This morning the ship is anchored in from of this tiny village, Boca Da Valeria of supposedly 80 people. The idea is that we get to see how the locals live. We are going to tender to the village. The residents are going to be out to greet the ship.
Well yes, the tenders are lowered and everyone is ferried over to the village. When we get there, there are maybe 200 kids and yah they are all real cute. Right! Every one of them is saying in very bad English “Dollar, Dollar”. Some of them have an iguana on a string, or a sloth, or are dressed in their festival costume and the idea is that you take their picture and then give them a dollar. One kid even had a large bug on a string. Mind you it was about 8 inches long. I would guess it was some sort of grass hopper type of bug.
So you walk up to the village which is a typical jungle village of 6-10 buildings on stilts and there is a little school, a little church and even a bar. What is unbelievable is that the average age of the people we saw was maybe 10. No old people. Very few adults and a lot of kids. So each adult has 10-20 kids or they were imported for this special occasion.
When, we have been on these sight seeing trips before we have always been told “Don’t give the kids money! It turns them into beggars.” Well that isn’t what was being done here. Don’t get me wrong I am all for helping the third world and all for helping these people find new ways of joining this century, etc. etc. However I am not sure that this was the right thing. Well, it was an interesting little side trip into something. I am not sure what. A few scotches and I am sure we could figure out what it all means.
After a wonderful meal in the dining room the third world is forgotten. My 10 oz NY strip was perfect. After supper was a bug hunt on the ship. As sun down is 6:20 Pm and it is dark (pitch dark) by 6:45, the ship is this huge brightly light object which attracts all manner of bugs. On deck I saw some moths with 6-8 inch wing spans and a thousand other bugs which go beyond description.
It’s a hard life but some one has to do it.
Terry
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