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!

We swam and took in the sunset and the awesome Amazon sky. The boat crew set up a whole dining area on the beach and grilled fish and pork and we all ate like we hadn’t eaten for a long, long time. We had acaí for dessert and then the boat crew lit a bonfire. It burned pretty fast but we sat around it for a while and just kept marveling over the fact that we are in class right now. We feel great sympathy for those who are sitting in classrooms across the country to get their college credits this month. 

Our sleeping situation was a bit tighter than we might have imagined but we found a way to get everyone in place. A breeze blew through all night so we actually got to feel the slightest chill. Morning is coming early so we hope that sleep comes easily. 

Here are a couple of audio files of the zoguezogues:

The sunset off our boat this evening

Taking a dip in the Arapiuns at dusk

Our boat

Guido and a pitomba

The happy chickens we visited before we left

Casey and James getting off the boat, the Marclei, that we will be staying on for the next couple days!

A snapshot of the breathtaking clouds behind one of the little huts on the beach we stopped at for the night.

We had a beautiful, fiery, sunset tonight! Reds, oranges, and pinks were very prominent against the darkening clouds. On the bottom left, silhouettes of the girls standing on the beach stand under the last light of the setting sun can be seen.

Our delicious dinner spread for the evening! Doña Odila described to us how they usually enjoy their beach dinners and that they usually dig a pit in the sand to roast the fish but were unable to this time due to the way previous people left the sand. The food was still absolutely fantastic (my mouth is watering as I am writing this)

After dinner, we had a bonfire on the beach and played the game

"Imposter", definitely a night to remember!