Cruising the Amazon--day 5---May 12th

I got up shortly after 6 and instead of paying for breakfast this morning, it was free. The only problem is that they ran out of breakfast food, but we were given a roll and coffee. Good thing I had that cheeseburger with egg the night before. We will see what surprises they have for us at lunch.

This morning the sky is mostly clear and the river is wide. The temperature is in the 80s with continuing high humidity. The movement of the boat keeps me comfortable and keeps the little flying bugs away unless you sit somewhere the breeze does not reach you.

The captain told me to just head to breakfast and coffee since it was free this morning. When I saw the cook, he told me there was "no mais" cheese, ham or egg, just the bread roll, and coffee. they had run out of breakfast food. At least I enjoyed three cups of the sweet coffee with hot milk as I chewed my roll thinking back to last night's cheeseburger with fried egg I had in Santarem.

After my morning shower, I ended up laying down on my bunk and propped the door open to watch the passing scenery and occasionally nodding off to sleep. when I heard the engine slow down, I figured we were approaching our next town, Obidos. We docked at 11:30 AM which was now about 13 1/2 hours behind schedule. They did not have much to unload, so our stop would only be for an hour. The entire downtown area was flooded and the businesses down there had erected temporary wooden floors in their stores and connected them with an extensive network of wooden walkways.

I walked around the flooded area a bit until a rainstorm hit and I ran quickly back to the Nelio Correa just before the boat's whistle blew. As we pulled away, yet another passenger missed the departure, but this time he got a speedboat to get him caught up to our boat. Just as he was preparing to jump aboard our boat, he fell on his back much to the amusement of our passengers. The captain was not very happy with this second latecomer, but the passengers got a kick out of watching my replay of the passenger's misadventures. I am hoping we don't lose our shore privileges at the remaining stops. This boat is getting very small.

The passengers are thinning out with each stop with a few additional ones boarding. At 6:30 PM we pulled into the small village of Juruti for just long enough to drop off five passengers. We tied up next to another riverboat with passengers and a nearby Brazilian Navy gunboat and Zodiac.

Our dinner was just a beef noodle soup and only cost 3 BRs though. I wonder what tomorrow's taste treats will bring.

We continue on as the sun just disappears with no particular sunset, just a cloudy darkening grey to darkness.