Alter do Chao & Boca da Valeria, Brazil (2024)

Alter do Chao

     Located just a few miles up from where the Rio Tapajos flows into the Amazon, Alter do Chao is a beach town of about 3,500.  Because of the very low level of the rivers here we anchored early on January 12 a good bit away and had to tender into town.  Although not particularly well known outside Brazil the town has been here for almost 400 years, founded in 1626 and named after a Portuguese city of the same name.  It is well known to people in this part of Brazil as a vacation destination, however, because of its beaches, said to be the best freshwater beaches in Brazil, if not the world.  They give the town its nickname: “Caribbean in Brazil.”  We were warned that stingrays of all sizes live in these waters, so that if you enter the water you should shuffle your feet rather than chance stepping on one of them.

     We tendered ashore with our friend Bill.  The water was so low in the river that we had to disembark onto a floating platform and walk across a board to the beach, then a good way up the beach to reach the town.  We had visited this town in 2019 (look at the beginning and especially at the end of this post):

https://baderjournal.com/2019/11/27/alter-do-cho-brazil/

At that time we disembarked from the tender at a platform in the water near the small port building and walked up a boardwalk with blue and white railings over a wet, marshy area to reach the town.  This time the marshy areas were completely dry and there was a very tall platform rising from the sand near the port building.  That may be the platform where we disembarked last time or perhaps a new embarkation platform built since we were here.  Either way, it appears that the water level when the river is high is normally near the top of this platform, so it gives an idea of how really low the river water is right now.

     There is a square just in front of the port that is surrounded by vendors’ carts (and, when we arrived, by tour buses).  After looking at some of their wares we walked into town along what is probably a waterfront walk when the water is high.  A very sandy island sits just off shore extending to just a few yards from the town, called Ilha do Amor (Island of Love).  When the water is low it is possible to walk to the island through chest high water, which we saw a few people doing.  There were many boats in this area and it looked like a nice place to spend a free day.

     We walked into the town and came to the central square, where we saw the town’s yellow church, Igreja Nossa Senhora da Saude (Our Lady of Health).  On the other side of the square was a park with statues of two dolphins, one gray and one pink.  Pink dolphins are found mostly in the Amazon and neighboring rivers in this part of South America.  They can only live in fresh water and are an endangered species.  A few months ago it was reported that because of the drought in the Amazon basin more than a hundred bodies of pink dolphins had washed ashore further up the river.  We saw some of them (not the dead ones) on our last Amazon visit in 2019, but this statue was the only one we saw on this trip.

     Our main objective for this visit was a store called Arariba Cultura Indigena.  This is a store well known for having one of the best collections of art and crafts made by indigenous people of Amazonia.  We visited it last time we were here and really enjoyed perusing their goods, some of which are inexpensive and many of which cost hundreds of dollars. We did buy a few things, but when you see things so heavily crowded together in a store it is difficult to envision what any one item will look like by itself when you get home.  I would show pictures, but a sign was posted asking that pictures not be taken so we respected that.

     Leaving the store, we walked around the town on our way back to the tender pier.  This is a quiet, pleasant town to walk through.  We passed some animal sculptures on the sidewalk outside businesses and a number of wall paintings, many of which are actually signs for the businesses within the buildings.  We also saw the local cemetery, complete with a model of the church facade and mostly above ground graves.

    Back at the ship we had a late lunch and went up to the Aft pool deck to watch the sail away.  Among other things we watched some people in boats that looked like jet skis speed out to the ship and then around it.  We also watched as they lifted the last tender boat into its position outside deck 4.  Then we sailed away to our next stop tomorrow.

Boca Da Valeria

     On January 13 we anchored in the Amazon just upriver from where it intersects with a tributary called Rio Valeria.  The village of Boca de Valeria is located in the rainforest on the Rio Valeria within walking distance of the Amazon confluence.  This tiny village (75 to 100 residents) was once just a typical Amazon fishing and trading village.  Then, we are told, a number of years ago a ship sailing up the Amazon had engine trouble at this spot and tendered passengers to shore to occupy them while repairs were completed  The inhabitants thought they were being invaded and fled into the forest, returning only after the ship passengers were gone. 

     Since then it has become a regular stop on the Amazon cruise route. The income from cruise ship visits has provided the village with electricity, satellite dish TV, computers and refrigerators, and on cruise ship days people come from miles around and dress up in costumes to pose for pictures at $1 per picture.  The locals also sell arts and crafts and provide canoe rides for about $10 per person.  It is worth visiting because it is the only place you are likely to see anything like the indigenous villages in this area, but in our opinion it is only worth visiting once since it is so small and there is so little to see. 

     We went ashore on our first visit here in 2012 and you can see pictures of the village and read about it here:

https://baderjournal.com/2012/03/01/boca-de-valeria-brazil/

On our second visit we stayed on the ship, but the ship’s location and the sunny weather enabled us to take some pretty good pictures of the town and the surrounding area, as well as the folks in canoes who came out to the ship to try to sell things or just get a look at it.  You can see that here:

https://baderjournal.com/2019/11/07/boca-da-valeria-brazil-2019/

     This time we were anchored a little up river from the Rio Valeria (perhaps because of the low water), so we could not see the village locate around the bend behind the mountain.  In the past the ship’s tenders always dropped folks off at a pier in the center of town near the church, but this time a new, apparently floating, pier had been built right on the corner where the two rivers meet and passengers had to alight there and walk to the town.  The river beyond the new pier looked too small, because of the low water, for a ship tender to sail through.  And no canoes came out to the ship on this visit, perhaps because there was a sign at the pier forbidding it (we didn’t see one but have heard one was there).  So here is what we saw from the ship . . . people walking toward the village from the new covered pier.  Note that on our last visit all of the land around the new pier, on both sides of the small river behind it, was completely under water.

     After we left Boca da Valeria in early afternoon there were two notable events on board.  First was a cake extravaganza in the Lido buffet called “For Cakes’ Sake.”  Dozens of different cakes had been baked by the kitchen staff and you could walk around and get a slice of as many as you liked, for as long as they lasted. We have been to similar events in the past and the desserts always look fabulous, but often don’t live up to their appearance in the taste test.  This time was different; each of us had slices of two different cakes and all were quite delicious.  Our friend Robert had a slice of a rainbow cake he said was quite good; we had never seen anything quite like that.  Then dinner was a dressy night and we received a towel animal.  We used to get these every night but we guess that was a lot of work and now they only come on formal and dressy nights.  (You ask what the difference is between a formal and a dressy night?  As far as we can tell, on formal nights pillow gifts are sometimes left on our bed when we return from dinner while on dressy nights there are none.)