We are not going to be able to paddle all the way to Belem. Tides, high winds, and slower river current have slowed our progress throughout the expedition. Although we can't meet our original goal, all of us are proud of the hard work and accomplishments we've made. Plus,, as they always say the adventure is in the journey, not the destination.

While we aren't going to be able to paddle to Belem, we do need to end up there on November 17th. The dilemma is from where do we catch a boat, and when.

We are near a town called Curralinho. We had planned on paddling about 70 miles past Curralinho through two other towns called Boa Vista and Mauna during the next five days. We have been asking people along the way about boat schedules to Belem from Curralinho, Boa Vista, and Mauna. We are getting widely different information. For the past week, people have told us that we could catch a boat from any of the three towns every day of the week.

People who we are staying with tonight told us that boats to Belem leave from Curralinho every night around 9:00 or 10:00 at night, arriving in Belem in the morning.

They also said that the only boats from Boa Vista leave Sunday and Wednesday. The boats that leave from Boa Vista are much smaller, and the people weren't sure that they would be able to take our canoes and all of our gear. Apparently there are no boats to Belem from Mauna.

What should we do to get accurate information about boat schedules? If it's true that the only boats to Belem leave from Curralinho and Boa Vista, how should we spend our last four or five days? There are a few small rivers and side channels to explore. We could also spend time in a small community learning about daily life for people. Or we could arrive in Belem earlier than we had planned. What should we do?

Answer to yesterday's dilemma:

We have been taking your advice and using a wood fire to cook our food. We have also been able to get one of our stoves to work, so we are using a combination of wood fire and our not very powerful stove.