A Day on The River

How quickly it has become the river instead of The Amazon. We see “pieces” of Rio Negra, clear dark patches in the chocolate waters. It is still resisting fitting in or blending, much like many people. WHOA!!! I am getting way too philosophical here!

The ship is cruising in and out of little rain showers and folks are moving from sun bathing to hiding under the canopy and back again. It is almost like we cannot waste any ray of sunshine.

The Enrichment classes this morning were The Amazon River Dwellers. These hardy self-sufficient people only need money to pay for gasoline or kerosene for lights. Since there is no winter here, only rainy season and dry season they have no need of heat. All the river people are what we could call squatters. They find a place they like and build their home even though the government owns the land. They are so far away in the jungle that the government people never bother them. For money they work collecting rubber sap and Brazil nuts. Tomorrow we will get to visit one of the villages of the River People and see their homes close up and personal.
Jack chose to go to the River Dwellers class while I went to my second watercolor class.
The first class was watercolor on wet paper and we created a waterfall. Me, the one who can't draw. I really surprised myself!! This teacher claimed everyone can draw. Well, here is my result. Not too bad for a first effort. Today’s class is Watercolor Batik. I was intrigued, as to me batik means fabric so I had no idea of the watercolor part. The theme of the work is “The Amazon in My Eyes”. I tried for shady forest and a large butterfly! We had to draw the picture then sandwich a piece of waxed paper between it and a plain paper. Using a ballpoint pen we went over our lines, very hard, to transfer the wax to the sheet underneath so the paint will not stick to the waxed lines. Then a pale green wash over everything and then the details. Here is the result. Really good refrigerator art!! I have surprised myself and am looking forward to more art classes.

Later in the afternoon we had our preparation class for Santarem, our next port. (SANTA-rem) emphasis on SANTA. It is a form of Saint Irene. We heard of the languages and culture of the area. It is so much nicer to know a little of what to expect. They tell us what type of apparel is proper, if it is safe to wear our jewelry or may cause some jealousy in the poorer peoples. We are told that it is considered rude to photograph someone with out asking his or her permission and, if they agree, it is polite to show the photo on the digital camera. These people do not expect to be paid for the photo as the people in Panama did. No cruise has ever prepared us for a port the way Semester at Sea has.