I woke up early, I had to eat, I did not have to stand in line though because breakfast was delivered. The Maria Fernanda belonged to a member of the church of the Israelites, so politics and tradition on board were according to the church of the Israelites and breakfast was delivered, hot Avena and 2 pieces of bread. I had to eat something and I did. Funny enough the third deck of the Maria Fernanda was only occupied 50% and of that 50% actually 50% were Gringo’s, similar to the previous ship. The second deck was crowded and had no space whatsoever, similar to the previous ship. I had not figured out the reason for this, maybe this trip.

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I walked down to the lower deck where the vans of the South America van travelers were parked. I had now time to convert our small talk to a small conversation and met Yonathan and Betty from Uruguay, Christian and Ana from Argentina and Irene and Claudio from Spain/France. I understood the motive, the timeframe and the route of the 3 couples; basically and simply live your life and follow your dreams.

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Congratulations to your philosophy of life, congratulations to your efforts and achievements during your travel and congratulations to your harmony, your respect and your love between each other. I hope to spend more time with you but now I have to go to my hammock, recharge the battery and work.

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Half an hour of work and the ship landed at one of the small indigenous communities; we had 20 minutes to load off the stone bricks and some other items before we left again. Just minutes after we had left the ship passed another small indigenous community and I could see a small crowd standing at the staircase down to the river and waving; we had passed them and we had to turn around because the captain had forgotten to pick up the passengers. The new passengers arrived on time for lunch which according to politics and tradition was delivered again; rice, feijao and chicken in a lunch box together with plastic fork and knife.

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Half an hour of work and the ship landed now at one of the big indigenous communities with lots of people waiting at the landing area, the majority being definitely member of the church of the Israelites.

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The landing area looked a little bit like a stage set of a monumental Jesus Christ movie with that huge crowd waiting for the arrival of the Holy Son, kind of like the famous Sermon on the Mount prayer. Everybody seemed to be dressed in the ancient clothing style of the Middle East at the time of Jesus Christ.

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My South American friends were not too happy about the various landings, the loading, the passengers, the children and the carriers; their vans were parked on the lower deck kind of in the way and everybody wanted to touch the vans, wanted to lean against them, wanted to look inside, play hide and seek around them.  We left the Jesus Christ movie and I had now almost 2 hours of work; I had fallen behind badly, very badly and there was no way I would catch up with this easily but I had to use every opportunity, every free minute to work.

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Just before dinner we landed at another indigenous community and another ship, the Carlos Antonio coming from Santa Rosa landed right next to us. I had spotted some Gringo’s on the third deck, climbed over the railing onto the Carlos Antonio, told my story and earned 2 Soles.  We left again and dinner was served; rice, feijao and chicken in a lunch box together with plastic fork and knife. The Maria Fernanda was quick, the landings had been very short and we would arrive tomorrow morning, very, very early in the morning.

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For a small understanding of the days travel, I have included a Google Earth map. The red pins mark the locations I have stopped and taken pictures. At the bottom of the page you will find a link for all the pictures I have taken. The link will open in a Google+ Album.

Please click on map to enlarge!!!

See map and distances / Siehe Karte und Entfernungen / Ver mapa e distâncias / Ver mapa y distancias

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