Email
Font ResizeOur group of six cousins and friends along with 1,200 other passengers were taking a 12-day Amazon cruise aboard the Royal Princess, a trip offered just once a year by Princess Cruises. We had boarded in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and our first three stops at the Caribbean islands of Tortola, Dominica and Trinidad were enjoyable and without incident. We were soon cruising toward our next port of call, Devil's Island in French Guiana, before making our way up the Amazon to Santarem, Boca da Valeria and Manaus, a city that lies at the 1,000-mile mark of the mighty river and is the capital of the Amazonas State.
We were looking forward to seeing more of this almost 4,000-mile legendary waterway that is second only to the Nile in length but which carries a greater volume of water than any other river in the world. More importantly, the Amazon and its 1,100 tributaries support a rainforest ecology that contains more species of flora and fauna than any other ecosystem. We were ready to succumb to all its pleasures, including the so-called "marriage (or meeting) of the waters," two rivers -- the clay-colored Amazon and the blue-black Rio Negro --flowing side by side for
But first, there was the small matter of the Brazilian immigration authorities. A communication received the day before we reached Macapa advised that there would be a time change as well as change in processing, directed to the Americans on board who would be required to be fingerprinted and photographed before the ship could proceed upriver. This would eat up a lot of precious time for all passengers.
Despite this unforeseen setback, the Amazon was already unveiling its magic.
Among the more fascinating snippets heard from the ship's lecturers was that the Amazon Delta is some 150 miles wide and that one island in the middle of it is the size of Denmark. Also, since boarding, we had sailed about 2,000 miles over Atlantic waters that were a gorgeous shade of blue. Suddenly, during the night there was a dramatic color change, and when we looked down over the ship's rails we saw a river that was now clay-colored as a result of the waters swirling down from the Peruvian Andes, spewing some 16 million tons of rich sediment into the Atlantic.
The first piece of bad news was announced -- because we had to meet the Brazilians earlier than anticipated, we would not be able to see Devil's Island, the notorious French penal colony, established in 1852 that had imprisoned more than 80,000 during its 100-year existence. Two of its most famous residents were Alfred Dreyfus, the French officer who was wrongly accused of treason, and Henri Charriere, the colorful thief, who claimed in his best-seller (later made into the movie, "Papillon") to be the only convict to escape from Devil's Island.
After the Brazilians finally boarded at Macapa, processing began, but proceeded very slowly until they finally finished and anchor was weighed at 10 p.m. But the 12-hour delay meant that we would be late in arriving at our next port of Santarem, 500 miles upriver from the Atlantic, near the Amazon's confluence with the clear, blue-green waters of the Rio Tapajos.
Santarem, an important center in gold and rubber trading, is the third largest port on the Amazon River. It was here in the 1920s that Henry Ford disastrously tried to carve immense rubber plantations out of the nearby jungle by planting 3 million rubber trees. That boom busted, but Santarem prospered, which we could see when we finally docked, not at 9 a.m. as scheduled, but at 4 p.m., which meant it was now too late to take any of the eight planned shore excursions.
So, what did we miss? Quite a lot, as it turned out, when we referred to the guidebooks: Santa Lucia Woods, a forest reserve that contains more than 400 different species of regional trees; Maica Lake, home to various (ITAL) igapos (unITAL), or flooded forests, rich in flora and fauna; culinary displays and demonstrations by local families; as well as the trip to the "marriage of the waters," where the Tapajos River runs for miles alongside the light brown Amazon without mixing.
Nevertheless, we sampled a bit of the local atmosphere after being shuttled to a square by the river. The Amazon is the highway of the region, so boats are the primary means of transportation, which was evident when we saw all the small riverboats -- the buses of the Amazon -- that crowded the dock.
Hammocks (the sleeping bag of choice) were strung along the decks, row upon row, from one side to the other, to accommodate passengers sailing from one city to another. A short distance from shore, we could see boats being serviced by floating gas stations.
And in the square, scores of vendors had lined up their wares near colorful telephone booths made to look like the blue parrots of the Amazon. Crafts and carvings were unique: necklaces and bracelets; masks made of coconut shells, turtle shells, piranha teeth and seashells; decorative flutes; wood carvings; precious gems; machetes; blow guns; T-shirts, and much more. But caution was required, for the ship would confiscate "dangerous articles that include spears, blow pipes, machetes, crossbows and knives." Still, business was brisk.
The next day our adventures really took off when we were tendered into the tiny, remote village of Boca da Valeria, population 75, located at the confluence of the Rio da Valeria and Amazon rivers. The village lies smack up against the dense jungle of the Amazon Basin. It doesn't boast many comforts. There are about a dozen wooden houses, built on stilts as protection against flooding during the rainy season, a small one-room school, small church and, surprisingly, an even smaller museum that displayed some broken pottery, piranha teeth and photos taken of other passing visitors. No dock, no organized tours, just a chance to mingle with the local (ITAL) caboclos (unITAL), Amazon residents of mixed Indian and Portuguese blood, who scratch out a living from the rainforest, the river and a small patch of land.
The local citizens were there, of course, but so was everybody else from upriver who had paddled in for this rare cruise ship appearance. Passengers had taken the ship's advice to bring along negotiating tools - trinkets -- to be exchanged for photos and tours of the houses. The children mobbed us as we walked ashore from the tenders. They weren't carrying teddy bears or Barbie dolls, but unique household jungle pets, with which they obviously had an intimate kinship: colorful parakeets, monkeys, parrots and iguanas.
Even adults became media stars as they posed with snakes, toucans and signs that read "piranha" to identify the fish on view with the wicked teeth. Some wore native costumes adorned with feathers and beads. Others in T-shirts sold handcrafts, while children posed for a "dollah," a word that had somehow permanently entered the local lexicon.
