Santarem

The day I went piranha fishing

It was a difficult to decide whether to do a jungle walk or another river cruise in Santarem. In the end the river cruise won. Although a close encounter with jungle wild life looked enticing, the hours ride to and from the jungle in an unair-conditioned bus was not appealing in this heat and humidity, so the river won. Our tablemates who did the jungle walk enjoyed it immensely, and survived the bus trip, so I would recommend both.

Our riverboat was docked at a pontoon attached to QV, so we went straight off our ship onto the riverboat. All very easy. The boat had cover from the sun, and the ubiquitous plastic chairs, and was quite comfortable. Soon after leaving the QV. The captain spotted pink rover dolphins. There was much excitement, but as suddenly as they appeared, they disappeared again, never to be seen again. I was so happy to have had a glimpse of these beautiful creatures, but it would have been really great if we could have seen more of them.

The Rio Tapajos flows in to the Amazon. When the two rivers meet, there is another “meeting of the waters” phenomenon. The Tapajos flows faster, has a different acidity level, is colder, and has less sediment than the Amazon, so the two flow side by side for quite a while. It really is beautiful to see the sight of the two such different rivers next to each other.

We then sailed up the Tapajos with thick jungle on either side. The river was quite narrow in places, and it really looked like we were on the Disneyland Jungle Cruise. We had a brief glance of a monkey, and saw several sloths and iguanas. Our guide was a university student and spoke excellent English. He kept us informed about the passing flora and fauna, and history and culture of the region. He plays guitar in a local band and was very excited that his band was opening for a visiting band from California the next night. Apparently Santarem does not usually attract foreign bands, so this was a big deal. His parents, who live in a small village downstream, were coming to hear him play, so he took a selfie with all of us in it to show them. He was just so proud of his work as a guide it was delightful to see.

The boat pulled over at a bend in the river and we were all given a length of fishing twine with a piece of meat on the hook at the end, and were told it was time for piranha fishing! So there I was with my length of twine over the side of the boat waiting for a piranha to bite, thinking that it’s not everyday when someone asks you “well what did you do today” you could nonchalantly say “nothing much. I did go piranha fishing though”. Not unexpectedly I did not catch a piranha, but then nor did anyone else. One of the crewmembers caught a rather prehistoric looking catfish, but that was all. Luckily we knew there would be lunch back on board.

We didn’t see the dolphins again on our trip back to the boat, but we had had a really splendid morning on the river, and I am so glad we chose this tour.

Normally when we are in port we like to try out a local restaurant, but as we didn’t have any Brazilian money, and any restaurant we liked was unlikely to take a Visa card, we decided to have lunch on board.

Our tour guide had told us that there would be a shuttle bus to take us in to town, but it turned out that he was misinformed. When we got back on the pier after lunch it transpired that there was no bus and that town was over 2 miles away. Even though it was very hot and humid we thought it would be nice to get some exercise, so off we set. The road to town goes along the waterfront and we stopped frequently to look out for dolphins and watch the fishermen and fishing boats, and even saw an iguana basking on the pavement. Once we got to town we headed straight for an ATM, and after failure at the first machine we hit the jackpot at the second and were able to finally get some Brazilian money. The first thing we did was head to a supermarket and buy some cold drinks. Then we wandered around the town. The shops were filled with brightly coloured clothes, shoes, toys, and house wares. We had a great time window-shopping, and enjoying the cool air when we stood by the open doors. Loud music blared from the shops, and from passing trucks. It was busy, noisy, and a bit smelly, but it had a very nice vibe to it. I suppose we are so used to visiting touristy towns on cruises, it was great to be in a place where tourism is not part of their lifestyle. There was a nice open-air café in the square in front of the cathedral with much needed shade. There was an open-air market on the square, and there were vendors selling hammocks. We bought a beautiful green one, which will look perfect in our back yard. Hopefully with the toiletries depleted by the end of the cruise, it will fit into one of the suitcases.

We decided that seeing as we were in the Brazilian jungle we should buy some Brazil nuts. We went into several supermarkets on our walk back to the ship, but were unable to find any. When we had been looking for dates in Mexico I had been able to describe what I wanted to a shopkeeper by acting out a date palm tree, and he totally understood what I wanted, except they didn’t have any. Well, try to act out a Brazil nut tree. I am no good at charades at the best of times, and my attempts were total failures, although I was pointed in the direction of Ramen noodles which seem to populate the local supermarkets. So we headed back to the ship with not a nut in sight.

Several of the shops we passed on our return journey were selling plastic chairs at a really good price. I was tempted to pick up a couple to take back to our cabin, so we could invite friends over for sundowners on our balcony. Our previously purchased bungee cords would be ideal for securing them so they didn’t blow overboard. However, Brian was already carrying the hammock and looking a bit hot and bothered, and I am sure his foot was hurting, so I did not dare bring up the subject. Carting 2 plastic chairs back to the ship might have put him over the edge, so I passed up the great offers.

We got back to the ship at about 6:00 PM. I had had a brief panic on the walk back that I had got the sailing time wrong, and that we were sailing at 6:00, but the ship was still there, although they were already asking about missing passengers. If we had missed the ship, I had visions of headlines in our local paper of “Safarigal misses the boat: Lost somewhere in the Amazon Jungle.” Luckily we were on board in time. It was still very hot, so we quickly changed into our swimsuits and waited for the sail away from the Lido Pool.

I must say that I am not totally in favor of the sail aways from Southampton where the band is playing Caribbean music by the pool. And it is a cold and overcast British summer’s day. They should play more stirring British music. However, our sail aways on this trip have been very bland in general, and this was no exception. Just 2 and a half blasts of the whistle, and off we went into the tropical night.