We have arrived in Soure after a 480 mile trip and 2 nights at sea, running down the coast towards the Amazon, arriving in darkness after a wonderful sunset which we toasted by drinking a bottle of Champagne..(Cava actually)

The depth was deep mostly 20-25 metres, so we had to let a lot of anchor chain out in total 75 metres, we did this 4 times until we were happy with our holding and while we were doing this we had pink dolphin swimming and blowing all around us and a torrential Amazonian downpour.

It was only a 5 minute dingy ride to a lovely little village with a rickety pontoon, it only had 4 wide streets set out in a square formation, a little fruit and fish market, a bank, a few little restaurants all serving the same thing Buffalo with grilled cheese, rice and manjock  and 2 hotels.  This is a sleepy place where the policemen ride Buffalo down the high street, where buffalos’ are used instead of donkeys and horses and cycles are the common use of transport.  The Taxis’s are motorbikes, you just hop on the back and they take you anywhere even to the beach for 4 Reals and you can arrange for them to pick you up at a preferred time.  This is great as it’s too hot and humid to walk anywhere, we are dripping wet through most of the time and we are wearing as little as possible. 35+ most days and very humid.

While we are in Soure we took a river trip and stayed in a farm for one night to see more of the mangroves and wildlife.  The night before our trip after packing a rucksack, I start being ill, typical food poisoning, excellent timing but after taking Imodium and diarolyte David encouraged me to get up at 5.30 am for the 2 hour boat trip. 

Taxi Rank

The group, Minnie B, Harmony, Havanita, Fidelio and Tanagra we all set off by heading down the river in a Aluminum Canoes for 10 people with a 40 hp engine, they flew, only stopping when we got to the farm.  The farm is a working farm with 120 horses and 500 buffalo and 2000 cattle and a lake for swimming, so we spent time riding horses and buffalo, milking the Buffalo too, then we went on a early morning trek, 6am to the jungle.  Seeing, monkeys, Sloths, Capybara’s, Tapir’s, Toucans, Hoatzins which are a pheasant like birds which fly as well as use its bill, feet and special wings claws to climb trees, Caiman crocodiles.  Lisa and I got bitten badly by mosquito’s even though we put cream and spray on us it was a tossup who won with the most bites….   Claude our guide explained the Amazon flora and the medical and herbal benefits of the plant life we saw, smelt and tasted all kind of unusual things.

The lady at the farm was a wonderful cook and made some marvelous meals for everyone all from homegrown ingredients, I was given homemade herbal tea and homemade bread with Veronica which I was told made the stomach linings sleepy and went to sleep in the hammock for a few hours, it helped a lot and by the time we were coming home to the boat I was feeling much better.

One day we hired a motorbike ourselves to explore more of the area and get off the beaten track, we went to gorgeous beach, swam in Amazon water which was so warm and dirty brown coloured but very refreshing in the heat, we sat at the only bar and had a beer just sitting looking at the wonderful scenery and reflecting on our journey so far.   

We also have to wash in this water in the anchorage as drinking water is very scarce and we have to use the tank water for drinking only, we had to erect a water catcher on the boat to fill the tanks with rainwater, so no more showers on board, we are using our outside solar shower filled with Amazon rainwater or water from the river..  

Love from us both from the Amazon. xxxx

Going to have a rest now as the travelling and navigation has been quite an endurance and an adventure