Travel with Indigo

Here on the Rio Paraiba we feel very safe—we’re about four miles up the river past Jacare and just before Joao Pessoa. We took the tender to shore and then took a taxi to Joao Pessoa where we stopped at a big hotel (Tropicana) on the beach in the hopes that we would find someone who spoke English. We had only a little bit of luck there so struck out by ourselves.

We discovered something called pinga, which is (apparently) a foul-tasting alcohol in a bottle that also contained sliced fruit. We were told that you could either drink the liquid and fill it up again or just use it as a decoration. After one of us brave souls tasted the contents, we immediately opted for the decoration idea. Later on the boat, the crew poured out the liquid and poured in some rum—we’ll see how that comes out. Just thinking about that fruit fermenting in the bottle was enough for me—I’ll take the rum straight before I try that stuff!

While in town, we had lunch at a place on the beach that was no more than a roof with tables but again, the food was pretty good. We met a woman who was on vacation from being a teacher in Sao Paolo and she spoke some English so we asked a lot of questions and learned a lot about the country. Mostly, though, she wanted to learn about the U.S.A. She told us about her school and I can assure you there is no school in the U.S.A. that is anywhere close to being as bad as what she described. Hard to imagine having a geography class with no map available.

That evening, we were treated to a beautiful sunset (yes, Marty, I toasted you!) and we learned that we were anchored about a hundred yards from a very interesting sunset tradition. When Phil, Grant and Will noticed something happening, that went to the deck in the tender—it was a boy thing. If you have enjoyed a sunset at Key West, this will sound familiar to you. About ten tour buses rolled in from who-knows-where and lots and lots of people stood on the deck that faced the river and our boat and cheered on the sunset and held a little fiesta. Music was playing—Guy Lombardo-type music, if you can believe it—and apparently the traditional music for this event is that song from “Bolero”, which you might remember from Bo Derek’s movie “10”. I can assure you that after hearing that song over and over again, you will never hear it again. But we had a feeling we would be treated to it again the next evening when the sun was setting.

I joined the boys for dinner on the river deck—as close to the water as you could get—and as always, the food was delicious and the servings were huge. Then back to the boat to sleep a wonderful night’s sleep. This is not the kind of place we need to have anchor watches so everyone could sleep.