We will be stopping between 1pm and 6pm today at Parintins which is the second largest city in the Amazon basin with 110,000 population. It is on the island of Tupinambarana in the river. It is famous for an annual 3 day festival in June called Boi Bomba. This folkloric festival is second only to Carnival in Rio in size and colorful floats and costumes of the dancers and musicians. There is an interesting story about how this festival began that Terry Breen, our SA lecture specialist, related to us in the theater this morning.
For lunch today they had one of the big fish that was bought yesterday at the market on display for photos and were grilling the other one. We did not care of it as was very meaty and needed some seasoning or sauce. Kind of a waste of $1000 in our opinion but made for a good "fish story" and interesting photos.
There is only one tour which is a show that everyone went to if they wanted. It was a Boi Bomba Folk show just for us and gave us an idea of what the big celebration will be like in June. Parintins does not have a large dock so we had to tender ashore again. The river was so swift (5mph) that the tenders had a more difficult time. As a result it took over an hour to get 500 of us off the ship. We were on last tender and show did not start until we got there. The first ones had been sitting there for an hour and were a little impatient. Unfortunately, it was floor seating and most of the show was at floor level so we had a hard time seeing it. I have a lot of photos with our friend, Phil's, head in them. Did get some good ones though. The show was non-stop action for over an hour and very colorful as you can see in the photos. It was very loud but we were warned it would be. I think most everyone really enjoyed it.
While we were waiting for the line to go down for the tenders back to the ship, I walked around taking a few photos and checking things out. I talked Rebecca into buying something from the Amazon so she bought a necklace and earrings for $10. We were back on the ship by 4:30. It is now about 6pm and we are leaving on time.
Tonight we are dining with 3 other couples at 7pm. We would like to see tonight's show at 9:30 featuring Fiona Jessica Wilson, a soprano singer of theater to opera. Tonight we turn our clocks back an hour again.
