Belem, Brazil

We are at anchor in a river some miles inland near Belem, Brazil. I'm not signed up for any excursions here, but if I wanted to go ashore on my own, it would mean riding a brightly painted tender for half an hour just to get to shore, then taking a shuttle bus for an hour to get to Belem town center, and it doesn't seem worthwhile. Besides which, this is great weather for napping. So far today, I have eaten breakfast, napped on deck watching the brown river water carry dark cloud shadows downstream, eaten lunch (luscious chicken saffron soup and a main dish of salmon, rice, and vegetables), done the daily sudokus and failed to do the NYTimes crossword, and napped in my cabin. I can most likely make it to dinner without another nap, but should one call my name, who am I to resist? Tomorrow night Is have dinner with the captain and staff in formal dress, and two days after that we get to Recife, where I have shopping and beach walking to do. One needs to rest up for bigtime events like that. And there is a mile of teak deck calling my name -- unless one of the deck chairs grabs me first.