Parintins Part 2

 

 

Here are some other pictures we took while he pedalled along.

 

           

                     

 

             this is the only parrot we have seen

 

This city is known for it’s festival, the Boi Bumba, held every year at the end of June.  It is the celebration of a story about a Bull that was brought to life.  The bull was a gift to the rich landowner’s daughter.  She went away to school and left the bull in the hands of one of the workers.  He took good care of the bull until his wife was pregnant and all she wanted was the bull’s tongue.  Finally the husband gave in and killed the bull.  The next day the daughter returned from school.  She was destraught.  So they got the local shamen, who was able to bring the bull back to life.  So they had a 3 day celebration, which continues today.  But today it has turned into a competition.  The red team and the blue team.  Each team tries to have a bigger show than the other.  We were able to see the blue area

 

              

November 24 Parintins, Brazil Part 1

 

We didn’t think we would do much here, just go ashore and look at the craft booths. 

 

Instead of tendering in from where the ship has to drop anchor with the ships tenders, this port we had to use local boats.  See the beautiful seats…

 

 

 

When we got ashore we were met by the local girl scouts and boy scouts

 

                       

 

But instead we took a pedicab around the town.

 

                                                             boy is he strong.  He ran up a hill pushing us.

 

Some pics

 

    

 

 

    looks like the last supper, doesn’t it.

 

 

 

 

 

November 23 Manaus still

 

We didn’t go ashore today.  We had enough yesterday.  So we slept in and did some housekeeping, so to speak.  Like refilling our daily pill cases.  We went to 2 talks on Windows 10.  The lecturer is very annoying, which makes sense since he works for Microsoft.

 

Then it was time for dinner.  Yesterday, which was my birthday, I asked about a birthday cake.  Usually you get a cake on your birthday and usually that happens in the dining room.  We don’t eat in the dining room.  We eat at the Lido, which is the buffet.  We do that so we can choose what and how much we want to eat.  Anyway, I asked for a sugar free chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.  Of course.  They said it could not be done that day but would be ready tomorrow (today).

 

So after we finished, or actually almost finished, dinner the chef brought out this beautiful birthday cake.  Well I expected that.  What I didn’t expect was having about 10 staff members serenade me with happy birthday in 3 languages.  English, Indonesian and of cours Dutch.  I smiled so hard I think I broke my face.  I didn’t even get a picture of them.  I was too busy smiling and having my face turn bright red to match my shirt.  PS  It turns out that in Indonesia you are supposed to wear red on your birthday.  I didn’t know that.  It was an accident.

 

Anyway, it was wonderful.  I am still smiling writing this.

 

                                          

                                                   

Manaus part 3

 

Some pictures of the opera house

 

   the tiles on the dome were brought from Europe.

 

 

                            

 

                 

 

        This is the ballroom.  Having an opera house without a ballroom….unheard of.

             This is a Lego replica of the opera house made of over 30,000 bricks.  The detail is amazing

            This is the square outside the opera house, with its manditory church.  Look at the beautiful mosaic tiles.

 

Nice folklorico show this evening.  Pictures didn’t come out well enough to post.  You’ll just have to visit us when we get home, to see them.

Manaus part 2

 

Too many pictures to upload at one time, so I will do it in pieces.

 

Manaus in on the Rio Negro, or Black River.  The location was probably chosen because the mosquitos don’t like the river.  So why not build there?

 

When the Rio Negro flows into the Amazon, they do not mix easily.  The Amazon is full of silt, which makes it brown.  Rio Negro is actually nice clean water, but compared to the Amazon it looks black.  So here is what it looks like when they get together

 

      It looks like there might be a small stream entering the river that would cause the second picture.  (we had to get up early in the morning to get these picture, hope you appreciate that)

 

  I took a picture of this, not knowing what it was.  We could see the K, so thought maybe it was K-mart.  But on blowing it up, it turns out to be a Kawasaki plant.  Maybe tomorrow we can go there and they will have some free samples lol

 

 

November 22 Manaus, Brazil–part 1

 

This is the highest point on the Amazon that we go.  After here we start down the river on our way back home.  Manaus is the biggest city on the Amazon with 2 1/2 million people. 

 

We had to take a shuttle bus from the ship to the terminal, since we docked at a commercial port.  Manaus was the rubber center of the world for quite a while until someone smuggled a rubber tree out and started planting them elsewhere.  Also, synthetic rubber was made.  So Manaus became a bust city.  What remains is a beautiful opera house and some opulent homes.  Each rubber baron tried to outdo the others.  Manaus was known as the Paris of the Amazon.  Rich people actually dressed in furs in this tropical rain forest.  I can’t even imagine that.  They did for presigue, while my t-shirt was totally wet from sweat.  Vanity….

 

                                                                          this is a bar

 

Did I say “rain forest”?  Up until now we have had some occasionaly showers.  Today we experienced a Rain Forest.  While we were in the opera house it started to thunder.  Then it thundered more and more until we could hear the lightning crackle.  And the rain…..the streets were at least 1 foot deep in water.  Cars parked next to the curb had water up to their doors.  But nothing stopped the drivers.  Our taxi driver just kept going, splashing his way through the town toward the terminal.  It was very “exciting”.  I kept expecting to get stuck in the rivers of water running down the streets.  But we didn’t and we got safely to the terminal and to our ship.  I said safely,  I did not say dry.

 

 

What we did today was walk from the terminal to a huge market.  It was full of touristy stuff, not of interest.  Except that the entire building had to be delivered by ships to get built.  There were no materials here and no personnel to construct the huge market.  So 4 ships came from Europe, took 8 months.  3 carried the materials and one carried the workers.  When you have more money than you know what to do with, this is what you do.  There was a section of the market where they were selling fish.  Huge fillets, I mean HUGE.  What was the most interesting was that there was no fishy odor.  No smell at all.  Must be very fresh.

