Photographic Evidence

I've finally been able to connect to the internet, thanks to the generous hospitality of friends. Which means I have pictures! I'll send out a photo gallery of all the good shots, but wanted to be able to include a few here on the blog as well.

We left Houston at midnight and arrived in Santarem, Brasil at about 2pm the following afternoon. Needless to say, we were pretty exhausted. We landed on a small air-strip in a field and walked off the plane. We were greeted by the most amazing sight. Literally thousands of yellow butterflies were migrating across the field, swirling all around us. It was breathtaking and beautiful. Our cameras weren't able to really capture it, the butterflies (or borboletas in Portuguese) don't show up in the pictures. But we felt like it was the Lord's way of welcoming us to the Amazon.

The airport was tiny. Baggage claim had one carousel and was about the size of an average American living room.

From the airport we took a bus into the city. We reached the port and finally got introduced to the O Missionario, which would be our home for the next week. This is the last picture in which LL and I look cute. All other photos after this are less than complimentary.

We ate at a little restaurant across the street that night and then settled in for sleep before our adventures on the Amazon. We woke up early the next morning, early enough to catch the sunrise on the river.
The first village we visited was about a 2 1/2 hour boat ride away from the city. More to come tomorrow...