The city of Santarem is sited at the confluence of two mighty rivers: the Amazon and the Tapajós. The Amazon water is dense and muddy, laden with alluvial deposits and vegetable matter, whilst the Tapajós runs almost clear, and appears much darker to the eye. Just to the east of Santarem it’s possible to see the Ilha Grande do Tapartu and the place where the two rivers meet, flowing side-by-side for many miles, but refusing to mingle! Our goal is to travel further upstream of the Tapajós to the small village of Alter do Chão in search of a little slice of fluvial paradise. But will we find it?
Pink river dolphins were a great start to the nature of the Amazon. The numbers of this freshwater dolphin species have unfortunately been diminishing and they are such beautiful creatures. As the name suggests, they really are pink and most have grey markings on them too.
We made a visit to the large blue cathedral of Santarem founded by the Jesuits, and then straight to the fish market to check out some amazing varieties of Amazon river fish, one of which seems to have eyes decorating its tail fins! This may possibly be to deter predators. For one, these eyes appear much larger than the fish’s real eyes and an attacking predator may be fooled into thinking it’s much larger than it actually is and therefore may have consequences to pay should it decide to move in for the kill. Another reason that’s just as likely is that these spots are actually to mimic an animal’s head, thus disguising it as a tail. As predators are likely to attack the head/body regions, the advantage to this would be to grant the fish one final chance to escape. A small tear in the tail is certainly better than a wound to the head. In this case, these adaptations didn’t seem to outsmart the fishermen. The food hall within the market provides a few aromas to savour and salivate over.
As the noon heat began to scorch, we decided to crack on with things. We waited patiently for our bus to stop on Avenida Rui Barbosa. The time flew as we were also busy taking in the daily grind and awing over the ‘sorvete’ stands. So many ice-creams in so many flavours. Oh Yeah! Must keep an eye out for the bus! It was sometimes very unclear where some of the buses were headed for, be it small writing or no writing! A couple of times Jon held his arm out to flag down a bus and shouted “Isto onibus vai para Alter do Chão?”, but on both occasions they were going elsewhere. Moments after a bus approached speedily with “Alter do Chão” written boldly across the sign on the front. This was it! We were starting our hour long journey to a small oasis within the thick of the tropical rainforest. The journey was a little hair-raising as the driver seemed to be ignoring the speed limit signs and dust flew in through the windows when the good quality road transformed itself to a red dirt track. Travelling past the dense topical rainforest gave us the rare opportunity to compare it with our experiences in the Taman Negara of Malaysia and the slice of the Lowacherra rainforest we visited in Bangladesh.
We paid our bus fare at the end of the journey, exiting through a turnstile just like at a football ground and clambering down from the bus onto an intersection of the village laden with bars, cafes, small restaurants, pousadas and gift shops. All seemed to be closed for siesta time, and perhaps made this village seem rather more touristy than we had been led to expect. But the main praça revealed the magnificent vista of the river and the inviting Ilha do Amor, with its pristine white sandy beaches and glistening, blue water. The praça also contained plenty of small stalls which looked like they could spring into life at dusk, as well as a pretty colonial church.
We headed down a sandy dirt-track road, past the vultures waddling around, in search of our intended lodgings for the night: the Albergue do Floresta. Through a gateway in a fence made entirely from dried palm fronds, we entered into a small haven of tranquillity away from the bustle of village life, a world of brightly coloured hammocks and tiny blue wooden cabins, where only the chirp of a few insects could be heard. They assured us that there were no mosquitoes here, and that nets were unnecessary. So we bagged a hammock each and decided to swing around for a good few minutes to get used to this new, tropical method of relaxing, chilling, and later (much later…) sleeping.
Right then, let’s explore around the praça of Alter do Chão! We settle down for a quick pit stop of Frango Empanado (large chunks of chicken breast deep-fried in breadcrumbs) which arrive together with lashings of mayonaise jazzed up with plenty of ketchup, and an orange coloured Brazilian chilli sauce which, when poured liberally over the chicken, makes it sing in the mouth! Back down at the water’s edge, the time came to cool off with a small ice-lolly (picolé) before we paddled over to the waterside bar. Well actually, it’s more IN the water than beside it. You could easily swim right up to your table! Here we cool down once more with an amazingly flavoured refrigerated soft drink called Guarana.
By early evening we had managed to find an almost deserted beach to enjoy an astonishing sunset over the Rio Tapajós. The sun descended as a massive flaming ball, even penetrating through the cloud cover as it began to dip beneath the horizon of virgin rainforest miles away beyond the still river. The water in Amazonia right now is at a very low level, so the beaches stretch quite some distance and the floating pontoons stand marooned on the sand. Later in the year it will be a very different story. We start to explore once more around the centre of the village, ultimately seeking food but stumbling upon some amazing shops specialising in colourful local handicrafts, from brightly painted wooden macaws, to small latex armadillos amidst countless tribal spears, blowpipes and drums. Fantastic!
We opt for food local-style, not gringo style; you should know us by now from the last two years worth of blogs! A small stall with a roadside barbeque of magnificent skewers of roast chicken on the churrasquinho proves to be exactly the right choice. These kebabs can then be sprinkled liberally with crunchy corn-flower (farinha) and plenty of chilli sauce. This might just be the best BBQ chicken we’ve ever tasted! They asked us to try some passion fruit juice (maracuja) to wash it down with, and it would have been silly not to accept! And yes, mais dois se faz favor! Just a few paces away is a terrific ice-cream stall with a bewildering array of flavours to choose from. Jon finds tapioca ice-cream, which has a lush, rich flavour and an astonishing texture from the little pearls of tapioca hidden in each lick. The passion fruit ice cream was equally delectable, too!
The night in the hammock was quite frankly magical! All the insects of the forest had struck up their nocturnal symphony, which would continue until dawn. There would seem to be an infinite number of positions you can adopt when lying in your hammock, and it was fun trying out as many as possible until sleep would eventually intervene, but then at various points throughout the night you would re-adjust and then nod off again. A soothing tropical rain shower had helped lower the temperature around midnight, and whilst it was still pitch-black at 6 am, a rooster made sure that we stirred to great the coming day. Breakfast started for us along the river front with a fried tapioca pancake laden with condensed milk and coconut, progressing to a table at a tiny café on the square with a batida de abacate (avocado milkshake), a café preto and a cafezinho. As we chilled out here for a while we admired the bird life. One delightful specimen that caught our eyes had a shimmering mustard yellow belly and head, and was gliding through the air showing off its black wing and tail feathers. It was the size of a small blackbird but it’s ego was the size of an albatross!
This is what Brazil is all about; the friendly people, the awesome food and the spectacular wildlife.
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