Amazon River Village
Thursday February 20, 2025
Young girl in Boca da Valeria with a baby armadillo to share, and the $1 we gave her to take her picture!
Today was absolutely wonderful!! We were anchored in the Amazon river and tendered in to the small village of Boca da Valeria. Only about 100 people live in this village, and they are a mix of Indigenous and Portuguese heritage, known as caboclos. The village is small and most of the buildings are on stilts. The villagers and their children come out and greet the cruise ship visitors. The children have birds and animals they are holding and hope the guests take pictures of them for a dollar! Great deal! Some of the villagers offered us rides up the local tributary in their small boats, and other adults displayed their creative work and artistry for sale to the visitors.
The village has no paved roads and when the cruise ships aren't visiting most of the residents make their money from fishing. There is a small school in the village, and they benefit from donations from the cruise ship guests. There are hiking paths which take visitors into the rainforest areas that surround the district.
Below are pictures from our visit:
The Village:
Below (clockwise from top left) are pictures of - entering the village where the blue building on the left is the only bar/food place in town; a house in the village with a satellite dish (seemed sort of out of place!); the school, and the church which isn't being used because the back wall collapsed.
The Animals:
Green Iguana
A Toucan - it made clicking noises while it was sitting there.
A small monkey, possibly a Capuchin Monkey.
Lizards
A Hyacinth Macaw
Orange-winged Parrot; donations for pictures with the parrot went to the school.
River Turtle
Rainforest Greenery: We took these pictures as we hiked the trail.
Pink Dolphins:
The highlight of the day was to see the endangered Pink River Dolphins in the waters near the village. The dolphins were very smart and waited until we put our cameras down to break the surface of the water! With that said, here is the best of the MANY pictures we tried to take of them. Although the pink is hard to see in this picture the dorsal fin and back are definitely pink! Sooooo cool!
Birds in the Wild: We have seen an amazing variety of colorful birds
Pacific Parrotlet
Wattled Jacana
Great Egrets and Snowy Egret (smaller, with black beak)
White-winged Swallow
Mangrove Swallow
Large-billed Tern
Two More Things:
We forgot to share this picture from yesterday of Tom, Katie, Nancy and Karen at the confluence of the two rivers in Santarém.
And lastly, here is great map of the area of the Amazon basin we will be traveling through. Our stops on this trip are the places in red print.
What a great day we had! Tomorrow we will arrive in Manaus for two days. On the first day we take a 6-hour excursion that includes a riverboat ride up the Rio Negro to visit an indigenous village, a Rubber Museum, and plantation. We hope to see more Amazon wildlife. Thanks for taking this journey with us!
Thank you for the map. I kind of know where you are. The amazing Amazon and its pink dolphins and more! Keep on posting. If the Amazon inhabitants could get a 1% commission for every time folks made a purchase ftom Jeff Bezos —name usurper! ,) they could …. I dunno finish that church wall ! And more!
What a great experience! I gotta say my favorite pic was the one of the Sloth!! They’re the coolest! What makes the dolphin’s fins pink?
Wow, amazing photos. So many sights and I bet sounds to take in. Wonder if "poaching" of the exotic parrots and birds is still a problem?
Wow! What a cool day. And so many photos for Karen’s bird collection!