Santarem (AM) Brazil

Day 12 – December 22 – Santarem Amazon River (AM) – Brazil

Here is our Blog entry for the day:

Today was our first stop in the Amazon River. The port is a Tender port – which means we anchor off shore and tender (also the ship’s life rafts) boats take us to shore, or in our case our tour boat picked us up direct at our ship and took us on our tour. The name of our tour was “River Tour and Eco Maica Lake” but we were notified ahead of time that we would be unable to see the lake due to the fact that the region has experienced its driest dry-season in a century. The boat that we were picked up in was multi-stories but we were only allowed to be on the bottom floor where we were seated on plastic lawn chairs. Of of our passengers was a large fellow and ended up breaking two of the chairs before he decided to go to the back of the boat where there was more sturdy seating.

Our tour-guide seemed friendly and knowledgeable, however during most of the ride, the engines were too loud to hear him over, even though he was using a microphone. They took us to the ‘meeting of the waters’ which is where the Tapajos river and the Amazon river converge. It’s interesting that the different temperatures and PH levels of the waterways cause a collision where the waters don’t mix. After observing this phenomenon we went up a tributary river where we were able to observe fisherman houses, their boats and some wildlife like egrets, and other pretty birds. We caught glimpses of dolphins in the water as well. We saw a cow walking along the water at one point. The next part of the adventure was to find a shallow spot to park the boat and we all attempted to fish for piranhas! The guide explained that we shouldn’t feel bad if we didn’t catch them, because they were smart and hard to catch. He gave us small wooden planks with fishing line attached and gave each of us a small piece of meat as bait. We had several people onboard catch and release various types of piranhas – so it was entertaining. Susan tried to catch one but they kept stealing her bait. Adam was content to observe.

After the fishing was complete – they took us back to our ship with another brief stop at the meeting of the waters on the way. We also got some more interesting views of Santarem as we approached our ship – it’s a much larger city than we expected. We read online that their main tourist attraction is their beaches, but we didn’t really see much of them from our vantage point. That night, the ‘entertainment’ was the movie “It’s a wonderful Life” which Adam and Susan opted to skip but David and Cindy enjoyed it.

Way off in the distance we could see Santarem – it is a bigger city than we expected!
The big electronic board wasn’t working this day – so here’s the gangway board for the day.
We didn’t get to see the lake due to weather conditions
When we first boarded our tour boat we were a bit surprised to see that this is what the seating looked like!
The chairs looked like plastic lawn chairs from Home Depot!
Another tour boat just like the one we were on.
Some of the many tour boats parked along the shore
Santarem
Another look at how big Santarem is and approaching the meeting of the waters
The meeting of the waters of the Tapajos River and the Amazon River
A little fishing boat at the water meeting – we think that we heard that there are often some good fishing spots long the convergence (it was hard to hear our guide)
A typical fishing boat for the area

Next, we headed up a tributary to look for a spot to fish – we saw a lot of fishing homesteads, wildlife and cattle along the way

  • A fishing homestead
  • Local scenery
  • The tributary we traveled up to try some fishing
  • The water was pretty muddy here
  • A local fisherman’s homestead – they need to be on stilts like that because the river raises about 10 feet in this area during the rainy season
  • Another cow we saw
  • A local fishman – hope he has better luck than we did!
  • Some cattle we saw on the shore
  • A turtle resting on a log
  • One of a few pretty Heron birds we saw along the way
  • A fishing homestead
There were several boats like ours parked on the shore-line trying their hands at fishing.
  • Susan trying out fishing but basically just fed the fish – which was okay with her!
  • Some caught one!
  • Another fish caught!
  • Another lucky catch
  • Cindy enjoying the view!
  • David and Cindy – on the front of the boat
  • Adam and Susan riding at the front of the boat
  • David went upstairs (where they told Adam he couldn’t go!) and got this photo of Adam, Susan and Cindy. He also was able to spot some dolphins from up there!

Then it was time to head back to our ship…

  • Returning to our ship
  • Arriving at our ship
Another beautiful sunset

And so ended our first excursion in the Amazon River! Tomorrow we will visit Boca Da Valeria.