From Dr. Romance's travel journal: Monday, April 6
On the Amazon
A lovely, lazy morning. We're really enjoying having our balcony, where we watch the Amazon flow by, and take pictures.
There are a lot of clumps of floating vegetation, roots attached, and we even saw a log float by. The river is many miles wide so the banks can't be seen, but there are many jungle-covered islands, which give the illusion of banks.
The Port Lecturer tells us the difference between jungles and rain forests is that you can't walk in a jungle without cutting your way through. He explained the much-mentioned "meeting of the waters": The chocolate-colored Amazon is much denser, and has a different Ph from the ocean or the "black rivers" (which we'll encounter later) which are clearer water, dyed dark like tea from the vegetation. So, it takes several miles for the waters to mix, so we see the two colors of water for a long time before it's completely the Amazon.
The ship dropped anchor briefly at 6:00 AM at Santana to take on two river Pilots who will navigate the Amazon for us.
The Amazon is the largest river in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next top ten largest rivers flowing into the ocean combined. The Amazon basin (area that feeds the river) or Amazonia, covers more than two and a half million miles, or some 40 percent of South America. It releases up to 300,000 cubic meters per second into the Atlantic, and it's responsible for one fifth of the total volume of fresh water entering the oceans worldwide. There is a debate over whether the Amazon or the Nile is the longest river in the world, depending on where geographers measure the source of each.
I have to keep reminding myself that I'm here, in Brazil, South America, sailing on the Amazon River; but just going to the open deck and feeling the warm and humid air is demonstrable proof. It's about 84 degrees Farenheit (29 degrees Centigrade) and the humidity is 88%.
Omygosh! The Amazon disappeared! While we were at lunch, enormous rain clouds came over,and a downpour began. The fog was soon so thick that we couldn't see more than a few feet away from the ship. Everything else was invisible.
The Captain, dressed as King Neptune, presided over the "Line Crossing Ceremony" (crossing the Equator) this afternoon which we have done before. It's a lot of silliness, with King Neptune imposing initiations on "tadpoles" who have never crossed the equator before, to turn them into "leatherbacks". This one involved whipped cream, being hosed off, and then thrown into the pool.
This is the last formal evening of this first leg of he cruise, with a production show called "Words and Music" which salutes composers and lyricists from Berlin to Sondheim. There will be a Champagne Waterfall after the show. A big night, and tomorrow at dawn, we dock in Santarem, our first port in Amazonia.
