Day 15 - 12/04 - Alter do Chão, Brazil

Being beach bums

We woke up to the overcast sunlight peering through the curtains and a slight smell of wood smoke in the cabin and throughout the ship. While the reported Amazon fires are located hundreds of miles south of us, there is definitely burning going on around us.  

We got on the second tender which was blazing hot while waiting for it to be filled. At shoreside, we got off the tender onto a floating dock and then walked down a step wooden ramp to a sandy beach. About 50 yards up the beach, vendors had set up their wares and many people headed that way.

Our tour leader, Karlos, from Salvagen tours was waiting for us and directed us to our tour boat which was a cute double deck Amazon river boat. One couple in our party was not 4 star, so they were coming on a later tender and we had to wait for them. Karlos continued to solicit potential participants and another guest, Eileen recruited about 6 more people. Finally at around 11am we departed the beach and headed at Amazon river boat speed of 7 knots to a beach that was formerly the terminal for Henry Ford's failed attempt to grow rubber for his vehicles. All that remains are railroad tracks leading into the water, a shell of the chassis of a railroad car, and an engine block. This beach is also the playground for Santarem residents who are about 45 minutes away.

We then motored to a second beach and enjoyed a long beach walk with many beautiful sandstone rocks. Our boat moved to the end of our walk and many of us enjoyed a swim in the bathtub warm water.

Our third beach stop was at a beach where we walked up the beach around 100 yards to Crocodile Lake which is no longer home to crocodiles. Small alligators do live here, but we didn't see any. The sand on the lake shore was very hot!

On our way back to the tender area, we passed by Lover's Beach, and got back to the tender area around 3:20pm for a last tender time of 4:00pm.

Back on board, cooling showers were once again the order of the day, We then watched the tender and anchor retrieval and the ship turnaround and sail away. It got dark as we approached Santarem and the ship reduced speed at this convergence point with the Amazon shipping lanes. When we came out of the evening entertainment at 8:15pm, we were still in sight of Santarem. But that rapidly changed as the Volendam increased speed in the shipping lane. There was also the return of a strong smoke smell.  

Speaking of evening entertainment, Adam Johnson, a concert pianist, performed a marvelous show of dance tunes. And with that our day was over. Two sea days are now ahead of us as we make our way to Belem. Stay tuned.

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