February 26, 2012 – Day 53 – Belém, Brazil
Last night’s awards were fun, but we stayed up too late .
Today we arrive in Belém, Brazil. We will anchor off a small town a ½ hour shuttle ride into Belém. The ship has chartered local riverboats to be tenders. They are double deckers, and can take about 3 times as many people as our tenders do. This will expedite getting to and from shore.
Belém is several hours up a tributary of the Amazon from the ocean. We entered the river last night, and will arrive at 9 AM. It is fascinating to watch the scenery, as this river flows by. There is a lot of debris in the muddy water.
We arrived on time, and Alice and I got to shore about 10:30. The shuttle ride was 30 minutes to a square in the city near the riverfront. When we arrived, the agent who greeted us told us to be aware of our belongings, if we went to the market. Since we always go to the market, this was important to us. We walked to the river, and it started to pour. We had been warned as we left the Prinsendam that it would rain, briefly but very hard, at some time during the day. It came sooner than we expected, and lasted much longer than anticipated. Fortunately we were at the old pier area of the city. It has been redeveloped with 3 large “terminal” buildings. These house many restaurants in one building, many upscale shops in another, and the 3rd building is vacant. We whiled away about 45 minutes shopping before the rain stopped.
While shopping, we met a couple who had arrived on the bus after us. They had been told by their guide not to go into the market. What to do? We started out by heading toward a church spire that we had seen from the river. It was a few blocks away through a very poor neighborhood. It stood on a square filled with litter and un-mowed grass. The buildings around the square were boarded up or had windows broken out. Only a few locals were here.
The church looked terrible from outside with the typical mold on the exterior. It had an added feature, trees and grass growing from the roof. Inside was another story. Although very old, 1642, the church was beautiful inside. We joined a few local people for some prayers and took some pictures. Then we went back toward the river.
We turned toward the market which was crowded, but not jammed. We worked our way along the stalls when suddenly a policeman approached us. He said “It is not safe for you to be here today.” Oops! We asked if we would be OK on the sidewalk. He said OK, but do not go into the stalls and come right back when you reach the end. He watched us as we moved along. It was interesting, but we decided not to tempt fate. We cut our walk short. There were many kinds of food, fish, and fruits. Some we had never seen before. As we walked back we saw the inevitable T-shirt stalls and other knick knacks.
We caught the next shuttle back to the tenders. While we waited for a tender we commented to each other that this was by far the poorest place we had visited to date. It was sad because the disparity between those who have and those who do not was so great. Some neighborhoods had unpaved streets and garbage everywhere, yet just a few miles away were high-rise apartment buildings with high rents and opulence. Many of the people we saw on the streets looked very unhappy.
We arrived back on board about 3:30.
The captain announced that we would travel back to the ocean and then north to the Amazon where we would enter it and sail west. At about 3 AM, we would cross a large sandbar. This would be shallow water, and would lead to considerable vibration of the ship. He wanted us to know what would happen incase it woke us up. Alice and I noticed it, and went right back to sleep.
February 27, 2012 – Day 54 – Scenic Cruising the Amazon
We woke to heavy clouds and rain. We were well into the Amazon. The water was really muddy. Large clumps of grass and floating debris passed us on the quick current. There is so much silt in the Amazon that when it reaches the Atlantic the muddy print can be seen from space to extend 300 miles off shore.
We watched the gloom as we ate breakfast. We spent the next 2 hours in lectures in the darkened showroom. When we came out the sun was shining. Although the shores were quite a way off, it was good to see green along the banks. We did not see any river traffic in either direction. We were out here alone.
After lunch I sat on the deck trying to read. I kept looking up. I was fascinated by where we were. The sound of the water rushing past the hull, the fresh breeze, the sunlight, and the shoreline all brought thoughts of how far we are from home, and just how special this trip is.
February 28, 2012 – Day 55 – Santarem, Brazil
Santarem will be our first port on the Amazon. It is a center of mining and soy bean farming. We awoke to clouds again. It is after breakfast now, and it should be raining soon.
We will arrive at Santarem at noon. Our tour of the city highlights will depart at 12:30. We are looking forward to this.
It is now 10:30 and pouring rain outside. We hope it ends before arrival.
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