Parintins, Brazil March 15

The city of Parintins is located on an island and has a population of about 100,000.  Every June they hold a 3 day festival that attracts about 200,000 visitors.  It is called "Boi Bumba" and is second behind Carnival Rio in the number of people that attend.  They put on a small version of the festival in a convention center near the dock area for cruise ship guests.  It is a high energy show with music, dance and song along with elaborate costumes, sets and large figures.  We arrived early this time and had front row seats for the show.

Tom with two of the dancers

The Boi Bumba show is a competition between two teams. One supports the black bull and one the white bull.  The black bull team won this past year so they have the right to present the mini show to the tourists for the rest of the year.

There were several costume changes for the dancers during the show

One of the large animated "floats"

You can barely see the man manuevering this colorful float

There were lots of feathers in all the costumes

There were about four different sections to the show and each had a large animated float that introduced a character in the story

This costume had some really long feathers

We think this guy was the witch doctor

This was one of the prettiest costumes














It was a great show and we really enjoyed it more than the last time when we ended up in a back row.  We spent some time after the show shopping the souvenir stalls in order to spend the last of our Brazilian Reals.  It started raining while were shopping but it actually felt pretty good as we had been getting pretty warm being outside after the air conditioned convention center.

We had a nice dinner in Prime 7 with our trivia partners Bob and Eileen.  Tomorrow is our last stop in Brazil, the town of Santarem.

Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil March 14

This was our second day in Manaus and the weather is a bit cooler but the humidity is still very high.  Instead of a tour we took a walk to the "Public Market".  This building was designed by Gustav Eiffel and originally constructed in 1882.  When we were here in 2012 this building was under renovation in order to be finished before the World Cup was held in Brazil in 2014.  Manaus was one of several cities in Brazil that built new stadiums to be used for the Wold Cup matches.

The building with the red roof is the public market

Building was originally built in 1882

The building has lots of ornate iron work

Many of the market booths were selling small bags of spices and herbs as well as home made bottled drinks

This booth was selling cheeses

This one was selling dried shrimp. There was a whole section for meats and another for fish as well as quite a few selling souvenirs.












There is also a bridge across the Rio Negro river that was finished since we were here in 2012.  We were told that the bridge cost over a billion dollars.  There are only three small cities across the river so basically the bridge doesn't go anywhere important.  This is one of the many projects that are the reason for the recent demonstrations throughout Brazil against corruption in the government.

We had two beautiful sunsets while docked in Manaus.  You can see the "Bridge to Nowhere" in the background











On our second morning the "Seabourn Quest" docked right behind our ship.  This ship was built by the same company that built our ship but it is 10 years newer and only carries about 450 guests.  It still amazes us that ocean going vessels can travel 1000 miles up the Amazon.

The Seabourn Quest

These boats are how the children living along the river get to school

There are hundreds of these boats that travel up and down the rivers transporting people and their goods. The people sleep in hammocks on the upper decks while the cargo is on the lowest deck.  Some of these trips to distant cities can be five days.

Manaus, Brazil March 13

We arrived in Manaus about 45 minutes late because of a strong current.  The rainy season has finally started so the water level is rising and there is a lot of debris floating down the river.  Manaus is about 1000 miles from the Atlantic and has a population of over two million.  It is located near the confluence of the Rio Negro (black river) and the Amazon.

Our boat tour took us to the area where the two rivers meet, it is quite a contrast between the muddy light brown (about the color of coffee with cream) Amazon water and the clear dark brown water of the Rio Negro (about the color of Coca Cola).  We did see a lot of dolphins in this area.  After visiting the "Meeting of the Waters"  we traveled into "January Lake" where we boarded wooden motorized canoes that held about 10 people plus the boat operator.  These boats are not in what we would call great shape.  They had water sloshing around in the bottom and the driver had to keep bailing with a plastic pail.  Our boat had a rag stuck in the top of the gas can instead of a cap and our engine died and we had to be towed by one of the other boats for a while.  We did see the huge lily pads and lots of bird life.

It is amazing to see how people live in these areas, mostly in floating houses.  They can move these homes to different areas depending on conditions along the river.  We were told that they don't own the places where they "park" their homes but when they return to the same place no one would have taken their spot, sort of an honor system.

We had three of these police boats as escorts into Manaus

 There are lots of these floating gas stations in the middle of the river.  This is one of the larger ones, it even had a convenience store.

The "Meeting of the Waters"

Our tour guide said these people were probably going to a party and that they had better not run into the police boat as they were severly overloaded

There were building storm clouds and we saw lots of lightning on our way back to Manaus but we managed to stay dry. 

We saw hundreds of these white herons

The giant lilies were just starting to mature (they only grow in the rainy season) and we saw some with closed blooms.  Our guide stated that they bloom late in the afternoon into evening.

These boys (age 5 and 8) were selling candy to the tour boats 

Some of the floating houses

Because of our late arrival into Manaus our tour left about 45 minutes late and then it lasted about an hour and a half longer than it was scheduled so we ended up missing lunch. Luckily they always have some finger sandwiches at tea time and Noel was excited that today they had peanut butter!

Boca De Valeria, Amazon, Brazil March 12

Boca De Valeria is a tiny village on a tributary of the Amazon.  There is a small one room school, a church, and a few houses along with a "bar".  The ship anchored just off shore and we had to take tenders up a narrow waterway to get into the village.  People (mostly kids) come from the surrounding area to greet the passengers.  As you come off the tender you are mobbed by kids trying to take your hand and act as a guide even though very few know any English.  Some are dressed in feathered costumes and want a dollar for you to take their picture.  Others have all sorts of animals, sloths, monkeys, parrots, toucans, snakes, and even  huge catfish, same story, they  want money for a picture.  It is really sad to see this, especially the sloths, of which there must have been about 25, there was even a female with a small baby on her back.  We have been told that they take the sloths from the forest and don't really take care of them and most die within a few weeks.  I did not take any pictures of the sloths but did take one of a toucan and a catfish.

One of the tenders coming into the village. Our ship is just behind the trees on the right. 

Colorful toucan

The "bar" where you could buy beer or soft drinks

It was much easier walking around this time with no mud 

The small school

There were several of these catfish on display














The last time we were here Tom took the chocolate candies from the ship to give to the kids but this time they asked us not to do that as the wrappers just get tossed on the ground and for the most part they have no dental care.  Noel did bring some inexpensive make-up from the dollar store to pass out to the teen girls.  that turned out to be a mistake as she created a mob scene and it got kind of scary.  We also had a bunch of lapel pins to give to the kids but after the scene with the makeup we did not feel comfortable doing that so we handed the pins to one of our crew members to hand out.
Noel did spot a pink dolphin but could not get a picture as the spend very little time on the surface.

Alter Do Chao, Brazil March 11

The rain has left and we awoke to a sunny sky with a few puffy clouds.  The Amazon continues to amaze.  Islands everywhere, large navigable channels and a few dwellings here and there.  Millions of people live along the rivers of the Amazon basin but most areas have no roads, power, sewers, etc.  Boats are the way everyone gets around.

This morning we had a special brunch in the Signatures Restaurant for Grand Voyage guests.  It was very nice with many tasty dishes including caviar, lamb chops, filet mignon bites, fruit, fancy desserts, etc, along with champagne, mimosas, and bloody marys.  There was a beautiful ice sculpture of a mermaid where the caviar was located.

