Santarem

This is one of the two large cities to be visited but despite this, neither TSH nor Diva has a phone signal. It is odd to see Christmas decorations and trees in temperatures which reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. Huge insects came to the deck of the Silver Whisper in the morning providing TSH with photo opportunities.

The morning tour included a short walk through the forest to a production facility for tapioca. Well, a covered area in a woodland glade. There are two kinds of fruit and the best tapioca flour is made from the poisonous variety. (Just stay with me). And by poisonous, they mean ‘induces internal haemorrhage and you die’.  To render it harmless involves squeezing out the poisonous liquid and then heating it to drive out any remaining liquid. The guide handled the product at all stages but did eventually wash her hands. Diva stayed well away and did not inhale at any point. Or take advantage of the snacks. And in view of the level of peril, TSH was not allowed to do any of this either.  Diva will never eat tapioca again.

TSH and Diva also saw a local man slash a rubber tree to allow the latex to seep out – it dries very quickly so it soon turns into a long string like an elastic band. Brazil nut shells usually have over 20 nuts crammed into them and are very difficult to get at.

Slight contradiction: One guide said that yellow fever is endemic in the squirrel monkeys and another said that there has been no case of yellow fever or malaria in humans in the Amazon basin for years. So have TSH and Diva wasted a great deal of money on vaccinations and malarone?

Another visit was to the church where people were celebrating the feast of the Immaculate Conception. This takes one day in the UK but two weeks here, with much exuberant music, singing and waving.

The afternoon boat tour provided sightings of pink dolphins, but these are more difficult to see than whales or ocean dolphins because they only come to the surface very briefly. And Diva was very excited to see a large (4-5 ft??) iguana up a tree.

The ‘Meeting of the Waters’ is amazing with a definite line between the muddy brown Amazon and the blue Tapajos.

The piranha fishing was a disappointment as hardly anyone caught anything. TSH tried hard but just lost 6 lots of bait. Diva had expected it to take place at a fish farm but it happened at a random place along the river. The local fishermen did much better and held up a number of examples of large fish they had caught.

 There was compensation in sightings of many raptors (including many black vultures and a caracara), egrets, heron, cormorants, terns.