Amazon & Carnaval Explorer, Report #16, Santarém , Brazil Arranged by Veendam’s Dining Room Manager, Dwi Susanto, as we enter the Amazon towards Santarém , we are given a rare, and, terrific honor of being joined at dinner by

Veendam’s Chief Engineer, Dirk Kerkhof, and Veendam’s Cruise Director, Christina Purcell.

Nice couple – good conversation trading stories of cruising and relationships – very enjoyable.

Travelling one thousand five hundred kilometers up serpentine Rio Amazonas feels a little like a passage back in time – far back in time, before humans, when nature ruled the world. Around some tight bends we are close to shore. We see clearly individual giant trees imbedded in a wall of dense green understory. We wonder how it would be to walk through this jungle. For the most part we see no evidence of human enterprise. And yet, people arrived here from the west several thousands of years ago – and prospered – amazing! Around us are uncounted mega-cells of weather, dark and foreboding, lightening flashing and thunder rolling across the forest canopy – but we are in sunshine – temporarily at least . We’ll soon see what lies ahead. There’s a lot of river to navigate. Santarém, one of

the oldest cities on the Amazon, is located at the confluence of the Rio Tapajós and the Rio Amazonas. Here is the “marriage” of the clear blue waters of the Tapajós with the milky brown Amazon. (This confluence rivals the renowned merging of the Rio Negro with the Rio Solimões in

Manaus.) First-off-the-ship, in Santarém Yolanda skillfully negotiates in Portuguese an excellent price for a 3½ hour private boat tour of Amazon natural highlights. Cruising very close to jungle’s edge, the thrilling loud sound of cryptic birds reverberating through the canopy adding to the ambiance of excitement, we first encounter gigantic water lilies. We’ve seen them before, but never in the wild in such profusion! Used as walkways by wildlife, these lilies LOOK

benevolent but Bob learns a pointed lesson – they are protected by exceedingly sharp spines! Do not touch. Looking precarious, scattered through the

aquatic regime, are a few isolated homes built on tall spindly stilts. The level of the river fluctuates a

dozen feet or more through the year. These people survive primarily on fish, and grazing cattle during low water. We are sorry for our intrusion. We wonder if these people may be descendants of the original Tapajós Indians. When Portuguese settlers first arrived here the indigenous people that weren’t converted to Christianity were apparently enslaved, slaughtered, driven into the jungle, or wiped out by infectious diseases. Searching for the iconic pink dolphins, we find many at the interface of clear

Tapajós and muddy Amazon Rivers. Sightings are exceedingly brief as they surface for a breath in an unpredictable location, but, before his camera battery is exhausted waiting for an opportunity, Bob manages to capture this photo proof of a pink dolphin. From the “marriage of the

waters” we cross the river to enter Mica Lake, a large and serene riverside pond with wildly exuberant plants and wildlife of all kinds. Each of us feels blessed to be in such a magical treasure of nature – far too much to describe here, but one particular

highlight was spotting a group of Oatzins, a species of bird with very deep evolutionary roots. But, as with most of nature, there is more than one facet to this beautiful gem. This is not a good place for us to go swimming! We try our luck fishing – with primitive equipment – merely a

short length of bamboo with some monofilament line and a hook. It is a BIG shock when one of us soon snags a fighter! We manage to get it on to shore, still vigorously flipping and wiggling. Catching this piranha was primarily luck. After taking bait off the hook numerous times, this fish was foul hooked through its nose. We were careful not to be caught by those vicious looking teeth filling its jaw! The property resident is pleased, this fish will be diner for his family that evening. But he too handles the fish with great care to avoid those teeth – likely from a painful previous experience. Although our boat skipper speaks no English, we thank Yolanda for her terrific job translating his knowledge of natural history. Back in Santarém he is pleased with our payment including a generous tip. We celebrate a fabulous

day of adventure with what – the legendary cocktail of Brazil, Caipirinhas of course!

Here we learn the vibrant economy of Santarém is currently based on soybeans. However we are soon heading for Manaus, a city whose opulent wealth originated on a foundation of rubber. We learn it was here in Santarém the seeds were sown for Amazon rubber’s dramatic demise. The culprit was an Englishman by the name of Henry Wickham, who arrived here in 1874 and soon after began smuggling precious rubber seeds back to London’s Kew Gardens. From England, saplings were sent to plantations in the British colonies of Ceylon and Malaysia. By the end of the century, the Asian plantations were producing rubber in greater quantities, and far more cheaply, than those in the middle of the Brazilian jungle. As a result, the once-thriving Amazonian rubber boom went bust. While missing family back home, we are LOVING this cruise, feeling privileged to see marvelous parts of the world new to us! “We have not yet been everywhere, but, it’s on our list!” (adapted from a Susan Sontag quote). ‘Till next we have the pleasure of seeing

you, Bob & Kerrell http://lincolnshome.wordpress.com/