DAY 58--ENTERING AMAZON

 Our position at noon today.  Now entering the Amazon on our way to Macapa to pick up our two river pilots who will be with all the way up to Manaus and back.  They'll be eating well for a week! As you see there are some large islands as we enter the Amazon.  One just off the photo above is as large as the country of Switzerland.  There are hundreds of islands in the Amazon.

At noon we had overcast skies with haze and light rain.  It has been this way all morning.  The temperature is just 77F with 93% humidity.  Forecast to remain this way all day.

The cocoa colored water of the Amazon flowing into the Atlantic Ocean.  This is what they call the "white water" of the Amazon.  I know, it's not white or even close.  It's called white water due to the ph (less acidic than black water).  Later on near Manaus we will see the "Meeting of the Waters", where the black water meets the white water.  More on that in a few days.

Historical/Background Info:
        We are just making a brief stop here so the ship can clear customs  and pick up the two Amazon River pilots who will be with us while on the river to help our bridge team safely navigate it.  Passengers are not allowed to go ashore.  Macapa is a city with population of approximately 400,000 and is located on the northern channel of the Amazon River near where the river flows into the Atlantic Ocean.  The Equator runs through the middle of the city so you can bet it is always hot and humid here.  Unfortunately, Macapa is also the 45th most violent city in the world.  Good reason not to be allowed to go ashore here today.  It has few roads to other Brazilian cities so is mainly connected to the rest of Brazil by sea or air.

What We Did Last Night:
        We enjoyed a very nice dinner and lots of conversation with Jamie and Dana last night in Compass Rose.  They are such a nice couple and do a great job as our cruise directors.  We enjoyed one of our bottles of our Veuve Clicquot champagne to start dinner.  I had ordered 4 French onion soups thinking third time would be a charm and it would be perfect.  NOT!  It was tasty but still not enough gruyere cheese on top plus it was not very hot.  Oh, well.
        The show was very good.  Mike Sterling sang tunes from Les Miserables, Phantom, Italian operas, and some Frank Sinatra.  He has a very powerful voice and the Regent orchestra was fantastic again.

What We Did Today:

        Up at 8:00 am with room service breakfast at our usual 8:30.  We are paring down our food intake so Rebecca had scrambled eggs and I had a box of All Bran Complete with 2% milk and some blueberries.  We normally ask for heavy cream for our coffee but I am drinking it black now.  At 10:30 we went for our workout and again managed to complete it without being kicked off the machines.  Limit is suppose to be 30 minutes only but do an hour.

        When in the ocean the ship has a desalinating plant to make potable water but in the silty Amazon they cannot use it.  So they ask we try to conserve water.  We will fill our tanks in Manaus again.

        We had chef salads delivered by room service again today for our lunch.  We had to wait until our stewards came to clean the suite so did not eat until about 1:30.  We have 7:30 reservations in Prime 7, the steakhouse.  I did good last night as did not have bread or dessert at dinner.

        We crossed the Equator heading north yesterday at 2:30 pm and now today at 3:30 pm we will be crossing it again heading back south (had to go north to get in channel to enter Amazon).  We crossed the Equator on the first segment on west side of SA and as you may recall they had an Equator crossing ceremony with King Neptune presiding.  Well, at 5:45 today King Neptune will return for another ceremony.  We are called Shellbacks, as we have previously crossed the Equator (actually many times).  Those who have not are called Pollywogs.  They will be required to come before King Neptune and kiss a fish.

        The visibility this afternoon is getting much better so we will just stay in the suite and enjoy the view as we sail in the magnificent river.  

  We passed this ship probably heading up to the huge Cargill grain storage facilities in Santarem where it will pick up some grain for export.  We will be passing by it on the way to Manaus and then stopping there on way back.