Saturday 23rd January : Continued

Saturday 23rd January
Well, we arrived at 9 o’clock, after some faffing around we
eventually tied up at about Noon!
The day trip boats were already standing by for the six organised trips throughout the day.
Our excursion was timed to start at 13:30 but we were up and off about fifteen minutes early.
The first part of our trip is on a double decker water bus. Pretty fast, and we are about an hour from the first part of our five hour tour.
During this time our guide gives us the full works on the Amazon and Manaus.
By the way, if I haven’t already written this, the city is on the River Negro, about four miles from the where the River Solimoes meet it to form the Amazon.
Whilst I remember, the Amazon used to flow into the Pacific before the Andes was formed millions of years ago, and
so we have Pacific sea life in the form of the dolphins, stingray and manatee amongst others similarly stranded.
The actual source of the Amazon is high up in the Andes and so this is the fact that makes the Amazon the longest river in the world, it’s just that it becomes the Brazilian Amazon at the conjunction already mentioned.
Anyway, back on course. We arrive in a backwater about an hour after we started off and pass through a village, most of which is based on homes built on floats, and are therefore able to be moved when the river rises and falls with the annual flood.
Or, if you don’t get on with your neighbours!
The “floats” are in fact the boughs of the huge capoc tree.
As this tree is now fully protected, nobody asked, me included, what they use now, if building a new home.
The are also many homes that are built on stilts for obvious reasons.
As well as a school (they even have school water buses painted yellow, as you see in the US films) and a  hospital.
There are also two restaurants and.....a gift shop. We need to pass through both of these to reach our canoes for out part of the trip into the interior.
The canoe is actually a ten seater boat, with an outboard motor and a steering rod, and they sit, even before loaded, at water level.
So off we set along with four other canoes, not much chance of seeing a great deal of wildlife as we zip through the channels of floating grass, but bird life is there in good numbers.
No sign of caiman as they are nocturnal, we won’t get back in time for the caiman spotting tour.
A couple of hours spent wending our way through the backwaters and it’s back to the gift shop and then off back to the ship via the waters meet.
On our arrival we find that there has been some kind of misplanning or mishap, as we are unable to board direct into the ship as the door is now below the floating deck.
The word is that the water level had dropped. I just don’t believe that, but we don’t get an official explanation.
All boarding must now take place around the other side of the ship. With at least four tours finishing at about the same time we all find we have to disembark our river boats and join a queue for the 105 seater tenders.
Well handled once again, but methinks somebody made a faux pas.