Santarem, Brazil

The Liberty Star docked at some place way out of town and not where we expected to find our hotel a short walk away! It was humidly hot and after walking a few minutes realized we were not going to get to our hotel without desiccating, so hailed a taxi.

The hotel was popular with business people but comfortable for us even though it had no windows to the outside. After a shower and nap we sorted our emails and bags. We had so much washing we decided to send it to the laundry and it came back nicely ironed and hanging on hangers. Quite a treat for our clothes that smelt so lovely.

Not far from the hotel is the soy bean export facility. It was built by the Americans and was opposed by the locals because it has not given the jobs promised and it has led to the felling of more rain forest.

In the evening we walked for  half an hour along a newly built concrete promenade along the docks where dozens of boats were moored. There were joggers and walkers up and down in the setting sun. Mobile carts had charcoal grillers and cooked up fish, meat and chicken on skewers. They provided cushions for their customers to sit on the path edges. Balloons sellers were attracting the children and ice cream sellers the teens. Brazilians of all ages are very affectionate in public so couples were snogging on benches or preening each other. Pimple picking in public is another preoccupation.
In the evening we made the half hour walk from the hotel to an area that had a few restaurants and we ate at a Japanese place. The chicken was dry but we were able to eat a whole lot of stir fried vegetables.

We spent time resting and sorting our gear on the first day and tried to find a place to have John's ocular pressures taken but did not find a clinic. He thought it might be good to get a check.

The second day of our stay we decided to go to Alter do Chao for the day after checking out and leaving our sweet smelling gear in the hotel. As soon as we arrived at the river beach it absolutely poured down. Luckily we were under a bus shelter so waited it out. The place is listed as one of the top ten freshwater beaches in the world and attracts tourists from all over Brazil as well as Europe. We passed a group of Germans being guided about.

It is well organised with the paddlers wearing a uniform and prices set on a board. The boats waited like taxis at a rank and there was a calm air to the place. Small stalls sold hats, bikinis, and sunglasses. Families sat in the shade selling handmade jewelry from seeds and feathers and dream catchers.

The water level was high so a lot of the beach and its buildings were underwater on the popular island across from the main street.

This photo from our hotel shows the area when the water level is low.

We spend the day walking about and resting in the shade before taking the bus back the one hour trip to Santarem and getting a taxi to the airport to fly to Manaus.

Up the Amazon from Belem to Santarem, Brazil

The Amazonia also registered as Liberty Star.














When Itola and Carol left us in Belem we had put our hammocks up four hours before the boat was

scheduled to sail at noon. The blogs we had read said you had to be on the boat early to get a decent hammock place. The boat had two decks for sleeping in hammocks. We took the upper most deck as it was further from the engine noise.It also had open sides so it would be cooler for sleeping. The lower deck had sliding windows and these closed the space in. We finally left at 4 pm- Brazilian time!

While we waited we watched the cargo deck being loaded first with boxes of melons and then sacks of onions. The men oiled the plank and slid them down to more waiting hands.

Later came a car that had a few attempts to get centred on the bending planks.At one point the car rocked on three tyres. Then followed the motorcycles.

Our gear sat on plastic pallets and we later found out that the deck floor flooded whenever it rained.
Before too long we were chockablock.

The hooks to hang the hammocks are about two hand spans apart so you are kept awake by legs and arms in your head and back whenever your neighbours turn over. Some hammocks are so big they can hang under their neighbours while others are small and hang above them. As well as going left to right some hammocks hang at right angles under all the others and it can be quite a tangle to get out when a crowd have hooked up at a stop in the middle of the night.The capacity for the boat is 500 people and some of those are in the few cabins at the front of each deck. They have a bunk bed and some have air con as well so families with little babies jammed into these. They had a toilet and shower too.

This place was elevated quite a way above the river because of the rise of the river.













Children paddled up to the boat and some passengers threw them gifts wrapped in plastic bags. Other children paddled to play in the wake of the boat.

Some of the children were very young and very competent on the water.

There were only men's toilets on our deck and John said that often they were flooded or didn't have  water. We had a stainless steel tank of chilled and filtered water on our deck but it ceased to operate after the first day so we had to go to the lower one of fill up our water bottles.

There was a small shop on our level with a few plastic chairs and tables where you could buy beer, other cold drinks and tubs of instant noodles, biscuits and crackers or have a sweet coffee. The sound system blared whenever it was open and at one point  a music video projected onto a screen. It was also where the smokers could hang out.

