Continuing our journey in the Amazon Basin outside Manaus. People get their food, cooking wood and livelihood from the river. Note the long drive shaft coming form the outboard motor to the propeller. This is standard on the river and helps in shallow water.
Close-up of the giant Lilly pads.
Family travel on the river. Note the long shaft on the engine.
Kids are cute everywhere.
Travel on the river is done in three ways (excluding cruise ships); motorized canoes as below and above.
They serve as stores that service the river boats. This is a bakery.
Simple canoes.
And finally, primary movement of people and cargo up river is done by riverboats. Riverboats are two or three open sided deck boats. Passenger terminal in Manaus.
Loaded boat heading up river. People bring heir own food and cook n board. In the evening they string hammocks in the open areas for sleeping. The fancy boats have plastic chairs that are stacked at night to make room for the hammocks. The blue is rolled up plastic sheeting that is lowered at night and in the rain. Really fancy boats have cabins and even suites for those who can pay. There aren’t many really fancy boats.
Sleeping in hammocks. This is actually the crew in port but passengers have the same accommodations. Note the cargo stacked in the deck below.
Plastic sheeting lowered in the rain.
Our ship with a riverboat passing by. Which would you rather cruise the Amazon on?
All those riverboats need fuel and dry land is very valuable. All the ship fuel stations are located on the river. These are floating in all the built up areas.
On the river shipbuilding is very basic. The ship is built in the dry season and must be completed by the time the river raises to float it off.
We left Manaus and sailed down river to Parintins, Brazil. This town is located in an area of rainforest, flood plains, lakes and islands. To give an idea of location, Parintins is 350 miles downriver from Manaus. Remember the river current I spoke about in my last posting? Travel on a riverboat from Manaus takes 15 hours, upriver to Manaus takes 27 hours. The city is famous for the festival known as Boi Bumba. Boi Bumba is a comic-dramatic dance originating in local folklore recalling the death and resurrection of a landowner’s valued ox. If you want to know more, let me know or Google the festival. The festival is held the last three days in June…or when a cruise ship stops by.
Remember we were traveling during the wet season. This is river debris caught in the dock area of the town. They were working on clearing it out before the pressure caused damage. This was also the only other place we had serious rain (the Falls was the other). It rained the whole time we we were here. You can see the river boats with the plastic down.
Despite the rough weather the vendors came out and Noreen went in. No H Stern here…..
The deal is done.
You may remember from earlier postings that I carry a lot of NASA paraphernalia with me. I give it to schools and such in areas where they never see that kind of material. Our ship held an open house for kids from a local school. They got to tour the ship and eat lunch (the hot dogs, hamburgers, pizza and ice cream went fast). I donated a lot of my NASA material to the event. Here are the kids who visited the ship.
Pictures from the Boi Bumba Festival. The Bull and Lady that started it all.
I have no idea of the symbology of the following costumes but they are interesting.
an idea of the size of the customs'.
Following our Boi Bumba show and a bit more shopping on the way out we bid farewell to Parintins and the Amazon. Two days to Devil’s Island.
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