Santarem, Brazil (2024)

    Founded in 1661 and named after a Portuguese city, Santarem is now a metropolis of more than 300,000 people.  Interestingly, in 1867 a contingent of die hard former US Confederates immigrated here rather than accepting reintegration into the United States.  Some of their descendants still live here.

     We were anchored opposite the upriver part of town on the morning of January 16, the last of five Brazilian ports all on consecutive days.  Santorem is situated at the confluence of the clear blue Tapajos river and the brown Amazon and the two rivers run together for several miles without merging.  The Amazon’s brown color is partly due to silt from the Andes that flows with the river all the way to the Atlantic Ocean.  This stretch of brown water on one side and blue on the other is known as the “Meeting of the Waters” (which can also be seen at Manaus where the Rio Negro flows into the Amazon).  On our last visit to Santarem we had a wonderful boat excursion into the rainforest and sailed right through the meeting of the waters on our return:

https://baderjournal.com/2019/11/04/santarem-brazil/

On this trip this phenomenon was clearly visible from our anchored ship.

    Santorem is about half way between Manaus and the Atlantic Ocean.  It was once a center for rubber shipment and other products later, but today the big product is soybeans.  A good deal of rainforest has been cleared south of here to plant soy beans and Cargill corporation has a huge facility here for processing and transporting this stuff down river.  Their plant, with huge storage tanks and very long conveyor belts to move product to ships in the river, dominates the up river part of town.

     We didn’t have anything special we wanted to see so we just tendered to a dock near the Cargill plant, where a shuttle bus took us downtown to a centrally located square called Praca do Pescador (Fishermen’s Square).  On one side of the square was a phone booth that looked like a parrot (really) and on the other was a long riverside promenade called Orla de Santarem.  Fishing boats and ferries were lined up along the shore and we saw one boat (perhaps a ferry) being loaded with goods the old fashioned way, by hand.

     We walked over to visit the Catedral Metropolitana Nossa Senhora de Conceicao, the city’s distinctive blue cathedral first built in 1761.  Inside was a baptism chapel behind a brightly colored curtain of hangings that would seem out of place anywhere but in the Amazon.

     In front of the cathedral was a large outdoor market made up of rows of individual vendor kiosks.  Many things were for sale, but the predominant products seemed to be backpacks and flip flops.  We walked across the street to visit the Theatro Municipal Victoria, which looks relatively new and has a nice facade with a sweeping double stairway.  Unfortunately, it was closed so we couldn’t go inside.

     There wasn’t anything else here we wanted to seek out in this heat, humidity and very hot sun, so we took the shuttle back to the tender port and tendered back to the ship.  As we sailed away we had a further view of the meeting of the waters. Notice that Zuiderdam was anchored in the blue water of the Tapajos River and you can see the brown Amazon entering in the background beyond the point of land.

     That evening the Oi Brazil! group put on its farewell performance on the Main Stage, and what a show it was.  They presented several different styles of Brazilian song and dance in different settings.  For example, the first set was a street scene with a very acrobatic primary dancer doing back flips and such.  Then was some singing with precision dancing by a couple who were also quite athletic (and practiced!), who ended up dancing on top of a small table.  The guitarist from the jazz trio in the Ocean Bar was part of that and accompanied a performance of Girl From Ipanema on solo guitar.  Background pictures of Brazilian locations were projected on the screen behind the stage.

     The main singer came out for another set dressed like Carmen Miranda, a popular Brazilian appearing in US movies in the 30’s who was famous for her fruit basket hat.

     The final set was the samba, with the dancers and the singer wearing Rio de Janeiro Carnaval costumes. Kimberly even came on stage in the Carmen Miranda get up.  They danced up a storm then paraded up the aisles of the theater and continued throughout the ship, with audience in tow.  They danced and sang and played into the Rolling Stone Lounge, where a show was in session, and basically took over the stage.  The singer for the Rolling Stones band took out his phone and enthusiastically videoed the whole thing, before they danced out of the Lounge and on through the corridors toward the rear of the ship.  That is where we left them.  A good time was had by all.

     Well, for a day that started off relaxed enough, it sure ended with a bang.  We will leave you with a final view of the city of Santorem and the meeting of the waters as we close out our last Brazilian port.