Not the One with the Trucks

Sunday, February 16, 2025

Finally! Today we will enter the Amazon! The one with the boats. The legendary Amazon River!!

And we are finally out of the rough seas that have been with us ever since we left St. Lucia. We didn’t get seasick, but it was difficult to walk around at times.

(We will also begin operating under water restrictions today. The Amazon River is too silty for our ship’s water desalinization and purification system to function. Zaandam will not be able to obtain more fresh water until we reach Manaus in five days. All passengers have been asked to be mindful of water usage during this period. Ken and I plan to do our part by taking fewer and shorter showers, limiting laundry, and reducing the frequency of flushing. TMI, perhaps?)

The Amazon River Bar is the estuary where the Amazon empties into the Atlantic Ocean. 

We will sail through Barra Norte, or North Bar. It’s the initial stretch of the great Amazon after leaving the Atlantic Ocean and entering the Amazon estuary. This northern route passes the north side of Ilha de Marajó, an island the size of Switzerland. 

When we reach the city of Macapá, we will anchor out in the bay for about three hours so that Brazilian officials can board the Zaandam and inspect the documents (passports, visas, etc.) of all passengers and crew. The documents have already been collected by the customer service staff, so we won’t have to do anything during this “service call.” No one gets on or off the Zaandam, other than the Brazilian authorities.

Macapá is a city of about 500,000. We can see an industrial-looking port in the foreground and high-rise apartments in the background. There are several ocean-going cargo ships anchored here. The river is so wide it’s hard to realize that we are in a river now.

Macapá is located extremely close to the equator. (Fun fact: the word “equator” does not need to be capitalized.) If you go to Macapá, you might be able to see the “Marco Zero” monument. The sun aligns with the monument twice a year and creates a line of light on the equator.

We will cross the equator somewhere near here as we continue south and west along the North Bar.

Meanwhile, aboard the Zaandam, Ken and I are learning about three upcoming ports and we are attending a PowerPoint style presentation by Richard Watson, “The Amazon River and Forest - a geographical exploration of the enormous Amazon biome.”

In the evening, Oi Brasil organized a Pool Party for us. It was so much FUN. The turnout was large because many  of our fellow passengers are quite eager to learn more about Brazilian culture - and music and dancing are a  huge part of Brazilian culture. The singer for Oi Brasil emceed the party. I never did get her name, so I am going to call her Cantora from now on (the Portuguese word for a female singer). 

The party started with music and some of the men from Oi Brasil doing backflips over their flag.

Cantora really knows how to get a party going with her energetic Latin singing. Fernanda and the other female dancer came out in their Carnaval feather costumes, and then the Samba drummers and the “drumming students” joined the party. Cantora turned many in the audience into participants. The women wanted to dance; the men wanted to get closer to the stage to make videos of Cantora, Fernanda, and the dancer in yellow.

26 second video:

Cantora and the guys acted out a scenario about a woman who was not interested in the fellows panting for her. 

43 second video:

More of Cantora and the guys in this 34 second video:

Our friends from Oi Brasil clearly were a team and they took so much joy in what they were doing. I think there were 12 of them in all. It was hard to count them because they were always moving around.

Tonight we had a new towel creature - clearly a snail.

Today’s fabric is the sparkly, stretchy fabric that Cantora wore tonight. Ironically, she ordered the outfit from Amazon - the one with the trucks. I got that information second-hand. I was hoping I would have an opportunity to ask her about her fabric, but I never did run into her. Anyway, the most important thing you should know is that this fabric attracts men. I actually saw how it works during the pool party. Amazing.

Video, 8 seconds: