The first port of our Amazon journey was Alter do Chao, close to the much larger city of Santarem, which we will visit in a few days.  

Our plan today is to visit the Tapajós National Forest, which is relatively close but takes over 90 minutes to get there by bus due to poor road conditions.  

TENDERING AND ARRIVAL

We booked a tour with Gil Serique, who has a loyal following of previous guests.  Gil has a website, but you pay your deposit using PayPal and the balance in USD on the day of the tour.  The best way to contact Gil is by using WhatsApp at +55 93 91856051  

The ship was scheduled to arrive at 11 am, with the distribution of tender tickets starting at 10:30.  Not quite sure how long the lines were going to be, we headed down to the Billboard Onboard to get in line at 10 am.  As it turned out, the ship was early, tickets were already being handed out, and the first tender was called in a few minutes.  

NOTE:  While there isn’t any tender priority for 4/5 stars, there isn’t usually much of a line since these ports are not especially popular with many independent tours trying to get ashore on the first tender.

After a 15-minute tender ride, we arrived at the shoreside floating tender platform.  The platform wasn’t connected to the beach, so we had to walk down a makeshift board directly onto the soft sand.  

Alter do Chao is a popular beach resort for Brazilians but not so much for foreign tourists.  Dollars are accepted at most tourist shops, but you get the best exchange rate using a credit card.  As always, if you plan to make a large purchase in cash, it will be worth your while to get local currency.  

GIL SERIQUE TOUR

After passing a few local vendors on the sand, we climbed stairs to a viewing platform with some shops and a pedestrian bridge over the sand.  Gil Serique was here waiting for us and directed us to follow the path to the street where we would find his buses.  Gil had associates along the way directing us so we didn’t get lost.  

Our 30-passenger bus was the largest of the three buses on this tour, and we headed off to the Tapajós National Forest.  HERE is the official Brazilian Website – use Google Chrome for automatic translation.  We left Alter do Chao at 10:30 am.  

TAPAIOS NATIONAL FOREST

About halfway to the National Forest, we drove through Belterra (pop 18,000), founded in 1995 by the Brazilian Government as a rubber plantation.  

Arriving at Tapajós National Forest around 12:30, we stopped at the main gate to pick up a local escort before driving on narrow park roads for another 30 minutes until we reached a large clearing.  The Tapajós river, a major tributary of the Amazon, is visible in the distance.  Gil explains the area’s history before we start on a short twenty-minute walk to see rubber trees up close.  

As we left, four large HAL buses arrived on a similar tour.  

NOTE: There was a restroom in the clearing, but there was only a single stall, and when we visited, there wasn’t any flushing water.

We stopped about halfway back to the entrance, where we stopped again for a 90-minute walk through another part of the rainforest.  We stopped frequently for detailed explanations of local flora and fauna.  It was of particular interest to see the source of Brazil Nuts.  

BACK TO ALTER DO CHAO

Back on the bus we headed back toward Alter do Chao, using a different route that took 1 hour and 15 minutes, arriving back at Alter de Choa at 5 pm giving us a little buffer prior to the last tender at 5:30 pm.  

We didn’t have a chance to explore the town, which we will do on our next visit.  One of the compromises during any visit is to evaluate the value of seeing something outside the local town or visiting the town itself.  Sometimes you have time for both, other times you don’t.  

While we enjoyed our time in the rainforest, the 4 hours of travel over rough terrain should be considered before you plan this excursion.  

CRIS RITCHIE

We enjoyed Chris Ritchie’s second show, where he performed various hits, including Oh, What a Night, Mack the Knife, and Ring of Fire, and closed with a powerful rendition of Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline.