Amazon 2002: 5 - Manaus, Brazil to Belem, Brazil

Wednesday, May 8, 2002 Last night we debated as to whether to go ashore of not and eventually decided not. There are few restaurants in the world turning out the quality of the food we eat on board, so it seemed silly to head off and pay a lot for a meal where the quality is unknown when it is all laid on at no charge here. A Brazilian group came on board in the evening to play, who were pretty mas o menos, but we drank our way through them, and even danced a lot to their tunes. We were having after dinner liqueurs at the time. When they quit we got a Glenn Miller album put on - what the staff call "Chief Engineer Music", as it is his favourite, and drank a great deal more while dancing to that. We finally stumbled off to bed, the last out of the bar. On this ship you cannot outlast the bar staff - they stay on duty until the last passenger wants to call it a night!

After breakfast two deluxe buses were dockside to pick everyone up for a tour of the city of Manaus. There are an amazing number of truly beautiful old buildings here, built in the tradition of European buildings of the time. This is a very hot and humid place, but most buildings appeared to be well maintained. Today the temperature was almost 90 degrees F, and the humidity was 95%. The lowest humidity they get here is 80%, according to the guide, and temperatures can reach 130 F.

Our first stop was the central market, a bustling place full of many stalls with a wide variety of goods for sale. Being from Costa Rica where health regulations require refrigeration, we were surprised to see that in spite of the heat there was no refrigeration in use for meat or sea food, including shrimps. There was no sour odour, and were surprisingly few flies, but it would seem the wise thing to shop first thing in the morning as these types of products are bound to be getting into serious problems by the closing time of the market at 5 PM!

Next we visited the famous opera house of Manaus, and it was every bit as grand and spectacular as I had read and imagined it would be! It is a true testament to the extravagance of the rubber boom from 1890 to 1910 when showing how much money you could squander was the order of the day. There are even stories of horses being washed in champagne, which import figures prove was being brought into Manaus by the thousands of cases during the heyday. The rubber barons really believed they were on to something that would never end, but the boom petered out with the more efficient production of rubber in Malaysia.

Our final stop for the day was at the museum of natural history, financed and run by Manaus' Japanese community. It was very well done, and included a small aquarium where it was possible to see some of the very strange fish which inhabit the river. One particularly nasty piece of work was on display, but in a jar. This one viciously attacks other fish, mammals and humans, its teeth specially designed to remove a circle of skin and flesh to allow it to enter the body of its chosen prey.

There was a case recently of the smaller variety of this fish swimming up the penis of a man who was swimming in the river in the nude as he urinated in the water. Once inside, the fish extended barbs which prevented it from being able to be removed. The surgical operation required ultra-sound to locate the intruder, the insertion of clippers to snip off the barbs, the removal of fish, and finally the removal of the barbs. That certainly is enough to give one second thoughts of skinny dipping the Amazon! It hasn't dampened our enthusiasm to take to the water whenever the opportunity presented itself, though, but I don't think anyone is "peeing in the pool".

After returning to the ship for lunch, our group took off on foot to explore the streets and market areas of the city. There are quite a few blocks of shopping streets, closed to traffic. The general impression was of a very friendly and honest people. I bought new binoculars to ward off further wars between Marilynn and I as to who would use the ones we brought, and the price seemed very good - about a quarter of what I had expected to pay. Roger bought a new camera, and got a good price on that as well. Manaus is a tax and duty free zone, so this helps keep the prices down.

I left the others to carry on shopping and went off in search of an Internet café, which I found exactly as instructed by the camera and optical store people. It was great - efficient and with very fast connections. Communications and location updates away, I picked up my incoming emails on disc and caught a cab back to the ship. We sailed at 6 PM.

The altitude here is around 100 feet above sea level, and we still have over 1,000 miles to go until we reach Belem and the ocean. In the week we have been travelling we have dropped 255 feet, but in the next week it will be much less. I'm continually amazed at the rapidity of the flow of water as it is propelled by the weight of the water upstream, in spite of such a gradual descent.

Down river from Manaus and the Rio Negro, the Rio Madeira connects with the Amazon, adding tons of silt from the Bolivian Andes. The Madeira is the largest tributary river in the world, with more than twice the flow of the Mississippi River. It is the colour of coffee with a lot of milk in it, and its colour made the muddy Amazon appear clear! It was many miles down stream before the final mixing had taken place completely. This now brings the flow of the Amazon up to about twelve times that of the Mississippi. Fifteen percent of the flowing fresh water in the world is in this river system.

After dinner we headed back to the bar for liqueurs, deciding to go with B & Bs tonight. We ordered B & B straight up, and it was served in a large brandy snifter, three quarters full. It would certainly be difficult to accuse them of being cheap with their booze! After drinking a couple of those I was on a roll, so made a night of it - as did Roger and Sally. The other's headed for bed. We finally turned in about 1 AM, our group at that point consisting of the chef, the captain, the chief engineer and a couple of other ship's officers in addition to the three of us.

Thursday, May 9, 2002 This morning, after vowing I was going to sleep in, I made the mistake of going out on the zodiac tour on Lago Carauacu. I spent the whole time wishing I was back in bed. It was tortuous! I just finished having porridge for breakfast and am back lying on my bunk with my laptop on battery on my stomach. We are headed down river to a city of about 100,000 people called Parintins. It is located on an island in the river and is very famous for its competition between the red bull group and the blue bull group called Boi Bumba, which is held each June. During the festival the population of the city swells by 50,000, and hotel reservations need to be made years in advance. Many river boats tie up here during the festival and rent out space to hang a hammock for the duration of the celebrations.

The city welcomed us well. There was a band with dancing girls on the dock when we pulled in, and before that there were daytime fireworks going off regularly. High school English students were on the dock to act as guides around the town for anyone wanting a tour. During the tour I found a cyber café and was able to get a GPS position update off.

Later in the afternoon local transport was laid on to take us to the "coral", or club area, of the blue bull group. There are few vehicles here, mostly motor cycles. Some motor cycles are taxis - one just piles on behind. We used the tricycle taxies, which are two wheels in front with a box between them and a plank across it on which two people can sit. The driver pedals from behind. Fortunately, there are no hills on this island.

The coral was quite amazing. It was comprised of various areas, each with a stage and sound system. The blue bull group came in second in the competition last year, but are determined to be first this year. The costumes were as good as at Mardi Gras in Rio, and so were some of the hand operated and propelled floats. There was a very large cast of dancers and musicians, and the show would have done well against any of Las Vegas' best extravaganzas. Free drinks were served, and cold beer was available, ensuring that a lively and good time was had by all.

After the show, during which I shot half and hour of video - it was that spectacular - we were peddled back to the ship to sail shortly afterwards.

Saturday, May 11, 2002 Yesterday we woke up on the Rio Tapajos, a clear water tributary of the Amazon. We'd had to set our clocks ahead another hour, so they spared us the 6 AM wake up call and activities. It was a really easy going day, with continuous zodiac shuttles running to the picturesque town of Alter do Chao, to a white sand peninsula with good swimming beaches, and back to the ship.

We all had a walk around the town, some joining organized tours and others venturing out on their own. The quality of the artwork here was much higher than we had seen up river. The swimming beach was amazingly beautiful, and the water warm and soft. It made the skin feel very smooth - Suzanne, our expedition leader, said everyone would come out looking ten years younger. In true Explorer style, cold beer was available on the beach. It is interesting to note that there are far fewer mosquitoes this far down the river, and I've even stopped using repellent. This is quite amazing, as I'm one of those people classified as "mosquito candy". If there is one in the area it'll usually have me!

At four o'clock a number of activities were laid on. Marilynn, Lee & I elected to ride the "go go" boat, which charged off up the wide river at a good clip, giving us the opportunity to see a lot of area. We stopped at one place and were fortunate to see a rubber tree actually being tapped. John and Sally opted for the mountain climbing, which scaled a 300 foot high hill, something we'd not see a lot of since the Andes. It didn't quite rival the Andes, but did stick up prominently in the flat Amazonian landscape. Roger headed off with the birding boat.

I decided to give my system a night off, so I headed up to our cabin after dinner to catch up on my ramblings on the computer, and to make an early night of it.

This morning our reprieve was ended, and it was up at 6 AM again to explore the entrance of the Rio Curua. Marilynn, John and Lee all decided that bed was the better option, particularly as the wake up call mentioned that it was raining outside. The survivors of this dawn patrol split up, with Roger opting for bird watching, Sally taking the general tour and I chose the fast moving "go go" boat again.

By the time the loading was under way the rain had stopped, the sun was peeking over the horizon, and a beautiful rainbow arced over the ship. There was a tremendous amount of bird life in this area, and as we headed up the clear, calm river we passed a local village which was coming to life. We saw the first herds of water buffalo, which I'm told we can expect more of as we continue down stream.

It was a pretty relaxing day of food, drink and lectures until we reached the Rio Guajara a little after three in the afternoon, and headed back off to explore again. There is a lot more traffic on the river now, with a lot of sea going ships headed upstream to Manaus and all kinds of ferry boats, tugs and barges and other craft headed up or down to river ports or to Belem.

The afternoon zodiac run was one of the best yet for things to see. We got up fairly close to howler and squirrel monkeys, saw two different large sloths and many species of birds, including big toucans. Pink river dolphins were all around us.

There is a small village along the tributary we were on which is on stilts with boardwalks between the houses and community buildings. They raise water buffalo, and it was interesting to watch the water buffalo swimming across the river as they were herded home by boys in dugout canoes. Overnight they are kept on raised platforms, and then they spend the day in the water. The boys didn't seem to mind their work at all, sometimes hanging on to the buffalo's tails for a tow, and sometime leaping into the river to climb onto a buffalo's back and then diving off again.

A dead water buffalo was towed to the village behind a canoe, and between villagers in the water and on the raised walk way they managed to get it out of the water. It'll be butchered for a big mother's day party they are going to have tomorrow.

Something we have noticed everywhere on the river or its tributaries, the people are wonderfully friendly. Most of the naturalists running the zodiacs speak Portuguese, the language of Brazil, so opportunities to pull up to people's doorsteps with the boat are often taken. The local people are always happy to come out and talk, and at times invite the whole zodiac of people to get out on their dock and visit with them. It is normal that people wave in a friendly way as we go by.

After dinner we hit the lounge again, and got into it quite well. John Harwood went and got his guitar, and John, Marilynn & I closed the place again. I managed to get quite thoroughly pissed as we drank and sang the night away.

Sunday, May 12, 2002 The 6 AM wake up for the zodiac tours seemed to come right after I got to bed, but I did avoid a hangover by getting out and about before I fully sobered up! We are now in tidal water, even though we are still over two hundred miles from the river mouth. This is delta land, and is a maze of small waterways which wind around it creating a mass of islands. We explored some very narrow waterways by zodiac in the area of Furo do Maritiapina, and even the course of the ship when we returned was along very narrow passages. I'm told that the water varies about one foot between high and low water at this point, but that it will increase to a nine or ten foot tide at Belem.

In the afternoon we did another zodiac tour, also along narrow tidal canals at Furo Preto. There is a lot less wildlife here, but it was interesting to visit up and down the canals with the people living there. As has always been the case on the river, they have all been very friendly. We stopped at a small village which was gearing up for a big mother's day party. A football game had just ended, but there were still players on the field, so John and Hugo, our zodiac driver, joined in on the game. John became quite a star when he was able to score a goal by using his head to drive the ball straight into the goal.

There is a lot of saw milling of small logs here. It is an important source of money for many small villages along this part of the river, and the one we stopped at was no exception. They had used the sawdust from the sawmill to build the football field, so it made a nice spongy surface, and was easy on the bare feet. The teams here play without footwear, but have uniforms.

It was the captain's farewell cocktail party and dinner at night, with yet another spectacular menu. Afterwards we were invited to a crew party in the crew mess well below deck. It was hot, humid and crowded there, with loud music pounding out, and lots of cold beer available. We danced and partied for quite awhile, then retreated to the main passenger bar for yet more drinking. The ever active kitchen provided German sausages for hot dogs just in case hunger was setting in with the bar group! We finally found our way to bed at around 1:30 AM.

Monday, May 13, 2002 Up again at 6 AM, this time sober enough so it hurt a little. There was more exploration of the delta waterways at Furo do Abacate and interaction with the people living along them, but little to see in the way of wildlife. We saw some sloths, but they were in the hands of the local residents, and destined for the stew pot. Eating the wildlife has really thinned the animal population out.

The rest of the day was spent with lectures, eating and eventually packing as the ship made its way down the final part of the river - now very wide - to the port city of Belem. We disembark at around 8 tomorrow morning and once again say goodbye to the little red ship. We will be spending tomorrow night at the Hilton in Belem, so I'll try to get this update away from there.