I'mhaving trouble posting so I'm getting behind

Jan. 15, Thursday, Parintins, Brazil
I have never been so hot in my life! That was heard over and over today from most of the passengers. Just to lick my lips was to taste salt. I can’t imagine how people live in this climate, not to mention work and dance. I guess you do what you have to.
Printins is a small 200 year old village on the Island of Tupiambarana, 350 miles down the Amazon from Manaus. I think the city's reason for being is to host a festival which runs for three days in June. It is called the Boi-bumba and tells the story of the kidnapping and killing of the ox of the wealthiest an in the village. It's a long story but it has happy ending.
The festival has developed into a competition between two Boi teams---one red and one blue. Each team has several thousand members. The cities’ building are painted either red or blue. The rivalry has grown so intense that Paritins is the only place in the world that has blue Coca Cola cans as the blue team supporters will not drink from red cans.
During the weeks surrounding the festival the local population of just over 30,000 people swells to 300,000 or more, many sleeping in hammocks or cabins in the numerous river boats crowding the harbor. During the festival, people sing and dance all day in the streets and at night they flock to the Bumbodromo for the show. The Bumbodromo is even built in the shape of a bull's head.
We were told that Boi-Bumba is becoming a rival to Carnival in Rio. I doubth the folks in Rio would agree.
Many people from the Prinsendam went to the Bumba show (at almost $100 a head). Plenty of others, including Alan and I, went ashore ,wandered the pier area looking at the various bead necklaces, postcards, feathered ear rings and head pieces, plus other souvenir reminders of the bull and the show. We hired a man with a bicycle converted to a rickshaw type conveyance. It was the best idea we have had. The poor fellow had to pedal in the heat while a cool breeze kept us alive. Each time we pointed the camera at something he would stop or slow down so we could take pictures. We toured most of the village including a stop at the Bumbodromo where we could hear the music. Alan also bought a video of last year’s show (which in many parts has costumes or lack of them to rival Las Vegas shows.)
Our driver even stopped at a general store an area far from the souvenir shops. As we passed the store, I spied something I had been looking for and by gestures pointed it out. Our driver/pedaler turned around and stopped. I bought a couple of Christmas presents. Sign language works!
The tenders continued all afternoon bring hot, sweaty passengers back to the ship.
One of our tablemates returned from his overnight in the jungle and kept us amused with his stories of being awakened at 5 am to walk the jungle and hear the animals come awake and of showering in water collected in tanks on the roofs. The water was the temperature of whatever it had heated up to during the day.
The evening entertainment was a comedian. Alan went to the movies----he was one of an audience of three or four.
I forgot to mention that in Boca da Valeria we bought a wooden carving of a couple of parrots. Upon returning to the ship we were instructed to go the “wooden collection” table. I had seen the sign and erroneously thought they had a collection of wooden carvings for us to view. Wrong. All wooden items must be turned in, wrapped in clear plastic wrap, and a form with a description and cabin number filled out. The articles are then placed in a freezer for 48 hours to rid them of any bugs or other creepy crawlies.
I had hoped they would store them in the freezer for the remainder of the cruise to save us space but a couple of days later our parrots appeared in our cabin.