We had stocked up on cereals with powdered milk and fruit for breakfast which we ate at our hammock. We had crackers for lunch with tomatoes and more fruit. In the evening I made coleslaw with cabbage, capsicum, onion, tomatoes, cucumber, canned corn, and carrots then added tuna and mayonnaise. It worked well and gave me something to do as there is not much to do in the heat on the boat.

On the lower level was the canteen where you could have all your meals. Every meal was the same. Fried chicken or beef with spaghetti, rice and a small spoonful of salad. We decided to eat there on our last night for dinner and it was fine.

Every night it rained and cooled the boat. The blue tarpaulin would come down and flap in the wind and the rain poured under it. We slept on our micro fibre towels to keep ourselves warm as the damp got into the tight weave hammocks we had bought. The locals were wrapped up in fleece blankets.

Barges of timber and logs passed us as well as boat loads of cows like these simians. Itola told us of a boat sinking and the locals eating the animals after they had been in the water for three days and of course they all got sick.

There were always people fishing. These fish traps looked huge to us but we later saw how huge the fish can be so it made sense that they had such robust traps.

The locals near us on the boat were pretty chatty. They would ask us things and with a bit of sign language we could work out what they were saying and chat away. We shared children and grand children photos on our phones and they would point out things they thought may interest us. Sometimes they would wake with the rain at 3 am or 4am and chat away waking everyone on board.

We saw pink dolphins rolling in the water and once saw a toucan fly across the water. There were several parrots but it was hard to see their colouring as they flew from the palm trees or headed off in the evening.

Some of the locals would bring their long boats up to the boat and tie up on the tyres alongside. They sold acai drinks in plastic bags. It is the seed of a palm tree.

They also had cooked river shrimps which the locals munched and scattering the shells on the deck. Some women took bags of them up to the upper deck and dried them in the sun. One town we were told was famous for its salted cheese so there were bags of cheese hanging on the hooks above hammocks.

Some of the communities were very small and all seemed to have a Assembly of God church at their centre. There were boats being built from local timber. Some had crops of bananas and cassava.

This village had a game of football being played by a team of women in red and blue. The riverside was crowded with all kinds of parked up boats to watch the activities.

One of the characters on the boat was a Brazilian guy from the south. He had half his head shaved and the rest in dreads. He walked about serenading people with his recorder or small guitar that sounded like a ukelele. In the evening he practised juggling or riding his unicycle. At the cheese town stop he headed off with his clubs to entertain the locals to make money but missed the boat as we headed off. He raced alongside the wharf desperately waving at the boat when he could see it was not going to stop he leapt into a locals boat and got him to chase us. Finally he got on board with a cheer from the audience and a beaming smile.

During the stop at the town a man who had been unwell on the boat had died and was taken off by the police. It was very sad as his wife had been by his side coaxing him to eat and caring for him as he lay in his hammock.

There were a few foreigners on the boat. Not far from us were Bella and Zoe from England. Bella was going to teach at a school in Lencois as she had been studying Portuguese. As a part of her course she had to teach the language for three months. Zoe came to spend time with her.

Lorraine, from UK and her French husband Jacky, were with their son and daughter on a year long round the world trip. Lorraine's sister and niece joined them for part of trip. It was great to hear everyone's stories.

Some villages were so waterlogged that they had to build walkways from one end of the community to the other linking them all up.

As we got closer to Santarem we saw goats and water buffaloes

and a lot more cleared land for dairy cows.

This is a photo of Bella's locator beacon that her mother made her carry so she would know where Bella was at all times. Bella could send emails through it and it automatically updated her mother every four hours. It shows our route and location.

After reading several blogs by people who had done this trip, I decided that three days would be enough to say we had experienced the Amazon journey from our hammock and we opted out of the next three days by stopping at Santarem and booking a flight onto Manaus. It takes longer to go up the Amazon than down. We left the English/French family and the girls to enjoy the next three days by themselves.

Belem, Brazil

Even though we do not have a working SIM card in our phone we were able to order a Uber taxi using just the internet from our guest house. It is so much chr eaper than a metered city taxi and you can get an estimate of the price before you start your journey. You pay using a credit card that is registered to your name so you don't need to worry about not having enough cash or leaving a tip.

The Recife airport was well organised and very modern. We had booked a flight with Azul Airlines to Belem rather than go by by night buses over the huge stretch of the coast to get there.

