We awaken pretty early to a beautiful sunny day, and we are still heading upriver. Our scheduled arrival is noon, and we aren’t due in Insignia Lounge to begin our excursion, Maica Lake Nature Cruise, until 1pm. We are the first ones to arrive for breakfast at the Grand Dining Room, and one of our very favorite wait staff members, Okta, takes our order.
After a couple of hours in Horizons, we head for Waves to have lunch. We see that we are arriving in Santarém, and not only from seeing the cityscape. We are already observing the phenomenon that is called “Meeting of the Waters” where the Amazon and the Tapajós Rivers run parallel with each other without mixing for up to five miles.
There are ships, barges and boats of all sizes everywhere.
As we sail upriver a mile or so to the location where Insignia will anchor for the afternoon, we pass by the beautiful Catedral Metropolitana de Santarém, and past the Cargill soybean port where a bulk carrier is loading before anchoring.
Quick aside: This Cargill port was opened in 2003 in the midst of some controversy that exemplifies the conundrum we all face regarding this region. Brazil has always had an enormous disparity between the rich and poor. There are few rich, but they are very rich. And the number of very poor people is enormous and their poverty is deep. So economic development in the Amazon region is desperately needed. But … and it is a big but … every acre that is deforested and is used to raise soybeans is an acre of rainforest whose trees formerly converted CO2 to oxygen. When scientists describe this ecologically vital region as “the lungs of the Earth,” they are not exaggerating.
The other question then becomes: who makes these decisions? Understandably, the Brazilian government thinks the decisions are theirs to make, and improving their citizens’ lot through some development is important. Much of the rest of the developed world believes that the climate of the entire planet depends on the Amazon Rainforest remaining as it is. In short, there are no easy answers, and this debate will not soon be concluded.
Okay, back to the present. We go down to Insignia Lounge shortly before 1pm as scheduled, and the place is packed. We find out that 289 guests have booked the same Maica Lake Nature Cruise excursion that we did. The Destination Services staff explains that the boats we will travel on will pick us up on Deck 3 of our ship, but each will only handle 30 passengers, so this loading process will take time. It does take nearly an hour to load eleven boats, and the grumbling from certain fellow passengers is audible, with all kinds of “they should’ve” done this and that. Annoying know-it-alls.
We are on the last boat to load, and it’s now 2pm. We are assured that the tour will last the 3 ½ hours that was promised. Our group lacks the whiners, and we all good-naturedly bond over being the last boat. There are 26 of us, our guide Luis, and at least half a dozen crew members. Below is an example of one of these boats, taken later in the day.
Our guide Luis begins his practically nonstop presentation of introducing us to Santarém. He speaks using a microphone, but the speaker is located right next to him. He is near the bow, and we are seated in the last row about thirty feet from him, and the engine noise drowns out almost everything he is saying. We were warned about this difficulty in the excursion description we read, and we are fine with it.
No doubt, Luis is acquainting us with his city. We will provide some of the information he is providing by lifting many paragraphs from – you guessed it – Wikipedia:
“Santarém (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɐ̃taˈɾẽj]) is a city and municipality in the western part of the state of Pará in Brazil. Located at the confluence of the Tapajós and Amazon Rivers, it has become a popular tourist destination. It is the second-most important city in the state [after Belem], and the financial and economic center of the western part of the state. It leads the Santarém Metropolitan Area, made up of Santarém, Belterra and Mojuí dos Campos. It was once home to the Tapajós Indians, a tribe of Native Americans after whom the river was named.
“It is located some 800 km (500 mi) from the two largest cities in the Brazilian Amazon: Manaus, upriver in the state of Amazonas, and the Pará state capital Belém, located downriver at the mouth of the Amazon on the Atlantic Ocean. Santarém has an estimated population of 306,480 people (2020), and is the third most populous city of the state. The city occupies an area of 22 887,087 km2 (14 304,42 sq mi), of which 77 km2 are urban areas.
[Note: The nation of Brazil is first divided into states, and then municipalities within each state. For instance, the state of Pará, which occupies 460,000 square miles, is divided into 144 municipalities. Santarém is one of them, with 14,304 square miles, but the city of Santarém is only a very small part of the municipality.]
“The city was founded by Portuguese colonists in 1661. It was “discovered” by Priest Felipe Bettendorff and named Santarém (after the city in Portugal) in 1758. It is one of the oldest cities in the Brazilian Amazon.
“Because of the crystalline waters of the Tapajós River, Santarém has more than 100 km (62 mi) of natural beaches, such as those of the village of Alter do Chão, known as the “Caribbean in Brazil.” The Guardian, a British daily newspaper, ranked this beach as the most beautiful in Brazil. Alter do Chão [which Insignia will visit on November 30th] is also home to Sairé, one of the most important folklore festivals of the region, which is held annually in September.
“Santarém is an important regional market center in the Lower Amazon, located midway between the larger cities of Belém at the coast and Manaus upriver. The regional economy is based on agriculture, cattle, and mining. The city has seen many ‘cycles’ of development dominated by one or a few economic activities, including rubber extraction (in the last century), coffee production, and gold mining. Most recently, there has been a huge growth in the area of soybean plantations.
