Shore excursions comments

The high point of the cruise, in addition to Manaus, was a small group tour I organized with Gil Serique in Santarem; on New Year's Day he picked up the ten of us at the dock as soon as we were able to disembark, and took us to a small tour boat, where we had the run of the ship, and were treated to his descriptions of the birds and life along the river; he stopped the boat at an area that was walkable, while a crew member went looking for a sloth in the wild, and most of the group went off exploring the rainforest; upon return to Santarem his van took us to a small farm where a family demonstrated the harvesting of brazil nuts and cocoa beans, cutting a tree to gather the latex, grating manioc and processing it for family use.