Saturday, Jan. 10, Macapa

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  Saturday, Jan. 10 Macapa, Brazil ,and then on up the Amazon toward Santarem.
  We awoke to the predicted Amazon rainforest rain. And was it raining. Luckily for us by 10:00 or so it had stopped and a half hour later the sun was out. We had tickets for the 11 am shuttle which left just about on time. The bus was much nicer than we had expected....a pleasant surprise as we were picturing something like the busses we rode in Tonga and Samoa. Today's had plush seats, windows and air conditioning.
  It was about a 40 minute ride to Macapa from our dock at Santana. The dock was part of a bark mulch plant's operation with no frills or welcoming dancers. I think we were on the only paved road from Santana to Macapa as all we saw were one lane dirt/mud roads leading off to very run-down shacks. As we got closer to Macapa, the capital of the state (Brazil is divided into states like the U S), we saw more substantial houses but nothing grand. The area is very poor by our standards but the people very friendly and smiling. No one we encountered including shop people and cab driver spoke any English. But why should they? Macapa is certainly off the beaten track and only two or three cruise ships stop there in a year.
  Macapa itself is right on the Amazon River and is a bustling, hot, humid grid of shops of all sizes, selling all manner of things from baby clothes to appliances. It seemed that every store had a loud speaker blaring music into the street.
  Alan 's sneaker sole parted company from most of the upper part of the sneaker so he is duct taped together. We spent the better part of the afternoon going from one shoe store to another. There must have been 15 or so that we found just by walking a couple of blocks. Nothing suited Alan so he looks like a homeless person but we'll have to live with it until Manaus which is supposed to have many, many shops.
  While standing on a street corner we were approached by a couple from the Prinsendam who wanted to know if we'd like to share a taxi to the Monumento do Marco Zero do Equator. We did, and took each other's pictures standing on the equator. Alan is in one hemisphere and I am in the other. Our fellow traveler had a GPS with him but he said it did not read 00° 00.00 but came close.
  
  
  
  
  
  (At 5:00 a short while after leaving Santana our position is 00° 08.86S. 051° 12.69W.)
  Although we drank water during our time ashore we consumed plenty of ice water and ice tea when we returned to the ship.
  
  A few facts on the Amazon River and the Rainforest
  Prepared by Kate Ross one of the Explorations Lecturers on board
  *the total length fro the source is 4020 miles or more depending on the source of information
  *the drainage are is 2.3 millionsq. miles
  *in Brazil alone it runs for 1,960 miles
  * it carries 7 million cub feet of water per second--the largest volume in the world and one fifth of all freshwater entering oceans.
  *it carries 60 times more water than the Nile, the second longest river
  *over a thousand rivers and streams flow into the Amazon
  *17 of its tributaries are over 1,000 long
  *the Rainforest takes up nearly 1/2 of the country of Brazil and parts of 8 other South American countries.
  *the mouth of the Amazon is about 125 miles wide.
  *the river is navigable 2,310 mile from the delta in Brazil to Iquitos in Peru
  *it is the longest navigable natural waterway in the world
  *it has no bridges, crossings are made in all manner and size of boat from ferries to canoes.
  *there are 30 species of monkeys
  *230 snake species
  *40 turtle species
  *1,500 to 3,000 species of fish
  *insect species can only be roughly estimated at 70,000 to 2 million.
  *over 4,000 butterfly species
  *600 mammal species
  *from the source to Atalaya on the Rio tambo, the river drops 14,600 feet in altitude. *From there to the Atlantic it drops only 630 feet.