Alter do Chau, Parintins, Manaus - Shore excursions?

[Lobbylin]

Hi, no shore excurisons have been posted for my Nov 09 cruise - can anyone advise what kind of excursions the ships offer in these ports?

 

I particularly want to go piranha fishing.

 

Thanks:)

[prescottbob]

Ahoy!

 

I thought I'd just cut & paste a portion of a review I recently posted. Have fun.

 

MANAUS, BRAZIL #2 DAYS (1000-1600 THE FOLLOWING DAY):

DAY #1: Manaus is a large, urban vibrant city containing approximately two million souls. The city, Manaus, is named after the Manus tribe (pronounced ma-nowsh) in 1669. Inland roads to the city are virtually non-existent (like most of the Amazon River ports) so the city depends on the river for the majority of commerce and trade. Manaus though does have a large airport that ‘fills in the blanks’. Needless to say, the port landscape is filled with container ships, cranes, stacked containers and a plethora of various river craft. The city itself was built at the vital meeting point of the Rio Negro and Rio Somimoes Rivers that forms the geographically named, Amazon River. The muddy, brownish-yellow Rio Solimoes meets the incoming black Rio Negro (the color differences are due to the density, chemical composition and differing suspended particle content of the various flows draining specific areas). The “meetings” or “marriages” are called the “Encontro das Aquas”. There are several other “meetings” along the Amazon as other tributaries feed into the central river but this “meeting” east of Manaus is considered to be the beginning of the Amazon River by most cartographers and geographers. In any event, DW, I and a group of 10 other wonderful souls (CC folks, of course, via ‘our’ roll call board / thank you “Lady L” for the arrangements/ we made up the “Amazon floaters”) for a ten hour (normally 12 hour) tour. The abbreviated private tour was provided by the Amazon Rider’s folks (amazonriders.com / $80 pp) and the tour included lunch, beer and bottled water. Although a bit of confusion occurred initially (our English speaking tour guide, Antonio, was at the wrong pier unfortunately. The Costa Romantica & Oceana Regatta were also in port and he was waiting by the Romantica. However, the tour turned out to be just great although the ‘twelve seat’ motor boat ran out of petrol a couple of times but this caused minimal delays really. Such occurrences make traveling an “adventure, no? Some of the highlights of the tour included a “fast ride” to the convergence of the “Meeting of the Waters”, a trip down to a residential area of floating homes along one of the canals, meeting outboard powered canoes that allowed one to hold various jungle / river creatures for photo opportunities (for a $1USD / creature), a buffet lunch at a floating restaurant that included a variety of Brazilian cuisine. The buffet included various fried fish (including piranha), beef, candied and fried fruit, vegetables, rice, etc.) We then walked up from the restaurant to the Lake January Ecological Park to see the large water lilies (Victoria regia) and resident caimans (referred to as alligators). Following the visit to the lake, we” further motored up the canal a ways until we reached a small dock for a 45 minute jungle trek in which Antonio described all the local fauna and flora. The path ended near another pier/ a smaller floating café & home where our boat had re-docked. Following viewing, a large tank of huge river fish (primarily those in the carp & catfish families) we fished off the dock for piranhas for about an hour (DW caught #5; I caught some sort of catfish named something or other in Brazil). Following our fishing adventure, we motored downstream to a secluded tranquil pond in the reserve area (Lake January) for further picture taking and wildlife viewing. As sunset neared, it began to rain so we decided to motor to the nearby floating restaurant for a ‘pit stop and leg stretch’ prior to the scheduled after-dark “caiman spotting and capturing” portion of the tour. Later, in the darkness, following twenty minutes of quietly motoring along the shoreline, Antonio, using a flashlight, leapt out of the boat and captured a small caiman. He described the caiman’s natural history along with opportunities for everyone to take plenty of pictures. Following the “capture”, we motored back to the main river for a high speed ride (approximately 30 minutes) back to the Prinsendam pier. During the ride back, we had the fortunate opportunity to observe the billowing clouds building into a magnificent lightning storm over the city of Manaus. It really turned out to be a wonderful day and a great tour.

 

DAY #2:

No planned tour on our second day in Manaus. Two of the local gemstone dealers were offering free cab rides to the Tropicana Hotel outside the terminal building. Since the Tropicana was on our agenda, we took advantage of the cab. Prior to arriving at the hotel, we had the driver stop at the opera house (Teatro Amazonas) for a visit and photo opportunity. At the hotel, we visited the small zoo, spent two hours or so by the hotel pool enjoying ‘umbrella’ drinks ($6 USD) and swimming in their lovely pool. Prior to departure we visited duty free store at the hotel to bring back some wine to the ship (#6 Chilean reds for $30 USD). We then took the free return cab back to the port area where we wandered around the plaza, went down to the old rubber exchange, and the central market area. The city of Manaus, like any large metropolitan areas found worldwide, is filled with the typical traffic congestion, blaring car horns, and the endless, ongoing construction projects. Needless to say, traversing in the market areas, one will find ‘wall to wall’ people clogging the sidewalks. However, we never felt our personal safety was an issue at any time (or any of the Brazilian ports for that matter).

