Manaus and Parintins in the Amazon

We were scheduled to dock in Manaus on Friday morning but the captain came on the PA and told us that there was a dispute between the Brazilian Navy and the harbormaster and we weren’t allowed to dock or anchor until they had had a meeting to sort it all out. We didn’t have anything scheduled to do until evening so we just sat and waited. Around noon we were told we could drop anchor and start tender operations and maybe we could dock sometime that afternoon. Jan and Karen were the only ones at that point who were motivated to go ashore. When they returned they reported that Karen’s gold necklace had been yanked off her neck and stolen and the place wasn’t worth the visit. That night we had a tour scheduled. At 6:30 we were still anchored so we had to take a tender to our meeting point, where we got into a river boat for an hour’s ride to Lake January. There we boarded canoes, 10 people to a boat, and ventured into small channels looking for alligators. It was eerie and scary. I was way overdressed because we had been warned that there would be lots of big mosquitoes, so I was soaking wet and silently cursing the person (Jan) who had wanted to book this tour. Finally our guide found a cayman, which is similar to an alligator, and it turned out to be very small, about 1 ½ years old. He held it and told us all about it and let us hold it if we wanted to (I didn’t). He said it would grow to be about 9 feet long. We made our way back through the grasses, reeds and lily pads to our river boat for the ride back. It was very pretty and a lot cooler as we rode back watching the city lights and lightning in the distance. And best of all, the Prinsendam had docked while we were gone so we just got off the boat straight onto the ship.
We spent the night in Manaus so the next day the four of us decided to get off the ship and go to look for a grocery store to stock up on wine and pop. Remembering that Karen had had her necklace stolen the day before, we were extra cautious as we walked the streets. The city was filthy, crowded, and incredibly noisy. Not to mention hot and humid. We walked for several blocks and finally found a grocery store which was huge and quite interesting. Then we had to haul our heavy bags back through the hot, dirty, noisy throngs of people. Back on the ship the “buzz” was about a colony of bees that had swarmed and made their home on the side of the ship and around a ladder. It looked like a carpet of bees and it was amazing. They stayed overnight and miraculously the next afternoon they were gone. I hope you can see it in the picture. That evening we bid a not so fond farewell to Manaus!
Our final stop in the Amazon was Parintins. And guess what? It was HOT. We had to take a tender into town. This was, thankfully, a very small town and it was Sunday so most things were closed and it wasn’t crowded. There were some souvenirs shops open and a few booths selling the same stuff we had been looking at for a week, so we really weren’t very interested in shopping. We found an outdoor restaurant and had a beer, even though it was just after noon. All over town there were men offering to give rides on a contraption that was a sort of buggy driven by a bicycle and we decided that we’d had enough walking and would try one of those. We hired 3 of them and off we went to explore the town. I felt sorry for those guys working so hard. It was incredible to see their stamina in that heat. The ride lasted about 30 minutes and we saw most of what there was to see there, which wasn’t much, but it was fun anyway.
I think most everyone is ready to leave Brazil and the Amazon behind. Now we’re on our way to our next stop, Devil’s Island, French Guiana.
Below are pictures of both stops.