Santarem, Brazil

Saturday, November 5th
Amazing Amazon
Day 12
M/S Regatta
Santarem, Brazil
The Amazon River
Arriving: 10:00 AM
Departing: 6:00 PM
50% Chance of Showers - 88 Degrees

Santarem is a working port city of 250,000 at the junction of the Rio Tapajos and the Amazon River, half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and Manaus. It was founded in 1661 as a fort to prevent foreign interests from penetrating further up the Amazon. Historically a trading center, Santarem is a transit point for the mining and agricultural production of the region. Regatta is docked at a pier just down from the grain terminal.

We walked off the ship, across the pier, and onto a riverboat for a Maica Lake Cruise.

Where the Tapajós and Amazon rivers come together, there is a "meeting of the waters." The rivers are different temperatures and flow at different speeds. Like oil and vinegar poured into a jar, the two rivers stay separated and distinct from one another within the same channel for several miles until they get shaken up into vinaigrette. The murky muddy brown Amazon flows side-by-side with the clear blue Tapajós. This zone makes for prime fishing. Each river is host to different species of fish, any one of which could take the bait from a line dropped at the "meeting of the waters."

When the 50% chance of rain turned into a 100% chance of a torrential downpour driving from left to right across our path, the crew lowered rolled-up tarps hung from the port side of the open-sided boat.

Maica Lake, which is really a river, is home to all sorts of native life. Kingfishers, Egrets, and Snake Birds fill the skies and perch along the shore, rain forest meets pasture land where farm animals graze, Indio homes on stilts cling to bluffs just out of reach of the water, pink river dolphins break the surface then disappear leaving only a ripple in their wake, and the river is alive with fish, including killer piranha.

After floating up and down the river looking for wildlife, we tied up to a muddy bank below a foul farmyard to fish for piranha with the crudest of implements: fishing line, wound around a piece of wood, a hook at the end baited with a hunk of water buffalo. I dropped a line in the water and bobbed it up and down in this cute farce of a fishing trip, not expecting a bite, but...I CAUGHT A PIRANHA!!!