Rating: B

 

PARINTINS, BRAZIL (0800-1700): This would be another no scheduled tour day in Parintins. We tendered into the port and toured the wharf and attendant vendor’s stands. We made our way into the town’s central market area and hired a tricycle for $5 USD for both of us for a 45 minute tour that included Liberty Square, the cathedral (and unique cemetery behind it), the Bumbodromo and the Caprichoso Boi Club. The club is where they practice for the annual Boi Bumba folklore festival. The festival occurs towards the end of the rainy season. The three day festival enacts the kidnapping, death and resurrection of an ox, which is a metaphor for the local agricultural cycles. The HAL excursion was a bit pricey IMO ($99/pp) for a 75+ minute rehearsal so we purchased both the 2007 entire 3 day festival on DVD and a CD of the festivals music from a vendor for $10 USD. We would later view the DVD aboard ship and it is indeed quite the elaborate production with superb costuming, unique floats and audience energy unequal to anything I’ve seen. In any event, we walked around the town, visited a few shops and ended up at the Kasi outdoor bar for some local brews with some cruise ship friends. Naturally, DW needed to pickup some inexpensive Boi Bumba feathered head gear from a vendor to wear for the evening’s dinner experience aboard the ship.

Rating: B-

 

ALTER DO CHAO (“Altar of Heaven” / 0800-1500): The ship actually anchored off the town’s resort area and tendered into a small dock. *This is not a handicapped friendly port since one needed to walk a ¼ mile along a beach to reach the resort areas cobble stone paved streets. The resort is used by the local Brazilians (Santarem is 20 miles away) as a vacation / weekend getaway destination that has clean sand beaches and shallow water for swimming. Since we had no planned tour lined up (thankfully; I was having a bout of “Montezuma’s Revenge” overnight), we stuck around the resort village area that had a small plaza, shops and bars. However, public transportation was available to the central area of town several miles away. We simply walked around the resort area and side streets, stopped at some curio shops and planted ourselves about a ½ mile down along the eastside shoreline at a floating bar (chairs and tables with umbrellas in the water). We enjoyed a ‘river’ swim and I forced myself to quaff a liter or two of Skol beer ($1.50 USD) in an attempt to reverse my medical condition. It was a very nice, relaxing day and our final port stop on the Amazon River.

Rating: B-

 

SOME AMAZON RIVER BASIN FACTS:

1. Source: Calilona, Peru in the Andes Mountain range.

2. Length: 4080 miles, second only to the Nile River.

3. Freshwater Production: 20% of all river waters discharging into the oceans.

4. Volume: contains more water than any other river in the world-more than the Mississippi, the Nile and the Yangtze combined.

5. Flow Rate: 55 million gallons / second. To put this in perspective, the city of Fort Lauderdale, Florida uses approximately 34 million gallons of water/day (average 183 gallon /pp X and approximate population of 186,000 = 34 MGD). Thus, a ‘second’ or less of flow would meet Fort Lauderdale’s water consumption needs per day.

6. Naming History: The Amazon got its name from the Spanish explorers. Female warriors called “Icamiabas” (“women without husbands”) attacked the explorer Francisco Orellana in 1541. Orellana named the river “Rio Amazonas” after these women were compared to the Amazons of Greek mythology.

 

TRAVELER OBSERVATIONS (AMAZON REGION)

 

1. The Amazon Basin / River is much larger then you can possibly imagine. The mere width (one mile to 35 miles during the rainy season) is overwhelming.

2. The diversity of the flora and fauna is well known.

3. The Seasons: Rainy- Jan. to May, Transitional- May to July, “Dry Season”- Aug. - Dec.

4. Vaccinations: Yellow Fever required for a visa unless you have some sort of physicians note exempting you from the requirement. You also might consider a Tetanus booster also.

5. Malarial Preventive Medicine: consult your physician and visit the CDC internet site for recommendations. We chose not to do so (I only saw one mosquito flying about the dining room window in Macapa one morning only) and we were out on the river at night a couple of times. I guess it depends on where you go. We did taking along a small spray bottle of insecticide containing DEET and the ship provided packaged wipes at several ports at the gangway.

6. Tour Wear: We did not wear long sleeve shirts / pants. Basically we wore shorts, white T-shirts, sandals (we like the Keen waterproof models) and for jungle treks the Merrell brand slip-on, waterproof “Jungle Mocks”. We each had a small day pack which contained some of the following items: ponchos, a travel umbrella, bandanas, a wash cloths from the ship (to be soaked with water for rubbing down sweaty faces, cleaning hands, etc. during tours and, yes, we did return them to the ship each night), a sun hat, sunscreen, the aforementioned DEET spray or wipes, bottled water, chewing gum, Tylenol, ship towels when required, a map of the area, a couple of extra large zip lock bags (for the cameras), the cameras and, of course money & identification.

