Parintins, Brazil
Parintins is a town in the far east of the Amazonas state, Brazil. It is located in the municipality of the same name, which is part of a microregion also named Parintins. The city is located on Tupinambarana island in the Amazon River.
Parintins is a small town of about 80,000 people on the Amazon River in Brazil, about 350 miles from Manaus. The village is 200 years old and has a rich Indian heritage.
Parintins is another tender port
It was a wet morning as we took the ship’s tender to town. There is a giant log jam at the peir with flooded debris from wet season Amazon
Local riverboats stop at Partintins, which has shopping opportunities for locals (hardware, agricultural and veterinary supplies, meat and fish, clothing, hammocks, and pharmacy). There are also a couple of souvenir type stores and at the pier there are kiosks with local handicrafts.
The town is renowned for its annual Boi Bumba Festival, which is held in June and draws about 200,000 visitors (most sleeping on the boats that they arrived on). The Boi Bumba Festival is drawn from local folklore and reenacts the kidnapping, death, and resurrection of an ox (a metaphor for their agricultural cycles). It has turned into a competition between two Boi (bull) teams, the red one with a white bull and the blue one with a black bull. The bulls are seen all over town – even phone booths depict the bulls.
The Boi Bumba is really a friendly competition that started between two Parintins' families prior to 1920. The legend involves a young woman, her husband, a bull, and a happy ending. The Boi Bumba Festival involves a lot of music, dancing, costumes, and huge animal floats.
The festival is said to be second only to Carnival in Rio and is heavily attended by locals and visitors alike.
A 35,000 stadium was built for the Boi Bumba parades; the teams are judged on their music, dancing, performances, and costumes. The ship offered a shore excursion at a Boi Bumba Show, which is performed in the convention center near the pier. I did not attend this show, but was told that it had elaborate staging and costumes and the dancing was more tribal than Samba.
Instead I decided to explore the town on my own
An interesting fact : Parintins has Coca-Cola signs in blue as well as tradional red, to mark the colour and teams of Boi Bumba
There were kiosks selling handicrafts both in town where we disembarked the river boat and at the tender pier. There were a lot of wood carvings, blow pipes, and preserved piranha fish for sale.
A few days ago the ship held a Silent Auction to benefit a local school in Parintins. Throughout the cruise various groups have been making items that were donated to the auction, notably the Sit, Knit & Needlework group and the watercolor class. Also for auction were a sweat shirt and ball caps from the personnel at Palmer Station, the display and navigation charts used during the Antarctic portion of our cruise, a bridge tour for two, a cocktail with your two favorite members of the exploration staff, "A Little Something" with the captain ("A Little Something" is held every day at 5:00 p.m. and features a glass of wine and an appetizer), a cooking lesson with Hotel Manager Firmin, and a private dance lesson, Wedding Vow renewals. Photographs and DVDs of the trip.
During our call to Parintins under the direction of the Grand Voyage Hostess Annette Gonzalez had Father Benito, teachers and the children from Casa de Acholhida on-board.
Annette had arranged fund-raising activities during the Grand South America Voyage with guests and crew. We were successful in raising $6,500, which was then donated to the school for supplies and scholarships for students.
The teachers and children were treated to a specialty lunch hosted by the Culinary, Beverage and Dining Room teams. The children left with full bellies, great memories and lots of gifts from guests and crew. Father Benito presented Captain Tim Roberts with two paintings.