 

    

 

When we left the market we headed for the opera house.  Did I mention how amazingly hot it is here?  Even before the rain we were soaking wet.  So instead of going directly to the opera house, which of course was uphill, we weaved our way there.  We picked our route based on whether there was a breeze or not.  We even spent some time in stores just because they had some air conditioning.  We didn’t buy anything.

 

      Christmas is on sale already here, too.

 

We went on a guided tour of the opera house and, as I said, the storm started.  So we came back to the ship.  Right now I think that we are finished with Manaus, even tho the ship overnights here and we don’t leave until tomorrow at 5pm.

 

Oh, happy Thanksgiving to all and Happy Birthday to me.  We will have a Thanksgiving dinner tonight.  This should be interesting.

Addendum to Nov 21

 

 

Today we saw a Harpy Eagle.  We didn’t know what it was until the lecture this evening.  We also found out that Bull Sharks hunt up this river.  The sharks have adapted to swimming and feeding in fresh water.  There are many fish here who were originally in the Pacific Ocean, yes Pacific not Atlantic.  Forever ago, when South America was flat, the Pacific covered part of it.  As the Andes grew (from techtonics) the Pacific was cut off and a huge salt water lake was formed.  Over the millenium, as rains fell, and that is a lot here, the lake changed from salt to fresh and since it did not happen overnight, the animals adapted.  So there are electric eels, sharks and 2 kinds of dolphin in the fresh water Amazon. 

 

Also, we learned, most types of piranha, and there are about 30, are vegetarians.  The movies lie about them eating you right down to the bone.  Doesn’t happen.  They have to be very hungry to even think about people and then mostly when you are already bleeding.  So, there….

November 21 Boca Da Valeria

 

Boca is a small town of about 60 that swells when cruise ships come in.  People come from all around to sell their wares and have their children dress up and hold exotic (to us) “pets”.  Don’t know if they are real pets or just money making props.  They have sloths, parrots, toucan and monkeys.  When asked what kind of monkeys they have, the answer is always the same “baby”.    You could take their pictures and they expected a dollar for the privilege.  We spent quite a few dollars.

 

                                                                                                    

 

We walked around the small village, followed by a herd of kids.  They decided that Duane was “Papa Noel”.  So I wondered what would happen if I offered Duane as Papa Noel and asked for a dollar for the kids to have their picture taken with him.  No luck, but lots of smiles.

 

After walking around the little village, we took a dugout for a half hour cruise.  We were the only passengers, along with the driver and his 2 brothers, one of whom was maybe 5.  (he cried when they were leaving without him).  The best part, after seeing lots of different birds, cattle and huts, was the jumping fish.  I guess the boats scare them and they jump and some land in the boat.  One hit me in the hip.  We had a total of 5 fish in the boat.  And, NO, they were not piranha.

 

                        what our boat looked like

 

                                                                 

 

We took some pictures of the jungle and a couple of vultures.  Most of the birds just didn’t pose for us.

 

                                      

November 20 Santarem, Brazil

 

 

Since Santarem is a city of over 300,000, we did not go to the city center.  Found out from others that it is no big deal.  So we went ashore just near the ship.  And, no bugs or anything like that at the dock.  Tomorrow may be different as we are going to a small village.

 

First thing we saw whe we went ashore was this boat loading passengers and fruit.  The fruit was plantains, and papaya and potatoes.  The passengers didn’t sit on seats, they hung in hammocks.  I don’t know how long a trip they are taking, since most had coolers with them.

 

        

 

There was a small bunch of craft stands near the ship.  We went there and had to buy a piranha.  They cost either 2, 3, 4 or 5 dollars.  Those prices were right next to each other.  I even bought some earrings with fish on them.  Real dried fish.

 

      

 

And, no, we did not go swimming with the fishes.

 

   Last night’s sunset.

Our Itinerary, better late than never

It difficult to explain how this river works.  So I tried to get pictures off the TV.  Sorry about the quality.  Keep an eye out for all the islands.  They look little, but they are not.

 

   This where we enter Brazil and the Amazon

   Close up of the river near where we are.  Look at all those tributaries.  And those are the only ones that show up on the satilite map.

 

    see all the islands.  The Amazon is more of a meandering river than just a wide one.  We mostly sailing between islands and the shore, or maybe it is 2 islands.  I can’t tell.

 

 

 

   this is where we are right now.  Tonight we move over to Santaram, just to the right on the picture above.

 

I hope all this is not TMI.  It is just fascinating.  Maybe you can get some info at home and send us some questions.  Oh, yea, it is about 90 degrees with the same humidity.  Will let you know about bugs and stuff after we go ashore tomorrow.  We discovered, as we often do no matter how many times we travel, that when we go to sea level, after one week we get very tired.  Same thing will happen when we get home.  Each time we think we might be getting sick, when all it is is altitude adjustment.  Hopefully it will pass soon.

November 19 Alter do Chao, Brazil

 

So after yesterday’s excitement, we went back to the doctor, who removed Duane’s IV.  Then we carefully had breakfast.  Since Alter is a beach resort for this area of the Amazon, I took pictures from our balcony and Duane went back to sleep.  This early evening we leave here and arrive in Santarem, just up the river.

 

                                                                           

 

The beaches here are said to equal the most beautiful ocean beaches.  Notice the water is blue.  Up to now it has been brown, from the sedement (sp).  Here, a tributary comes in and has lots of clean blue water.  You could take a local canoe to where the river meets the tributary.  But we are staying on board to give Duane a chance to recover.  Maybe tonight when we get to Santarem, we might go ashore.  Since we are staying there overnight, I am sure we will see it tomorrow.