Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
DIRECTORY
Hospital
Hospital Municipal de Santarém, Av Presidente
Vargas 1539, Santa Clara
T
93 3523 2155.
Internet
Cyber Amazon Star, Travessa dos Mártires 12
(Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; R$4/hr;
T
93 3522 3648).
Money and exchange
All major banks are along Av Rui
5
Barbosa; Bradesco is at #756, Banco do Brasil at #794 and
HSBC at #493.
Post o
ce
Rua Siqueira Campos 81 (Mon-Fri 8am-5pm,
Sat 8am-noon).
Around Santarém
he area
AROUND SANTARÉM
is richly rewarding, with a variety of day-trips possible out
to
Alter do Chão
and
Belterra
, as well as boat journeys further afield. Due north, on the
opposite bank of the Amazon, is the town of
Alenquer
, the jumping-off point for the
lovely waterfall of
Vale do Paraíso
and the myserious rock formations at
Cidade dos Deuses
.
Travelling south along the Tapajós River will take you to
Fordlândia
, set up in the late
1920s by Henry Ford to help create an Amazonian rubber plantation, while east from
Santarém is
Monte Alegre
, the jumping-off point for the Monte Alegre rock paintings
that date back over 13,000 years.To head into less disturbed forest and consequently
BOI BUMBÁ IN PARINTINS
Parintins, an otherwise unremarkable, small river-town with a population of around 100,000
lying roughly halfway between Santarém and Manaus, has become the unlikely centre of one
of the largest mass events in Brazil - the
Boi Bumbá
celebrations, which take place in the last
weekend of June every year. The of
cial name is the Festival Folclórico de Parintins, but it is
often called Boi Bumbá after the name for a funny and dramatized dance concerning the
death and rebirth of an ox traditionally performed at the festival. The festival's roots go back
at least a hundred years, when the Cid brothers from Maranhão arrived in the area bringing
with them the
Bumba-meu-boi
musical influence from the culture-rich ex-slave plantations.
Tens of thousands of visitors arrive annually at the Bumbódromo stadium, built to look like
a massive stylized bull, which hosts a wild, energetic
parade
by something resembling an
Amazonian version of Rio samba schools - and the resemblance is not coincidental, the
organizers having consciously modelled themselves on Rio's Carnaval. The event revolves
around two schools,
Caprichoso
and
Garantidom
, which compete, parading through the
Bumbódromo, where supporters of one school watch the opposing parade in complete silence.
You thus have the strange spectacle of 20,000 people going wild while the other half of the
stadium is as quiet as a funeral, with roles reversed a few hours later. Boi Bumbá has its high
point with the enactment of the death of a
bull
, part of the legend of the slave Ma Catirina
who, during her pregnancy, developed a craving for ox tongue. To satisfy her craving, her
husband, Pa Francisco, slaughtered his master's bull, but the master found out and decided to
arrest Pa Francisco. Legend, however, says a priest and a witch doctor managed to resuscitate
the animal, thus saving Pa Francisco; with the bull alive once more, the party begins again at
fever pitch, with a frenetic rhythm that pounds away well into the hot and smoke-filled night.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
The parade is undeniably spectacular, and the music infectious. But if you're going to
participate, remember joining in with the Caprichoso group means you mustn't wear red
clothing; if you're dancing with the Garantido school, you need to avoid blue clothes. During
the festival, forget about
accommodation
in any of the town's few hotels: they are booked
up months in advance. Your best chance is simply to stay on a
boat
; in all the towns and
cities of the region - notably Manaus and Santarém - you will find boats and travel agencies
offering all-inclusive packages for the event, with accommodation in hammocks on the boats.
Most of the riverboat companies offer three- or four-day
packages
, costing between R$200
and R$700. The trips (26hr from Manaus, 20hr from Santarém) are often booked well in
advance, and are advertised from March onwards on banners tied to the boats. There is
a lot of petty thieving and pickpocketing, so take extra care of anything you bring with you.
