Bon Voyage

January 18, 2026

No alarm today. No wakeup for kitchen duty. No prep for the worksite. No hurry. The sun rose and we were still in bed. But the zoguezogues came and we still got our dose of monkey symphony from our hammocks. We actually caught some audio this time so we will include it below. All but two of us were up by 8am without any prodding and breakfast wasn’t until 9 so we were fine. 

We slowly started sorting our things so that we can pack the stuff that is going home all the way down, save a few things to wear in Santarém and Brasília on the way home, and, of course, separate out what we need for the boat trip that will start today. The plan on the boat trip is to visit other communities similar to the one where we’ve been staying.  Different areas focus on unique enterprises and community assets, and even when some parts of the communities overlap (like the presence of an ecotourism area like ours), there are big differences that are fun to observe. 

We will sleep on the boat in our hammocks for the next two nights, then swing through Anã one last time on Tuesday morning for breakfast and to pick up the bulk of our luggage. We will likely see many of our host friends on Tuesday when we pass through, but with a few of them we are saying farewell today.    

We are excited to explore new territory but we are heartbroken to leave our beautiful home. The day is overcast, so we can easily be out on the decks and look at the vast expanse of the rivers we are motoring across. The sky has a few dark clouds, so we might be in for some rain and some cool winds, which we will welcome after our many hot nights in the oca. Our first stop is a point in the river called Caracaraí (sounds like “car-uh-car-eye-EE”), where we will swim and bathe in the river until it’s time to dig a pit in the sand, build a fire in there, and cook some freshly caught fish (not by us), and have a beach piracaia (pronounced “pee-ric-EYE-uh”). 

We will check back in later from the boat and let you know about the weather and the amazing dinner we expect to have!

Here are a couple of audio files of the zoguezogues: