Wedding of the Waters...Santarem, Brazil (6/7/17)

Our original itinerary had us visiting Santarem on our way up the Amazon, but we skipped the port due to the currents and the amount of time we spent at the technical stop in Macapa.  It was moved to the downriver segment of the trip and we skipped Alter da Chao.  The heat and humidity are not as bad as we make our way to Atlantic and the mouth of the Amazon.

Home to the Wedding of the Waters, as opposed to the Meeting of the Waters by Manaus, Santarem was settled by the Portuguese in 1661.  The area was also home to the Tapajos Indians and the Portuguese named the nearby river after them calling it Rio Tapajos.  It the confluence of the Tapajos and the Amazon that creates the Wedding of the Waters.  After missing the Meeting of the Waters, we arose quite early this morning, as we did not want to miss our last chance to experience this unique phenomenon.  We were not disappointed.  For several minutes, we viewed the two different colored waters as they ran side by side with a sharp line delineating the two.  Soon we observed a swirling of the colors and then only the uniform color of the Amazon.

Santarem, a city of over 300,000, has an agricultural economy.  Although Henry Ford attempted to produce rubber here, it was a failure.  However, he did build several large plantations that today are used to grow coffee and soybeans.  Cargill has a large granary here and ships soybeans around the world from Santarem.

We did not visit the city of Santarem, but instead opted for a River Tour and Maica Lake by riverboat.  The three-hour excursion travelled along the waterfront of the Santarem, down a river and into the lake.  The trip offered some of the best bird watching opportunities of the trip so far.  Many are included in today’s pictures, but we could only see some others, as they were too quick to photograph.  During the cruise, we finally saw a three toed sloth!  She also appeared to have a baby sloth clinging to her, but we could not be sure.  The trip included another stop to fish for piranha.  We opted out this time, choosing to be entertained by the lively parrots that were singing and flying from tree to tree.

Everywhere we travelled, it was evident that the river level was very high.  Most of the homes were underwater or only the second floor was usable.   Most homes do not have electricity or running water.  We saw buffalo in a fenced in pasture, but you could only see the heads.  The locals refer to the people who live here as River people.  They travel everywhere by boat, but mostly needed services come to them; Medical and dental services are provided from a floating clinic, a yellow boat picks up children to take them school, they even have floating gas stations that make their way up and down the river.

Fishing is a very import part of the local diet.  We saw people fishing with poles, but we also saw nets for larger fish and cages used for catching shrimp.  The chef has prepared a feast of local fish dish each day we have been on the Amazon.  Our time on the river is almost over, which means will be crossing the equator again and back to the northern hemisphere and, more importantly, the ship will be able to make fresh water again.

Link to photos below:
Santarem, Brazil photos 6/7/2017