7. Money: It a good idea to have some Brazilian Reals (currency) on hand when visiting the various ports along the river. Either acquire some prior to the trip or just use an ATM at the first major port (in our case, Marcapa). A hundred dollars of reals comes in fairly handy for small purchases such as souvenirs, food and beverages along the way. Many of the stores and vendors stands will have items cost signage displayed in both reals and dollars (your better off paying in reals). We encountered a number of “hydration” stands (cafes) that would advertise beers for $2USD but would actually have the advertized rate in reals for the same beer @1.5R$ (approximately $0.75USD.) Another words, beware of prices whether it be for a beer or T-shirt, do your homework and take a small calculator if necessary. The exchange rates are published in the New York Times summary paper you will receive in the cabin.

Bon Voyage & Good Health!

Bob:)

 

 

[Lobbylin]

Thanks Prescott Bob!

Great info:)

[BCHappyGal]

we just returned from the Pacific Princess cruise up the Amazon River. In manaus we did a full day river tour on the Amazon including Phirana fishing (both mau DH & DF caught a phirana) night spotting of alligators (caiman) seeing the meeting of t hewaters, Lake January etc. It was great and we did this privately as opposed to using the ships tour...and it cost us less that half of what the ship wanted... if you want the name and contact info let me know....

I am still in Florida on vacation but once home will do a full review of our trip and psot it.

 

Ann

[Lobbylin]

we just returned from the Pacific Princess cruise up the Amazon River. In manaus we did a full day river tour on the Amazon including Phirana fishing (both mau DH & DF caught a phirana) night spotting of alligators (caiman) seeing the meeting of t hewaters, Lake January etc. It was great and we did this privately as opposed to using the ships tour...and it cost us less that half of what the ship wanted... if you want the name and contact info let me know....

I am still in Florida on vacation but once home will do a full review of our trip and psot it.

 

Ann

 

Thanks Ann,

Yes, would be grateful for your contacts details for the private tours. Were you on big boats or canoes?

 

Linda:)

lobbylin-email@yahoo.co.uk

[BCHappyGal]

Dear Linda

 

I am posting the reply here as I am still on vacation in Florida and having trouble with e-mail at this location....

 

we used a company called Amazon Riders http://www.amazonriders.com and found Rafeal to be excellent at returning e-mails (info@amazonriders.com) as we had 2 and a half days in manaus we booked a city highlights tour on the first day when we only docked at noon.

 

Rafeal was at the dock to meet us with a lovely clean newer a/c van . Rafeal introduced us to our guide Conrad "Connie" and we were off. In Manaus the main thing to see is the Opera House and then the local markets...the museums are very small and simplistic. We did not go to t he zoo. For this half day tour we paid $50. ea.

The next morning we met Rafeal & Connie at 8am for a full day tour including night alligator spotting. It was a great day including a wonderful lunch where we got to try many of the different fish from the Amazon River. Lunch included only bottled water if you wanted pop it was extra. (Bottled water was available to us thruout the tour) We started witht he meeting of the waters where our guide actually had us trail our hands int he water so we could feel t he difference in the temperature between to 2 rivers. We walked the board walk to Lake january to see the lily pads (an easy walk even for senoirs my DAd is 87 and Eleanore who was part of the group is 84). They had a shop area where we bought most/all of our souvenirs beside the floating restaurant where we enjoyed lunch. In the afternoon we fished for phirana and both my DH & DF cought one. We travelled up a creek with our guide spotting monkeys, slouths, caimen and many birds for us to see. We stopped at another floating home where we held a sloth got a cold coconut for the juice/milk and enjoyed watching the otter steal our fish right out from under our feet.

At night we went caimen hunting and Connie caught 2 and brought them aboard our small boat for us to see and touch. We did all this for only &75 pp

 

WE opted out of the 2nd day tour and are still kicking ourselves but Dad was tired. On the 2nd day they went to a native village and were the first cruise ship passengers to ever visit that village. Teh Natvies put on a dance. They enjoyed a fresh fish beach BBQ and also visited a rubber plantation. All Rafeal wanted for t his day was $50 pp

 

Hope this helps

 

Ann

[Lobbylin]

Thanks Ann for taking the time to post.:)

 

Can I ask if you had to go in small canoes or were you on a large boat? I ask as my DH has "dodgy" knees and would struggle sitting in a small canoe.

 

A big thank you, Linda

[Pink Dolphin]

That is actually an aggravation: Uncomfortable boats. One need to make sure you have clean, safe and spacious boat. Preferably the ones the only are semi-covered so that you have the option of 360 degrees, or close.