Parintins (MAR 12)

We awoke to overcast skies and rain. 

By 8:00 AM, VEENDAM was anchored off Parintins.  From shore, we could hear church bells and what sounded like hymns being played over a public address system.  It must be Sunday morning.

Given (1) the weather, (2) that we had been here before (click here to read 2014 blog post part 1 and click here to read part 2) and (3) were not on a tour, we felt no need to galvanize into action to get ashore.  Pam went to the health club.  We had a late, leisurely breakfast. 

From the deck we spotted several familiar landmarks, including the cathedral.  We toured it in 2014, so we agreed that we would give it a miss this time.

The raining having stopped, we boarded a tender mid-morning.  Once ashore, we first went to a church that had been closed during our last visit.  The inside was nothing magical, but of momentary interest. 

We continued our walk.  It being Sunday morning, not many stores were open. 

“It has got to be somewhere round here.”

The earlier rain along with a rising temperature and no breeze made the air uncomfortably hot and humid.  

We perambulated up and down a few streets reminiscing about things we remembered from our last visit, including blue & white Coca-Cola cans. 

If you live in Parintins, or come to Parintins for the annual festival, you support either the Red or Blue team as symbolized by the bulls. 

generic bull (phone booth), probably to keep it from being vandalized

At a festival each year in June that sees the city’s population swell by 600%, the two teams face off with competing parades in a stadium used only for that event. 

souvenir shop for the Blue Team (Vitrine Azul)

stadium where annual competition is held

Coca-Cola is a major sponsor of the event. To remain non-partisan, during the period surrounding the event, Coke is available in both red & white and blue & white cans.  In 2014, our guide told us that Parintins was the only place in the world where blue & white Coke cans could be found.

We looked for a blue & white can to take home as a souvenir, but the event having been in June, they were long gone.  In the picture below, note the blue & white Coca-Cola umbrella. 

We returned to the waterfront, then walked along it back to the reception center.

newly arrived ferry being offloaded

The car in the picture below pulled up in front of a waterfront bar/pool hall.  The driver popped open the trunk.  It was full of audio speakers that he promptly put to work at what seemed like 10,000 decibels. Since the bar was already playing loud music, the purpose of the second serenade was unclear, but no one seemed to mind the clash of sounds.

Eventually we boarded a tender back to VEENDAM.

As the ship was hauling its anchor, a speedboat zipped past, its occupants intent on taking selfies with VEENDAM in the background. There was something thong about it.

We departed Parintins under cloudy skies.  By 8:00 PM, we were cruising through thunderstorms, but not the spectacular ones seen in National Geographic photographs.  The low cloud cover diffused the lightning.  Pam went out on our veranda to get some air at 2 AM, our section(?) of the ship experiencing an air conditioning system failure.  This morning she said the lightning was much more dramatic.  (Thankfully, the air conditioning system came on again about 2:30 AM.)