Boca da Valeria demonstrated that there are two seasons in the Amazon -- hot and hotter. Our last port of call, Manaus, a duty-free zone and the front door to the densest part of the jungle rainforest, was just as hot -- 88 degrees and enough humidity (95 percent) to loosen your jaw. The city is closely identified with the rubber boom of the 19th and 20th centuries when it supplied 90 percent of the world's rubber, which created a gaggle of rubber barons. However, the bottom dropped out of the market when an Englishman smuggled rubber tree seeds to Malaysia, and Asian rubber put an end to the Brazilian monopoly.
Vestiges of that period of wealth and lavish living -- when Manaus was called "the Paris of the Tropics" -- remain. That European connection is still evident not only in the stately homes, but also at Manaus' floating dock, designed by a Scottish engineer to cope with the 30-foot rise and fall of the Rio Negro. The material used to construct the Customs House near the harbor consists of Scottish bricks brought as ballast in the holds of ships that had sailed to Europe full of rubber, while the teeming Municipal Market, built in 1882, also near the harbor, is based on the now-demolished Les Halles of Paris and was imported from Europe, piece by piece.
The ultimate Amazon adventure for many on the cruise (including two from our group) was the 15-hour "Grand Amazon and Evening Alligator Sighting," the highlights of which were a machete-wielding trek through the rainforest as well as the hunt for alligators by flashlight at night. The rest of our group, however, chose the shortened version, a seven-hour tour called "The Meeting of the Waters and Lake January." We boarded a two-deck, open-sided boat to sail some 11 miles down river, where a startling sight brought us all to the rails --the blue-black Rio Negro and the creamy, caramel-colored Rio Solimoes, running side by side, without mixing. The two river waters resist mixing because they differ in temperature, clarity, density and acidity, and continue this way for miles before becoming the Amazon.
At one point, the engines stopped, and Carlos, our guide, whistled, hoping to attract the famous pink dolphins of the Amazon. None poked its head through the water, obviously preferring more tempting "bait." Our first stop was at a small village that consisted of a few houses on stilts (no doors, no windows), with vegetable gardens planted in raised boxes high above the ground to avoid the seasonal flooding. A man wrapped in the coils of a snake and children clutching monkeys, birds and three-toed sloths posed for dollars. Meanwhile, Carlos showed us the fruit of the cocoa tree, made a small slash in a rubber tree from which latex oozed and explained the processing of the region's main staple, manioc, a root that is peeled, soaked, ground, toasted and used as flour.
Our next stop was to stunningly beautiful Lake January, a vast nature preserve and flood plain where we were mesmerized by one of the Amazon's botanical curiosities -- the (ITAL) Victoria regia (unITAL) -- discovered in the calm back waters of the jungle in 1801 and named in honor of Queen Victoria. Caiman were lazing in the sun on several of the pads. These round pads, which can grow up to 7 feet across, float on the water's surface and can support the weight of a small child. But there's a beauty-and-the-beast quality to this plant. The incredible beauty is in the cup-shaped, 12-inch pink or white flower; the beast is the underside of the pad, covered with fierce, inch-long, flesh-piercing spines or thorns.
We were then transferred to a smaller, motorized, covered canoe that took us to a narrow, overgrown tributary of the flooded forest, shrouded with a dense canopy, an amazing treetop world of epiphytes (plants that live on other plants) with giant trees soaring as high as skyscrapers, leaves the size of beach umbrellas and, draped from branches, vines that equal in thickness to a man's leg.
On our last day, we toured the city's jewel box -- the pink and white (ITAL) Teatro Amazonas (unITAL). This elegant, three-tiered opera house, created by the fabulous wealth of the rubber boom ("when white latex changed to gold"), opened in 1896 and is part art nouveau, part neo-classic and part baroque.
During our tour, the guide said that everything we saw was imported from Europe, except for the parts made of wood. Ships would leave the Manaus harbor filled with rubber and return with marble from Italy, grillwork from England, chandeliers from Paris and stone from Portugal. Corinthian columns, delicate moldings and marble busts adorn the walls and ceiling. Red velvet seats accommodate 680 people.
Our slightly chaotic cruise was now over. We flew home from Manaus and felt like the grandchildren of some friends on board who told us how awed the kids were that their grandparents were going to sail on the Amazon. To them, this was an awesome, magical destination. Even if we didn't see everything we wanted, we, too, were captivated by this place of wonder and beauty.
INCIDENTAL INTELLIGENCE
Princess Cruises offers this 12-day Amazon cruise from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to Manaus once a year. The next one is scheduled for April 9, 2005.
Contact Princess Cruises at (800) 774-6237, or check the Web site at www.princess.com, or write to 24844 Avenue Rockefeller, Santa Clarita, Calif. 91355, to confirm dates and itinerary. Close to 90 optional excursions are offered on this cruise, ranging from whale and dolphin encounters, snorkeling and river boat safaris to jungle treks and coast-to-coast scenic drives.
For U.S. citizens: A visa is required to enter Brazil, as well as a valid yellow fever vaccination certificate. Check with your personal physician, local health department or the Center for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov/travel/index.htm) for specifics on other recommended vaccines.
However, some countries are exempted from these visa and medical requirements. Check www.braziltourism.org for full information or to download a visa application or to find the Brazilian Consulate nearest you.
WEATHER: Ports of call are all close to the equator, so it's hot and humid.
Bring a wide-brimmed hat or visor, plenty of sun block, insect repellant, umbrella and other raingear. April is a good time to go as the waters are higher at that time and boats can sail further upriver into the tributaries.
