A few pictures

Now that I have a connection where I am able to upload a few picures...

 

 

The size of the logs and water hyacinth we had to avoid

Really big logs!

Our location in French Guiana

High tide at the local boat pier

Low tide, tough to get out at this time of day :)

Rick & Suza at the Guiana Space Center

Guiana Space Center

Yesterday we toured the Guiana Space Center which is the launch site for the European Space Agency. Here they launch the Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega (new, small launcher still in the qualification process) launchers. There will be a launch on July 5 of an Ariane5 which we hope to see from the boat.

Outside of that we have been doing neccessary boat chores. Many fuel runs with jerry cans, tracking down propane, provisions, laundry, etc. It is amazing how much time these tasks can take.

Next we plan to go to the Salvation Islands. One of the islands is Devil's Island, the site of a former penal colony where notorious French criminals were sent in the late 1800s. This is where Papillon was interred.
We are hoping for clean water so we can spend some time swimming and relaxing.

Kourou, French Guiana

We have arrived in Kourou, French Guiana. It was smooth sailing until the last day when we had no wind. The current was pushing us at 5 knots though not quite in the right direction, so we motored the last 50 nmi. After motoring for over a month through the Amazon it was great to sail most of the way.

We now have access to grocery stores and French pasteries, it is amazing how exciting that can be when you have not seen either for a while.

Voyager's plans have changed and we will be in this area for a while and then head directly to Tobago. Once Voyager leaves Tobago for Trinidad, they will have completed their circumnavigation.

Afua

We are spending a few days in the quaint town of Afua which is at the crossroads of several rivers. It is great to have access to internet, provisions, fuel and restaurants. There are no cars here, everyone walks or rides bicycles. The town is built above the water on stilts and pilings.There is a fair amount of traffic, boats bringing provisions and supplies in to the stores and families and village boats picking up supplies for local communities.

We will leave here soon and spend another week or so in Brazil (we check out of the country in Macapa) and then make the crossing to French Guiana.

Amazon

We have been exploring the Rios (rivers) and Furos (small waterways that branch off from the Rios) of the Amazon for the last couple of weeks.  The electronic charts are not the most accurate (according to them we are motoring on land at times). We tried to find paper charts, but apparently they have not made paper charts of many areas for quite a while. Between the electronic charts and images from Google Earth that Rick had downloaded while we still had internet connection, we have been able to navigate into many interesting places. The water is deeper than you would expect and the biggest hazards have been floating logs and large clumps of water hyacinth. There have been a few troubles raising the anchor in the mornings, but only one that required Rick to get in the water and cut something off the prop. The water is so brown that you cannot see a few inches into it.

The weather has been comfortable in the mornings, quite hot in the middle of the day and usually cools off nicely in the evening. We have had very little rain, only once have we been able to fill the water tanks with rain water. Before that we had started bathing in the river like the locals. We are all a little nervous about what may be in there that we can't see but all the locals bathe in it so we assume it is safe.

As we travel, frequently the residents paddle out to us in canoes and little boats. They are curious about the boat which is so different than the local boats and hope for something to be given to them (this seems to be in the areas where a yacht has been before). We have handed out candy, cookies, headbands and  balloons. In some places it is the first time a yacht traveled past. The people are very friendly waving to us and greeting us with Bom Dia (Good Day). There are so many different and beautiful faces in Brazil.  We have enjoyed our visits to communities and the visits on Voyager. We have stopped at two communities, Santa Monica and Bueussu do Rio Jacarezinho. At Santa Monica we saw the school which was not in session and the local saw mill. At Bueussu the local pastor and his family came out to greet us and invite to his home. We spent four days at Bueussu getting to know the local people and attending the evening service at the church on June 3. Suza even sang at the service. It was a big deal to have foreign guests and they made us feel like celebrities.

We have seen wonderful wildlife as we have traveled. The famous Amazon pink dophins, small black monkeys, parrots, a few toucans and numerous other birds. The beautiful iridescent blue butterflies and others with less exotic coloring. We have tried the local açai, goiaba (guava), coconut, caju (a type of cashew fruit) and brazil nuts. There are more biting insects than one can imagine and of course it seems I am their favorite course. Rick and Suza get very few bites without much effect, while I have many all over. I will not miss the smallest creatures of the Amazon.

The local industry is lumber. There are little saw mills all along the rios and furos. From what we have read there is concern about the deforestation, but from what we see it is still the primary way for people in this area of the Amazon to make a living.

We are popular with the local people

This could be your dinner

lumber .....

We have not met anyone in the Amazon who speaks English and we do not speak Portuguese, but we seem to be getting by with our phrasebook and Portuguese/English dictionary. We are expanding our vocabulary daily. We are now in Afua and plan to provision for the balance of our time in Brazil and the journey to French Guiana. Time to start working on French!

The Ramos family



We are a little taller than most of the people we meet



Visiting the local school in Bueussu do Rio Jacarezinho

We had fun taking pictures with some of the local girls - they loved the camera!

Suza & Janet in Amazon motoring mode