it still is better but the same food does wear on my soul.

At 1130, the captain blew his horn, Yippeeee! Another expedition van boarded, must be YouTubers she was filming the whole event. The truck that was parked on the dock reboarded. Like that, at 1148, we were under way, finally! We left our room and went back out talking with S. I did leave after Jeff and S, tried to come back and take another nap but it didn’t happen, so I went back out and took pictures of the insides of the boat. The cargo hold – filled mostly with vehicles. I did stop and talk some with the front three vehicles. The box truck that reloaded has at least 10 adult Pomeranians, plus puppies. I had noticed some of them inside the truck when it was parked on the dock, because the side door was open with a fan on the dogs. The two expedition vans – the one that just came on do not speak English, but the other, the Instagrammers spoke English. I talked with them a bit. Then the kitchen was open. I took a picture of it. The chef had just finished cooking up some beef on the grill. He and maybe his wife were okay with a photo. He was holding his knife still, what fun! Then I went back on our level to go down to the dining area. One person was still eating so I just did a quick shot. Then I took generic hammock pictures and a shot of our cabin suite. Lastly I went up past the next level of hammocks – I skipped taking pictures of this floor and the AC hammock area – going on up to the rooftop. This is where we come for sunsets. There is a bar/snack shop here, where we bought internet service. I ended with a picture of some of the sinks, where we wash our dishes. Then I rejoined Jeff and S for a bit more chatting. We broke up and went back to our room. I was able to get another 1.5 hour nap.

At 1625, our FB flipped a wide U and we went up a channel to another town, Monte Alegre, population 60,000. The dockside here was loaded with stuff!!! Is all of it coming onboard?!? If so, WOWZA! We may be here awhile! Locals were hawking food stuff with their long “basketed” poles as soon as we arrived at 1650. Jeff bought some banana chips through the system. The unloading started quickly (a small pink boat that just loaded) of a relatively small bit of items, then the loading began and continued, cont’d., and cont’d. We didn’t take everything but it was a big chunk of it! We had a salami-cheese sandwich for supper with half of the banana chips (I gave a small cup full to S – he seemed appreciative – as he’s vegetarian. I don’t recall if I mentioned that. I think being a vegetarian would be hard in Latin America.)

Anyway, the FB blared its horn at 1919, so we must be getting close for departure. At 1935, a final blare of the horn and away we went. A total two hour and 45 minute stop. We went back in for the night! Another day of Amazing Amazon Adventures.