July 29,

I awoke at 0240! Neither one of us sleep well before a travel day. I went back to sleep after five until 0730. Jeff woke up sometime while I was awake, but thankfully he was able to go back to sleep until 0600. Anyway, we got around having our Javas and oatmeal, which was a bit of a fiasco. It bubbles over in the microwave, but was not an explosion. We packed up and contacted our host by 1020. The lady that gave us the keys showed up within a couple of minutes, so we gave her the keys and left.

We were at the dock by 1030. We tried to show our ferry suite ticket but the lady made us get a dock ticket of 8 BRL, like yesterday…nickel and dime. Maybe it covers the ladies’ employment? Questions! We walked a short distance; boarded the F/B Rondonia, by 1035; and were checked in with our wrist ID bracelets, by 1045. We went to our Suite cabin, but Jeff had to find the lady with the key. Finally, we unloaded and ventured out by 1100. We found our friend S. He is on our level – the second level. We chatted a bit, meeting the man of a couple next to him, Eduardo. We left and we’re asked about lunch, buying one carne meal with roast beef, rice, black beans, noodles, and a “coloring” of salad in one bowl. It cost 30 BRL. Our meals are not included on this trip. We saw S again and invited him for a toast rum drink when we headed out.

We technically moved at 1415, but not underway until 1417. We have been drinking rum with our friend S, to toast our disembarkation, which we thought was starting at 1300 due to horn blowing and engine start up. But there was still unloading until 1345. Then three vehicles came on board, with the first being like a keystone cops sketch! (If you don’t understand that, look it up.) It was comical, crazy, and bewildering all at the same time. One other vehicle was a van with an Instagram symbol on the side.

At 1500, S left to go to his hammock. We continued to watch the Amazon, out our great window view. At 1515, I noticed the divergence of the two water sources we’d seen yesterday. That is so Cool! Jeff took a small siesta as I watched the river. An hour after I first saw the waters meeting, I could still see the waters separately, not as a mixed one river. Huh, that is wild – I guess the Rio Negro is that much of a source. By 1630, they seemed to be integrated.

At 1710, we found where to go for supper. We split a meal again, which seems to be working well. We went with fried fish, rice, red beans, noodles and the same “coloring” of a cabbage salad. This cost 26 BRL. S was already down eating. We sat with him, chatted some more and he left when he finished. When we finished, we went up to the upper level to watch the sunset. Jeff also bought internet for the whole journey. The sunset was pretty good. We went back to our room and happened to see the moonrise, so we went back out briefly for it. It was gloriously red and full!! Wow ,wow, wow! Lovely! 🌕

Back inside we settled in for the night, still watching the moonrise through our fantastic window view. Cruising the rest of the Amazon River!!!