For Mom, Love Steve

These are some shots from me week long voyage along the Amazon.

This is pretty much 80% of Amazon river travel. Exciting stuff. Well, make that relaxing.
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Pretty nice sunsets while cruising along.
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This is my camarote, my room.
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Here is where the two rivers merge. The water from the Rio Negro has a different chemical make up so it does not mix right away. Its pretty much coffee black and coffee with milk.
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My crazy American friends and Israeli. Boring river travel is not so boring when you have hot babes. Unfortunately, I doubt our paths will cross again.
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These were some of the Brazilian party group on the boat. They kicked me out of the doldrums at the end of the trip. The girl adopted me because she liked the attention.
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This is the cutest little girl that played hide and seek with me. She was so shy but warmed up to me.
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I woke that morning at 5am, 6am, 7am, and laid there in bed twiddling my thumbs until 8am. It was king of like the first day of school, but in a good way. I hopped up brushed my teeth and was out the door with an auro of freedom all around me. I walked the five minutes taking a last look around as if I was going to be let out of jail. From previous scouting trips I knew exactly where to go. When I arrived there were two other couples there. I was hoping it would not be a huge line. With the exception of the USA and Australians, I don’t think anybody else has to go for the visa so it should be a light day. I went to the door but it was locked. One of the ladies told me that they would not be open until 9am. SHIT. We hung around just talking wasting time. The one couple was a Brazilian lady with a guy from Grenada. The other couple were a Colombian girl with a Australian guy. We talked about our plans and such until it was time to open. Finally at 9am the doors open and we walked in. The first thing the guy said was that they could process the Visas, but the Consulate person who had to sign them would not be in until 3pm. SHIT. We all just laughed as everybody’s plans just simultaneously flushed down the toilet. While processing my Visa th guy showed me the price list for the conversion rate for US dollars. They wanted $258,000B for the Visa. SHIT. The governmental rate was $2100B to $1US and on the street they were only giving $2400B. I sarcastically asked what Black Market they were using because I couldn’t even get that rate. Surprisingly he just laughed. Since I had time I ran down to the bank which was finally open and stood in a line 40 deep. I was barely in the doorway while people who just walked up had to stand outside and almost to the street. They only had one teller working at the time. Luckily, as I was standing there a security guy noticed that I had my Visa card in my hand. He asked if I was getting money. I told him yes and he took me to an open window. The lady quickly processed my request and gave the paperwork to the sole teller. She told me to cut to the front to pick up my money. I just walked up and the guy processed my paperwork and gave me my money. I felt really bad cutting in front of people, but sometimes special treatment is highly appreciated. I hopped in a cab and headed back to the Embassy. Everybody was still waiting, so I just hung out with them.
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