Boca De Valeria, Brazil

Today we visited a small village on the Amazon called Boca De Valeria. Before I even got into the tender I saw a family in a canoe that paddled right up to the ship. The little girl was holding something in her arms that looked like a teddy bear but I swore I saw its arms move. As they came closer to my porthole I saw it was a baby sloth! She carried it like a sack of potatoes and never once flinched when its giant claws came near her face.

The tender dropped us at a tiny wooden dock where at least a hundred children waited to take our hands and show us around. They fought to be my escort through the village an even pushed each other out of the way to take my hands. Once I saw that I showed that my pockets were empty and I didn't have anything to give them. That wasn't entirely true of course I just didn't want them to hurt each other over it.

I walked along the red, muddy path and passed many different animals and huts along the way. Each adorable child held an equally adorable monkey, sloth or baby parrot. Some kids were dressed in feathers and head pieces. I took a few pictures and handed out a few dollars. I took this opportunity to unload all the finished needlepoint kits I had worked on for the entire contract. I also donated the clothes I hadn't really worn the whole time I was on the ship and knew I wouldn't miss them.

I don't imagine that all of those people lived in that one village but I was interesting to see that some did live in these huts set up on stilts in the water. We were there in the rainy season and the water level has risen so much since the fall when we were here last. I could hear a generator running in the background and I saw kids drinking right out of the brown river. It was definitely an enlightening 20 minutes, which is how long it took to see everything before I melted into a puddle and slid back onto the tender.

Those two kids are either really brave or that snake is really dead. Although judging by the looks of its stomach there may have been a third boy there earlier.

A sloth on the tender!