March 8 found us in Santarem, an important river town about halfway between Belem and Manaus. It is at the confluence of the Amazon and Tapajos rivers, the latter named after the indigenous tribe that occupied this territory before the Europeans arrived Francisco Orellana raided one of their corn plantations during his trip down the river in Founded by Portuguese Jesuits in , Santarem now has a population of around , After the US Civil War a group of Confederates moved to Santarem; although some descendants still live here, most of the original expats eventually moved back to the United States.
So this time we joined an excursion into the rainforest on the Tapajos River. Our guide was Gil Serique, a first class guide and raconteur who has lived his entire life in this area.
Touring with Gil was a real treat. We met Gil and his riverboat at the dock and sailed out toward the main part of Santarem. Next to the port is a giant Cargill soybean processing and storage plant. The struts in the picture above are holding up a conveyor system for transporting the product to ships and barges in the river.
The plant holds some , tons of soybeans. According to environmentalists this accessible plant has encouraged a great deal of clearing of rainforest in this region to plant soybeans. As we sailed down the Santarem waterfront we came to a sort of pavilion on stilts over the water. The dolphins start out gray but get pinker as they grow older because their skin becomes thinner; they can sometimes turn a very bright pink when excited, blushing like humans. We decided that pink dolphins were like pink elephants โ much more likely to be seen when you are inebriated.
But we were proven wrong at this site, where pieces of fish were dangled on ropes to induce the dolphins to jump into full sight. They look friendly, with big smiles, but actually are carnivorous ie. We continued sailing down the riverfront before heading out into the rain forest. We passed a large fish sculpture, a building with large wall art of local birds and some dockside buildings and riverboats. We left Santarem and sailed up the Tapajos River, one of the largest tributaries of the Amazon.
