Macapa, State of Amapa, Brazil
Saturday, December 31, 2011
The past three days were spent at sea steaming toward and then into the Amazon. Participants filled their days by taking in lectures, attending workshops and enrichment sessions, interacting with their fellow participants, and generally enjoying the fine weather topside. We attended excellent lectures given by the Keynote Speaker Julian Bond and the former Poet Laureate Rita Dove. To get us prepared for Brazil, one afternoon our Group Leaders Helena Baltazar and Rui Veiga—who are both Portuguese—gave us an overview of the Portuguese language. It was a great session; Helena and Rui explained the differences between Spanish and Portuguese and taught us some words and phrases that might come in handy once onshore such as “obrigado,” “bom dia,” and, most importantly, “onde fica o banheiro.” On the 30
th we noticed the sea surrounding the ship becoming brown. Although we still couldn’t see land, the brown water was caused by sediment being carried far into the sea by the Amazon as it emptied into the Atlantic Ocean. Later that day the Poet Laureate Rita Dove met with our Road Scholar group for a question and answer session. It was a great opportunity to meet one our nation’s premier poets and learn about her duties as Poet Laureate, her writing process, and what inspires her to write poetry. We began the last day of 2011 with our ship anchored in the mouth of the Amazon. As we ate breakfast on deck under a hot tropical sun we watched a small boat approach and then carefully transfer a river pilot to our ship. We were soon underway and moving upriver toward
Santarem, our first stop on the Amazon. We’re all excited for tomorrow’s field trip and eager to begin our exploration of the Amazon River basin. Boa noite!
