Parintins, Amazona, Brazil

Day 58; 4 March

Unable to sleep longer we were up at 0615 and the ship was dashing back down river for Parintins, which we had passed on the way up. At 2300 last night we changed pilots. The morning came cloudy and rainy, of course. The ship's AC has been running hard and when I stepped on deck with my camera to shoot our approach, the lens and mirrors fogged in the heat and humidity. Our anchor went down in the Amazon for the last time this voyage at 0830 and we swung bow upriver, which gave our port side cabin the view of the soggy city. Down went a couple of our boats and the passengers were herded into groups for a boat ride to shore. Once there, we got a rinse as we walked from the boat up the ramp of the floating pier and down the front street to a city bus dedicated to our use this morning. Awaiting us were our guide, driver and several Boy Scouts as escorts. In there, with no AC and windows closed against the downpour, we squinted at the city sights while passing down streets gushing with water and intersections that flowed like the river. Our driver clipped a curb and blew a tire making a tight turn in the downpour. The adventure had begun.

The rain let up quite a bit when we emerged from the bus to splash through puddles to view an empty fountain surrounded by relief sculptures of amazonian history. Standing in an empty pond, the fountain looked forlorn and in fact a vulture was perched under a bush next to he fountain completing the scene. How the pond could be empty with such a downpour is beyond me.

After a brief visit to a nearby grocery store we headed down a few blocks to Bumbodromo, a stadium built for the annual Boi-Bumba festival, where supporters of the two teams (Red, (Guaranteed) or blue (Cautious)) review the parade of entrants and judge for the best in costumes, music, effects and the like.

This annual event rivals Rio's Carnival for pageantry and liveliness. The Bumbodromo holds 35,000 people and the festival will bring out some 300,000 people; 100,000 more than the population. Big event. We stopped at the red team pavilion to look at costumes up close and try some on. People here are either Red or Blue and even Coca-Cola issues a special Blue can. I bought a red & blue beer so both bases were covered.

The bus took us back to the waterfront and entered the Pavilion, a fine new enclosed theater for viewing an hour long performance of Boi-Bumba with the costumes, dancing, music, acrobatics and lights that makes Disney look like Saturday night Mass. Still photos do not do justice to the extravaganza, but here they are anyway. Perhaps you may find a decent video on you-tube, or you could get a dvd of the 2010 festival in PAL from vendors on the street here. Just send $20 US.

Still dazzled by the show we danced down to the pier to board the tender, hoping to get away before the huge log-jam on the upriver side of the floating pier gave way and carries the whole mess downstream. Riverboats, our tender, logs, snakes, rowboats, flotsam, jetsam and all. We made it.

log jam

view of the port from the ship

Aboard the culinary team had a Brazilian Barbecue set up to feed us. At 1400 our anchor came up and we swung downstream for the run to the ocean, which is about 350 miles.