Boca de Valeria

Boca de Valeria is a a small village along the Amazon that has a about 150 people. A cruise ship broke down nearby a number of years ago and took folks over to visit while it was repaired. The locals fled at that time, thinking they were being invaded. Now they come from surrounding villages bringing their exotic pets to photograph for $1 and small boats to take you on a tour.

Still more insects and moths every morning.

In past visits, the dock was quite small and rickety. The ship would send a few carpenters over to reinforce it if needed. This year we saw the new floating dock.

The homes are all built on stilts, as the area floods during the rainy season. We visited at the end of the dry season.

The homes have cutouts for windows and shutters to keep the rain out. In the dry/hot season this is very welcome.

They have electricity, and I saw phone wires, but I suspect they’ve mostly converted to cellphones as I had service there. There were also satellite TV dishes on a number of the homes. A few homes have a bathroom/septic system, but most use common public toilets that we used as well.

It is said in Brazil that a village is someplace that has a church and a soccer field. Boca de Valencia has both.

Some residents dress their kids up in more traditional costumes for photos for $1.

We took a took a small boat tour, $5 for 30 minutes seemed to be the rate they had standardized on, but our guide and his daughter didn’t stop or slow down for photos. We found out later that a different boat was great for the birders, slowing or stopping every time they raised their camera.

We saw a number of birds from the boat and walking around the village.

Walking in the village, I saw an old boat.

Towards the back end of the village I saw this young pig rooting around under a tree.