This morning's lecture was by Bill Lee titled "What Time Is It" where he tried to explain what time is. He finally admitted at the end that he doesn't really know and he's not sure anyone does. There are various definitions, like from Einstein and Isaac Newton, but not all agree.
We tied up to a floating dock around 1:30 this afternoon and our tour departed at 2:30. Since the tour was a boat ride, the tour boat was able to pick us up right at the floating dock, which was convenient. We meandered around the area for a while before heading up a river to do some piranha fishing. Along the way, we saw some wildlife, but I couldn't get pictures of most of it.
 |
| Santarem has a population of 300,000 and is growing rapidly according to our guide |
 |
| Water buffalo |
 |
| The water should be right up to these trees soon if they get some rain |
Our guide was knowledgeable as he was born and raised here, but he was hard to understand due to the crummy sound system and he talked almost nonstop for the whole 3-1/2 hour tour. We stopped along the riverbank for a little piranha fishing. The bait is a piece of meat. I had lots of bites, but could never snag anything. Others, including Michael, had better luck. Red piranha, black piranha, and sardines were caught.
 |
| A red piranha caught by a passenger |
 |
| Michael getting ready to catch his sardine |
 |
| A black piranha. Those teeth really are menacing. |
 |
| A herd of water buffalo bathing |
 |
| There were probably 8 boats on this river fishing and we were the only ship in Santarem today. We had around 25 people on our boat. |
 |
| A floating refueling station for the big ships |
Both our lecturers and our guide have talked a lot about the rainforest in Brazil being lost. Big corporations come along and burn the trees to plant soybeans. But the soybeans aren't food quality so they are used for animal feed and fertilizer. The soil is so poor in nutrients that you can only get 2 crops and then you have to find another field. Surprisingly to me, the rainforest doesn't really supply that much oxygen for the planet as the trees respire it back in at night, but they do provide rain for the basin and the Amazon River. And it is home to thousands of species of fish, birds, plants, and other wildlife.
We got back to the ship around 6:30 and were so happy to be back in air conditioning. We took our "navy' showers (remembering to conserve water) and then had a nice dinner with Jan and Tom. They had done the same tour on a different boat and had the same trouble with their guide as we did.
Clocks turn back an hour tonight. Right now we're two hours ahead of home.
