It was great to sleep in a real bed again after the rough mattress in the boat. And the breakfast in our pousada rules, even though it's simple. My favorites are the chocolate milk and their fruits. Local papaya is so tasty and sweet.
Alter do Chão is known as the Caribbean of the Amazon for its white sand beaches and clear waters. So just as we spent yesterday taking it easy in town, today we do the same but on the beach. Our street ends on the Tapajós River, and from there canoes can take you to a small island or sand bar. You can see it from town since it is not very far, but the water gets deep enough that if you want to bring a bag with you without getting it wet, canoeing across is the way to go.
We spent all day in this great place and mostly in the water. We even had lunch in the water: food shacks place their tables and chairs in the water! While coming up with games to play, I started playing catch with my dad using my Havaiana sandals. They are waterproof and float, so when threw my sandal on the water, it bounced. So we made up a game called Skipping Sandals.
Then we met a family with a boy about 12 years old. I taught him how to play Skipping Sandals and he taught me how to play these other cool games like Buddha Submarino, where you float on your belly and pretend to meditate with your face in the water. You make a hum sound underwater and then you come up for more air. There was also a game called Tubarão, or Shark. You open your eyes underwater and you have to try catching the other person. You can only come up for air, and when you do you have to close your eyes. There were black rocks that looked like coal. We rubbed them on our skin but they made no marks. We would open our eyes in really shallow water and look for them. But the water was so crystal clear that you could spot them easily just standing up.
I thought I found a section of a seashell but I wasn’t sure. I showed it to my new friend and asked him if he knew what it was, and he told me it was part of a turtle shell.
After we took showers back in the pousada we went out into the center of the village for dinner. There were not many options and we chose pizza with a maracujá juice, another tasty local fruit in Brazil.