At the airport was this cabin hotel where you could have a bed in the sleep box. It had a vending machine where you organised payment and booking. We were not sure how quiet it would be as the airport announced all flights over the sound system.

The airline provided a non-alcohol drink and packets of biscuits or crackers during the flight. Some people got a packet of all the choices and then rang the bell for more, noticeably the obese man next to us who was at the end of his extension seat belt as it was. John enjoyed watching some soccer games on the sport channels and I managed to find a documentary on high diving in Mexico and one on a young Bali surfer with commentaries in English. Most adults around us liked the Cartoon Network channel. It was a comfortable two and a half hour flight with the last hour in driving rain.

Belem was a hot muggy 32 DegC when we arrived at our pousada. It was really lovely with an outdoor eating area for breakfast and a well laid out garden with humming birds hovering around the flowers creeping over a wire frame that provided welcomed shade. The staff were great and keen to help with whatever we needed. We were able to catch up with BBC and CNN news and John could watch more sport on our room TV. Usually the TVs do not have any English speaking channels.

We were located near a huge three storey mall and ate there in the evening at the food court. Most of the fast food franchises had hamburgers on the menu and we were thankful for the stir fry vegetables from the Chinese chain.

Our first task in Belem was to book a passage for the Amazon river boat journey from Belem to Santarem. Once that was done we headed off to see the sights. Some of the sights of Belem were the largest open air market in Latin America called Ver O Peso, The name came from the way goods were traded as the locals had no currency and needed to see the goods before deciding what to trade.

The clock tower

The Portuguese fort was built in 1622 to protect the river mouth. Belem profited from the rubber  industry but that collapsed in 1914. It was kept afloat by the Brazil nut and the timber industry.

While looking around the old port and fort area we were approached by a young Brazilian guy and his friend. We told him we needed to buy a hammock for the boat trip so he pointed us to the right shop and negotiated a 10% discount for us. We chatted about a lot of things and he told us he studied marine engineering. He took us to our pousada and offered to take us to try some local dishes the next evening.

We passed a museum and went in where there was a small exhibition of the festivals that are held in the city.It was another place where we got in for free. There were no signs in English so Italo translated for us and shared how he participated in the festivals.It was very interesting and well laid out but poorly attended.

We visited the Theatro da Paz. It was built in the Neoclassical style with money made by the rubber barons. Much of the interior was brought from Europe. As we are idosos (old aged) we got to do a tour for free. Some of the tiny mosaic tiles were glued with some kind of fish product. The timber ceilings were hand painted. Under the seats on the second floor were vents. Ice was placed under on the floor below to create a cooling air flow under the seats. While the tour was led by a young girl in Portuguese a friend of hers accompanied her and translated her talk to English for us. She was studying English and wanted to be an English teacher so we helped her out with some vocabulary and expressions so she was grateful to learn something new.

This is the original layout of the seating.

The tiers were for the different classes and those on the top tier had to stand to see the performance.

Some concerts are free and we missed the Wednesday session. They have operas, the philharmonic orchestra and the Amazonia Jazz band play here.

Italo and his girlfriend Carol picked us up one afternoon and took us to a park that had a few animals and birds.

The park also had a small naval museum and once again we were admitted free because of our ages.

A macaw being helped back to a tree by a worker.

The slow moving iguana were all over the place.

The egrets didn't want to leave the area and were everywhere.

Ibis.












Later that evening Italo and Carol took us to a local restaurant to try out some local river shrimps, and indigenous dishes. At 9 o'clock he asked if we wanted to go home or go somewhere else. He then took us to the Docas cultural centre. It is a dock area where the warehouses have been converted into restaurants and bars. Musicians entertained diners from a platform above the room. Indigenous arts and crafts were for sale in small shops along the perimeter and the place was buzzing with families who could afford the high prices. The cruise ships stop here too. He ordered a snack of a metre long sausage stuffed with cheese that we nibbled through along with some craft beers. It was  a nice place to sit outside with a bit of the river breeze to cool us.

On our final morning Italo and Carol picked us up at the pousada and dropped us at the wharf where we boarded our boat at 8am for a 12pm sailing. We were most impressed with them both for spending time with a couple of idosos and telling us so much about their town and their lives and their future plans. We doubt that any 24 year old NZ'ers would have done what they did for us and we appreciate their time and interest in us and our lives.

Brazil is full of surprises.

Next stop The Amazon.