March 28, 2007
MarkBernstein.org
 

Boca de Valeria

We stopped at the small village of Sao Fernando at the Boca de Valeria at mid-morning. A group of houses, some ramadas, and a school face the river. More houses are found up along the tributary stream that meets the Amazon here.

Boca de Valeria

Boca de Valeria
photo: Linda Thorsen
Linda met a friend who took for her to visit her school. Nick and I encountered a very nice woman who showed us the family compound upstream and her pet toucan; her son Kennedy took us further along and introduced us to fresh cocoa fruit (here they have many more tasty fruits you've never heard of than you would imagine) and a variety of birds. Then he rowed us out to see the lilypads that grow along the river banks — and the wonderful Wattled Jacanas that scoot among them.

Boca de Valeria

We passed many of these villages in the coming days, riverfront stops where a few families cluster around a school or a church. Everything faces the river; the river is really the only road, and the kids seem to learn boat-handling as soon as they can walk.

Boca de Valeria
Photo: Linda Thorsen
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