The tapioca blintz things this morning had something like feta cheese in them. My name is Benj Lipchak and I approve this message.

Today we hit the river and steamed as fast as we could (or dieseled?) back to the nearest village on the river so we could watch the Brazil vs. Belgium World Cup match. First Moe gifted the soccer ball we brought along to the friendly tykes I juggled with yesterday. I took a few photos of the beautiful fog, and then back to the hammock! I completed a preposterous number of black belt KenKen.

We arrived in “town” (one “road” with about a dozen houses, only accessible by boat) during halftime. Brazil was already down 2-0. We walked up to a residence where a bunch of people were watching, and they set out some extra chairs for us, and even moved the television outside so we’d all have a good view. We drank a lot of beer, which helped us cheer in one solitary goooooooooooooooal. Every time I put my beer glass down between sips, one of our crew topped it off. We killed a lot of liter-sized bottles of beer in just 45 minutes! Brazil had control of the ball 95% during this 2nd half. If only we had shown up before the damage was already done! Things would have gone differently.

We had a decent signal heading into and out of town. I texted Jessica that I’m safe and sound. She texted right back that she pulled the car over and wanted to FaceTime. It was only 2 bars of 3G, but it worked pretty great! I gave the fam a quick virtual tour of the boat and a view of the river. What a great moment. I can’t wait to see them for real in another 9 days! I haven’t seen those kiddos in about 3 weeks!

We parked the boat for tonight about an hour or two back away from civilization. We all jumped in the water. It was shallow and sandy, with the obligatory dolphin swimming nearby. I’m wondering if they’re assigned monitoring duty by the dolphin high council. These dolphins are everywhere we go, in plentiful numbers. After splashing around a bit, I went to grab my biodegradable body wash and shampoo, purchased originally for Maurice’s and my Allagash river canoe trip, and got myself really clean for the first time on this trip. Eric borrowed my suds, too. (Maurice abstained, since it hasn’t been 6 months yet since his last washing.)

Eric was kind enough to propose I try his Bose noise cancelling headphones tonight so I can get a full night’s sleep. I already tried them out. His snoring stands no chance against my white noise pumping through these cans. Thanks, Eric! Zzzzzz