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| 2 degrees SOuth of the Equator, Boca de Valeria |
Boca de Valeria, Mouth of the Valeria River, is an unlikely
stop for a cruise ship. It is no more than a small river inlet with a tiny
village at the base of a muddy and jungle covered cliff. It has a school, a
church, and several houses on stilts, a tourist toilet, and dozens of tourist
vendor stalls. One may buy carvings, t- shirts, wooden bead jewellery, beer and
homemade food.
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| Two Sloths being shown off by a boy |
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| Landing area in Boca de Valeria |
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| Parrots, Kids, everything ready to do a day's work... |
A rickety tender pier, accessible only during certain times
of the year when the river is neither too low (pier sits in a sea of mud) nor
too high (pier has disappeared below water), gives access to the village. School
is out for the day, and villagers from surrounding settlements have loaded
their boats with kids, goods for sale, and captive animals to photograph ($ 1
per photo) and motored to Boca de Valeria.
Too ensure ‘total coverage’, some canoes actually hang out
beside our ship. Their occupants try to crowd the hatchways of the tenders,
showing off unhappy sloths and fistfuls of bead necklaces.
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| Wood Carvings for Sale |
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| RIver Side house on Stilts, note high rise 'garden' |
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| Typical village home |
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| Tourists with their adopted grand kids in tow |
Ashore, hordes of children! A few years ago, youngsters
would ‘adopt’ a passenger, not leave the person for the entire time ashore, and
expect a tip when passengers were re-boarding the tender. A younger generation
has taken over from the children of years ago, this time they are armed with
more feathery costumes, and ready to pounce on anybody, who does not know the
routine. Frustrated grandparents gush ‘adorable’ and snap photos of –
unfortunately – these potential beggars in training. Passengers are seen
wandering about, smiling blissfully, and being surrounded by half a dozen kids,
all trying to hold on to their temporary adoptive grandparent with the aim of
‘future gain’.
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| Arriving from remote settlements |
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| Front Yard... |
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| She has seen it all before... |
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| Dad managing the boat... |
The wild animals which pose with the kids mostly suffer an
uncertain fate, as the idea of ‘pets’ is strange to the children here. Sloths, toucans
with clipped wings, parakeets, budgies, turtles, caimans with their snouts tied
shut, monkeys, still living and breathing catfish and snakes are all clutched
in tiny arms, ever so often treated with a furtive punch to make them pose
better, none fed or watered, none EVER elevated to beloved pet status. They are
money making props, and if they die –too bad – there are more in the jungle to
replace the lost ones.
Some passengers, trying to be benevolent, distributed their
‘presents’ (pencils, paper, toy cars (???), hair clips) to the children
directly, instead of the attending teacher at the school. This shower of manna
from heaven was greeted with an aggressive scramble amongst the different sized
children, with the bigger ones of course winning out over the little ones.
Photo dollars – if not handed over immediately by the children
(earning them in the first place) to parents– were quickly converted into junk
food purchases – chips, lollypops, candies, which astute local adults were
selling at various stands, thus channeling the day’s intake into adult hands.
Interesting value chain…wild creatures earning money for the kids, kids earning
money for junk food or hand over to parents, parents spend money on consumer
goods.
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| Junk Food Heaven |
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| Money Earning turtle |
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| Watching the visitors.... |
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| Young Mother with her Girl |
Best thing to do was to take one of the motorized canoes and
head for the river. A couple dozen or so enterprising villagers held up signs
in English, offering a ride for $ 5 for half an hour jaunt into the jungle
aboard their little vessels. I asked a rather distinguished looking villagers
whether his boat had a tarp roof (the heat and sun were paralysing) and upon
his affirmativenod, picked my way through some half-dried mud covered in river
grass to climb into the canoe.
We puttered up the Valeria River for a while, past snowy herons
hunting among floating river grass islands and through dense jungle, along ever
narrowing arms of the Valeria River with isolated river side dwellings on
stilts, to a muddy landing beach. A few other canoes had already nosed ashore.
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| Note orderly and beautiful jungle front yard land scaping... |
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| Boys Practising the Samba |
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| Costume for Carneval |
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| Village Pub and Grocery Store, tourist enjoying a cerveza |
A narrow steep path led uphill to a hill top village. Neat
houses, no captive animals, a school with a computer room, front yard
‘landscaping’, a little store doubling as village bar, a house full of carnival
costumes in waiting, a couple of young boys practising on their instruments, a
satellite dish beside every hut, and a glorious view over the jungle tree tops
to the various side arms of the river.
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| Computer room in Village School |
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| Every Hut with its own Sattelite Dish - Internet in the Amazon Rainforest |
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| My Taxi to the Village at the landing spot |
A good place to rest after a sweaty
climb uphill, and refresh oneself with a cool cerveza, which – as everything
else in this village – had to have been carried up on someone’s back from the
muddy landing below, originating who knows where along the Amazon and beyond. A
long journey, before this little can of beer could quench someone’s thirst.
The half hour ride turned into nearly a couple of pleasant
hours, enough additional time for Captain Canoe, who was a well-educated father
of only two young girls, living in said village in a neat house, to deserve a
generous additional remuneration for his welcome and friendly way to not only
extend the trip but make it very enjoyable.
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| My Taxi around South America at Boca de Valeria |
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| Packing up to motor back home |
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| FIring Up the Outboard Motor for the Journey Home |