Mermaid guarding the caviar 

Fancy desserts including cream puffs in the shape of swans 

All the food displays were very nice

Signatures restaurant was a tight fit for about 100 guests














We arrived at Alter Do Chao in the early afternoon.  We had visited here in 2012 and since it was very hot with a bright sun Noel elected to stay on the ship.  Toms assignment was to go ashore and take a picture to compare with one from 2012 when there was a lot of flooding in the area. While Tom was waiting in line to get back on the tender it was very hot with no shade, no breeze and no water unless you had brought some from the ship.  Only about 20 people were able to board the tender before a man collapsed and they stopped the boarding process to return immediately to the ship to get medical treatment.  The passengers had to wait about 20 minutes for the next tender to arrive and while unloading the passengers from the ship a lady fainted and fell to the sand.  Tom was able to board the tender, but another lady collapsed before many others boarded so they left immediately with few aboard.  Tom drank two bottles of water on shore and a Heineken in 11 seconds back on the ship.  Noel was glad she did not go ashore.

Alter Do Chao in 2012

The same area in 2016














While we were having cocktails in the Observation lounge Noel spotted a small pod of river dolphins and of course we did not have the camera.  There are two types of dolphins  in the Amazon.  We saw the pink ones in 2012 and now we have seen the ones that are charcoal gray with a pink underside.  We hope to spot the pink ones again on this trip.

March 8/9/10 At sea and on the Amazon

We had two days at sea before entering the Amazon.  The weather is mostly overcast with some rain, but it is still very warm and humid.

We did go to Code Red Level Two as we now have 9 people on board with the GI symptoms.  So once again we have no condiments on the tables, no canapes or snacks, all food is served by staff in the buffets and the launderettes are closed. The crew is working very hard with all the extra work involved in sanitizing everything, even all the books in the library.  With the constant sanitizing the finish on wood rails is beginning to wear off and the ship is going to need some extra work very soon.

This segment is interesting in that we have about 200 Europeans and when you add on the Canadians, Kiwis and Aussies, over half of the guests are from outside the US.  Many of the crew are having a difficult time understanding some of the guests as English is not the first language of either of them.

During the cocktail hour there were gatherings around the ship by country or state.  We visited both the Nevada and Hawaii groups, 7 or 8 guests each.  There was no group for Montana.

There have been a lot of sea birds around the ship, mostly "Masked Booby" that dive sharply into the sea after fish. One of the tv channels is a camera shot facing the bow of the ship and as this is the channel for announcements we often have this channel on in our suite.  We noticed that there appeared to be a large bird that had perched on the small pennant staff on the bow.  He would take off and sort of fly a figure eight pattern around the forward part of the ship and then come back to his perch.  Noel went up to the Observation Lounge on deck 12 and got a couple of pictures of the bird.  Later she showed them to the lecturer, Terry Breen, who identified the bird as a "Sooty Booby".  The bird was still on his perch when we went to to the cocktail hour get together but was gone in the morning.  He must have been a long was from where he started!

Sooty Booby














We crossed the equator before entering the Amazon and then again not too long after we entered into the river. As we came into the river basin at 5 am it was very foggy and humid so the ship was blowing the horn for about two hours, probably getting everyone up very early.

One of the events that the crew really enjoys is the "County Fair".  The different departments on the ship set up booths with some sort of game that the passengers play to win tickets for prize drawings. It is always a lot of fun but we think the crew enjoys it more than the passengers.

The restaurant staff were targets for water ballons

 The band members were targets for ping pong balls and if you hit them they had to fall into the pool

The cast members had passengers trying to get a balloon passed up between two people by wiggling!

Housekeeping staff had passengers running a skills relay race

The bar staff ran a ring toss game















After we entered the Amazon and crossed the equator for the second time we had the "King Neptune" ceremony for those who had not crossed the equator before by sea.  We were surprised at how many passengers were "pollywogs",  the term for the newbies.  It is always a fun event even though it was moved into the theater because of rain.

King Neptune 

Pirates deliver the "Sacred Mermaid" 

The stage was set for the "Pollywogs" to kiss the "Sacred Mermaid" and become "Shellbacks"

This was the real "Sacred Mermaid", one of the male crew members