Highways: “BR-163 connects Santarém with southern Brazil. A large portion of it is not paved which renders the highway nearly unusable during the wet season. BR-230 connects BR-163 to the state capital.” [Note: Both of the “highways” mentioned here have major portions that remain unpaved, decades after construction began. Because, as mentioned, this renders them unusable during the five-month rainy season, we contend that it is legitimate to state that, in reality, the Amazon River is the region’s only “highway” in the transportation sense of the word.]
The climate here in Santarém is very similar to that of the entire region. The rainy season lasts from January through May. In the chart we saw in Wikipedia, 62.6 inches of rain fell during this period. Rain fell an average of 26 days each month. The total annual rainfall was 84.6 inches, and there was rain in 228 days. Incredible.
Okay, now we are underway, and we are passing through the Meeting of the Waters area. There are three differing conditions that create this phenomenon of the waters not mixing for up to five miles: the Tapajós is cooler than the Amazon, has way less sediment than the Amazon, and has somewhat less acidity (pH).
We are navigating downstream from Santarém, and, in just a few miles, find our way to the small river connecting it with Maica Lake. This is the nature part of the cruise. It is a beautiful, placid place, and, as Cathy says, even smells good.
Fortunately, the engine noise is way, way quieter as we slowly meander. We see many, many birds, as these photos will attest.
We pass by a small homestead where Luis tells us is owned by the government but is specifically rented to an indigenous family. Apparently, there is a program to help these folks to maintain their way of life, and we see pigs, a cow and what we think are chickens. (None of these animals show in this photo, but we observe them on our return.).
We begin passing many of the other boats that had left Insignia before we did. All of them have been driven into the soft bank of the river, and some of the passengers are fishing for piranha. Our captain begins to look for our spot to do the same thing and soon finds one. We are about forty yards from another boat on both our port and starboard sides. Luis and the boat crew break out the fishing gear, already baited, and Steve and about a dozen others give it a try.
In about twenty-five minutes, two passengers manage to land fish – not piranhas – but fish just the same. Steve does feel many nibbles by something, but that’s about all. Still, it’s a fun attempt, and the first time he has been fishing in probably fifty years. Everybody cheers when someone lands a fish, and we all gather around for photos of them with their catch. Luis gives out a couple of “prizes” to them as well.
Alas, it is time to start home. In another half hour, we have emerged onto the Amazon. Luis has provided a wealth of information, and, despite the noise of the engine, Steve has made notes of some of it. We now resort to bullet points to record what he has heard (hopefully, accurately):
- Brazil has 27 states, and we are in Pará state (Estado de Pará).
- The difference in the depth of the Amazon between the height of the rainy and dry seasons can be as much as 10 meters (around 30 feet). Steve is skeptical of that statistic until Luis points out how black the trunks of the trees are, indicating that they are underwater during the rainy season. The tall concrete walls at the river’s edge in the city, as well as the houses of folks living on the shore farther downstream are also prett good indicators too.
- 1,700 species of fish are in the Amazon River and its tributaries.
- There are five species of dolphins in the river, most of them are either the pink variety or the gray one. Fishermen know that where there are dolphins, there definitely will be fish.
- 150 languages are spoken in Brazil, almost all of them by tribes living in remote parts of the Amazon Rainforest.
- Luis tells us that the river is much calmer at 5pm than it is at noon. Steve can’t see how this could be so, but takes his word at face value. He lives here, after all.
- Luis is the person who Steve heard state: “Our river is our road.”
- That speaks volumes about all the amazing varieties of boats, barges, ships, ferries and other craft that we are seeing. Steve is entranced, and knows that his brother Dave would be too if he were here.
We pass by a Santarém city park, and the bank is crowded with boats and the park with people. Our guide tells us that this is the weekly fish market that takes place each Friday. He adds that there is a larger fish market elsewhere in the city, but the fish is much more expensive.
In a bit of luck, we spot a couple of dolphin near our boat. As we have been told, this species of dolphin does not breach like the bottlenose dolphins we are all more familiar with, so this is what we see:
We pass by the beautiful Catedral Metropolitano de Santarém again. Such a beautiful blue color, which makes it stand out amongst the other buildings.
We pass by the soybean port again as well, and then follow several of the flotilla of boats that have carried all of us on this very enjoyable tour. It is now 5:30pm, so the promise that we will have the full 3 1/2 -hour tour has been kept. Our boat is the last to unload, of course, as we were the last to leave.
Sailaway is scheduled for 6pm, and time is short. Not a big deal, because we only have to travel 130 nautical miles to our next stop, Boca Da Valeria. Oddly, because our boat picked us up right at the ship and delivered us back there, we never do set foot in Santarém. But we have had a wonderful introduction to the Amazon River itself. And, after all, that’s why we have taken this cruise.
Back on board, we witness yet another gorgeous sunset as we are enjoying dinner in the Grand Dining Room.. A stunning sight, and a perfect way to end our day here.
