Santarem

We took a cute little boat on the River yesterday. We looked at the frown of Santarem, which is far bigger than I thought it would be while we learned about the meeting of the waters. At that point in the River, one of the many tributaries of the Amazon joins in, causing the muddy water of one to blend into the less muddy water of the other. It's all relative...some mud is darker than other mud,  but it's still mud.

Santarem on the banks fo the River is one fo the oldest cities in Brazil with a population of 300,000. We have been on the Amazon in Peru and there are NO cities that size there, so this city as a real surprise for me.

The blue church, the Cathedral of Our Lady Conceicao was built in 1761. As you can see there is a thriving modern waterfront at the steps of the Cathedral. 

We did not stop in the city, instead we took a boat to fish for piranha in Maica Lake. We thought we were going to a real lake, instead we went to a flood plane -- in high water it is is a lake, in low water (now) it's more like a canal. Along the way 

Our little boat with 30 pax plied past birds, small villages, farms, and even a sloth hiding in a tree.

Can you find the illusive creature. I actually saw this fellow move...but the motion is so slow it's almost impossible to catch. 

In the end, one for our friends actually caught a piranha -- a five inches of fury and a mouthful of teeth. I had two bites on my line, but but he time I brought the line in, the fish had eaten the bait and gone away. 

The villagers ride in motorized canoes

Kids sit on the steps in front of the home and wave at the people in the boats passing by.

Sometimes there's a derelict home and boat, leaving me to wonder what happened? Life is hard on the edges of civilization.

A tiger egret near the River.

Canoes waiting for their owners to take them to another place on the River.

The weaver bird nests hang from a tree and in the background you can see the rainforest. It is not never ending, as on the horizon there were fires where part of it was being burned for a small patch of farmland.

One of several small farms we saw.

Our time on the River was cut short as the sun was beginning to set. Time to return to the plush comforts of The Prinsendam ... a completely different world from what we were exploring on our little boat.