Manaus and Parintins Part 2 March 3-4, 2013

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.

Manaus, Brazil March 2-3.2013 Part 1

Welcome to Manaus, gateway to the Amazon jungle. Beginning in the 1700's and continuing in the late 1800's Manaus was a cosmopolitan city surrounded by the jungle. It's claim to fame was rubber trees. At that time the trees only grew in the Amazon and business boomed. The city thrived with rubber barons bringing a European flair to the area. Manaus became known as the Paris of the Tropics. Then.....in 1876 British Henry Wickham smuggled 70,000 rubber trees seeds back to England. The British exported the seeds to their colonies and the monopoly was broken. Manaus fell on hard times. It has slowly recovered as tourism and population has increased in the Amazon.

Manaus is home to another Meeting of the Waters.  The Rio Solimoes and the Rio Negro meet and form the final character of the Amazon.  The Negro is the black and the Amazon is the brown

The rivers flow side by side for many miles.  The Amazon flows at 4+ knots (wet season) and the Negro flows at a much slower rate.  We are heading down river taking advantage of the Amazon current.  The river boat is heading up river and is staying in the area of the much slower Negro current.

Some views around Manaus.  You can see it is really very urban.

This is a parking garage.  Seems parking is a problem even in the Amazon.

Something gets lost in translation. 

First stop was a visit to a hotel with old friends.  Notice Noreen never has a shopping bag.  To save space in our small cabin most things she buys fit in her purse.

Street Markets.

Have to have the cell tower.

One of the key attractions in Manaus is the Opera House.  It took 15 years to build and was opened in 1896.  All the materials came from Europe.  I took pictures inside but forgot to take pictures of the outside.

The Brazilian president’s box is draped.

The ceiling is painted showing various activities around the Amazon.

Of Course we had to head out into the jungle. Giant lily pads, as famous Amazon fixture.  You saw them in the picture of Noreen with the warrior in the last blog.

You can see the high water marks on the trees.

Houses along tributaries of the Amazon.

Termite nest in trees.  These were all over.

A little blurry as monkey swung by in trees.

Can you find the monkey"?

Another boat came by with fellow passengers and Roger got a picture of me.  

This is getting kind of long and may be hard to post.  I'll stop here and continue our jungle journey in our next post.

The Amazonian Region

Brazil covers about 50% of South America and the Amazon Rain Forest covers about 40% of Brazil.  The Amazon River runs through the center of the Amazon Rain Forest and forms the Amazon River Basin.  The river is 4,195 miles long and the width varies from 1 to 35 miles.  It has an outflow of 46,000 gallons per second at the mouth.  Ok, enough geography.  We are here during the rainy season and high water flow.  An interesting phenomena is that the river outflow is so strong that it colors the ocean up to 200 miles out.   The river picks up sediment and all types of debris as it flows and is colored brown.

This is the ocean around the ship about 50 miles out of the river mouth.  It is brown from river outflow.

Our first stop on the Amazon was Santarem on February 28^th.  Santarem is a key trading center due to it’s location at the juncture of two rivers, the Amazon and the Rio Tapajos.  This meeting causes the natural phenomenon known as the Meeting of the Waters.  The rivers flow side by side for several miles due to different flow rates and chemical composition.  The brown is the Amazon, the aquamarine the Tapajos.

From the town observation tower.

Panorama of the town.

The Captain docked the ship from this control panel on the Port bridge wing; pushing buttons and levers.  Very techno but not as romantic as calling out commands to the engine telegraph operator and helmsman.  The man on the right is an Amazon river pilot.  We had two pilots on board taking fiver hour shifts for the three days it took us to get to Manaus.

Noreen Geography – locations of the primary gemstone mines in Brazil.

Some shots around town.

These white motorcycles are actually taxis.  They carry a helmet on the back for passengers.

Steps to the observation tower.

Observation tower.

Even in the Amazon ladies shoes rule!

I wonder when I see someone rowing….where are they going?

Our next stop was the small village of Boca da Valeria.  The village has around 25 permanent residents but grows to over 100 when a ship comes in.  They come from neighboring villages to sell their wears.  We came by this same village about 11 years ago on our first Amazon River cruise.  We think it is maintained pretty much as a tourist attraction.  First view of the village.

The school.

We don’t think there were satellite dishes last time we were here.

You can pose with the various locals for a dollar.

I tried for a picture with the snake but the handler didn’t want to wrap it around me so I am holding it on my back.

Note the electric junction box on the right.  We found that electricity had extended deep into the Amazon as we traveled further into the interior.

Shower and facilities.

Town bar.

and color coordinated restrooms.

Community meeting hall.

Look closely at the center of the sloth’s back and you’ll see a baby.  This picture cost me a dollar.  The kids go out with animals and other things to get a dollar from you.

Parents waiting for the kids to bring their dollars back.

Of course, we couldn’t leave without a little bargaining and remembrances.

Hope you enjoyed this journey so far.  Next stop Manaus.  Let us hear from you.