Here are some pictures of the play.
And here is a blue Coke sign.
The town itself is a real dump. The only decent building is the church.
But even the church is quite stark.
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Amazon River, Parintins
Parinitis is a native city of 100,000 on a large island in the Amazon River. It is famous for its Boi Bumba festival held every year in June. Believe it or not, the festival here is the second largest in Brazil, exceeded only by the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. The Boi Bumba festival revolves around an old Indian fairy tale about a prize Ox who was killed because an important lady wanted to eat his tongue and then was brought back to life. The story is told as a play with elaborate costumes and dance. There is an 86 year old rivalry between two local drama clubs that compete each year to put on the best show. One club uses the colour red, while the other uses blue. Everybody In town supports either the reds or the blues. The business signs are all either red or blue, or both. This is the only place in the world where some of the Coca Cola signs are blue (see picture).
Amazon River, Manaus
Tuesday, April 8, 2014, we docked at Manaus, the largest city (2 million) in the Amazon. There are no roads to Manaus; everything has to come in by ship or by plane. Manaus is on a tributary of the Amazon called the Rio Negro (Black River). As you would guess, the water in the Rio Negro is dark, just like our lakes back home. The water in the Amazon, by contrast, is cafe au lait, otherwise called muddy. Where the Rio Negro meets the Amazon the contrast is striking. This phenomenon is called "the meeting of the waters" (see pictures below).
Strangely, this sharp line of demarcation between the two colours goes for miles without mixing. This phenomenon has something to do with the two different temperatures and flow rates of the two rivers.
Manaus was very prosperous back in the late 1800's because of rubber that the harvested from the rubber trees in the Amazon. There was so much money that one do the rubber barons built a beautiful, large OperaHouse equivalent to any of the best in Europe at that time. It was finished, at great expense, just as synthetic rubber was discovered and the local rubber boom went bust. So, the beautiful opera house was never used until the 1970's when it was restored and put back in service. Here are some pictures.
Walking back to the ship from the Opera House we stopped in at a supermarket and bought 6 beers, a bottle of water and some toothpaste for a grand total of 11.44 reals, which is about $6.00 Canadian. I love this place.
Monday, April 7, 2014
Amazon River, Boca da Valeria
Today, Monday, April 7, we stopped at a very small native village on the shore of the River, called Boca da Valeria. It is just a few huts and dirt trails; no streets or roads at all. The local children dress in traditional outfits and hold local animals for picture taking. The standard fee is $1.00 for a picture. It is just like a carnival.
Tropical birds
A cayman, similar to an alligator.
A touchan.
I have a monkey on my shoulder.
A sloth. The animal, that is. Not us.
Amazon Rciver, Alter do Chao
On Sunday, April 6, we visited Alter do Chao, a small town on the Amazon River, known for its excellent beaches. Locals come here to swim, fish and relax.
Local kids swimming in the Amazon. There are no piranhas at this time of year (rainy season and high water), but, despite that reassurance, we did not try swimming
Six of us rented a small boat (see in the background) from this local fellow, who took us on a water tour of the area.
The River here is as large as a Muskoka lake. We even saw one toy that would be right at home in Muskoka, but only one.
This is a local cottage, not Muskoka-like.
We then transferred to a leaky canoe, and went into the thick watery jungle rain forest.
Finally, back to our ship at sunset.
Salvador and Fortaleza, Brazil
On the way up the coast of Brazil, we visited Salvador and Fortaleza. I have already posted those stories and pictures on Facebook. Here are the links. Hopefully, this will work for you.
https://www.facebook.com/george.torrance.94/posts/1479695702241924
https://www.facebook.com/george.torrance.94/posts/1480394792172015
https://www.facebook.com/george.torrance.94/posts/1479695702241924
https://www.facebook.com/george.torrance.94/posts/1480394792172015
Amazon River Cruise 2014
On Wednesday, March 26, we flew overnight to Rio de Janeiro for our 21 day cruise on Oceania's Regatta from Rio to Miami with 5 days exploring the Amazon River. Thursday and Friday we stayed at the Sheraton Rio. Saturday we boarded the ship.
Of course, we visited the famous Christ the Redeemer statue that towers over Rio.
The Sheraton Rio is a lovely resort hotel in Rio with its own private beach.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
The Last Post, May 19
No, it's not Rememrance Day, although I used to play "The Last Post" on my bugle every November 11 at the Cenotaph in Burlington. Today is our last blog. Tomorrow we go home: boo hoo! and yea yea!
Today we docked at Sorento, Italy. Sorento is a lovely resort town on the east coast of Italy in a section known as the Amalfi Coast. This is a beautiful section of coastline that has been a vacation area for Italians and particularly Romans for thousands of years.
Here is a shot of Sorento with its coastline of high cliffs looking over the beautiful blue water of the Mediterranean, and our ship anchored in the harbour in the distance.
About 600 BC (2,600 years ago) the Romans built a beautiful resort town near here called Pompeii. For 600 years it was a high-end resort and living community for wealthy Romans, politicians, nobles and notables. After 600 years of development it covered 67 acres, the main street was one mile long, and it had every convenience imaginable, including beautiful homes, running water, sewage disposal, daily garbage pick-up, all types of stores, churches, stadiums, theatres, exclusive clubs, restaurants, etc.
Then, one day, in an instant, it all came to an end. Mount Vesuvius, about 10 kilometres away, erupted in a gigantic volcano. Althouth the lava did not flow as far as Pompeii, volcanic matter from the eruption rained down on the city and literally buried it 15-20 feet deep in ashes mixed with water, extinquishing all life. No one had time to escape. People died right where they were.
No one wanted to rebuild in the same location as they considered it jinxed, so Pompeii was forgotten for 1700 years. It was totally covered with earth and forest. Then one day in 1700 people were digging in the area and discovered some ruins. Since, then 70% of the city has been uncovered, cleaned up, and put on display. It is now a huge tourist attraction. When we arrived this morning about 10am our guide could tell by the ticket numbers we were given that there was already 5,500 visitors there ahead of us, just today. Fortunately, with 67 acres of space, it didn't seem that bad.
Here is the entrance to the city. The road is the famous Appian Way. The small entrance was for the citizens; i.e., the nobles, the owners, etc. The large entrance was for the carts, and the slaves, who did all the work. The nobles and owners did not work; they just lived a life of luxury.
In the centre of the city was the main square, where all the action happened. It is large.
Peggy, the retailer, is standing in front of a row of boutiques in the market square.
We think we may have invented the sliding doors for shops. No way! See the groove in the doorstep to the shop. They had sliding doors back then.
A typical home of a wealthy family had a courtyard,
with beautifully painted walls,
a kitchen,
and a number of tiny bedrooms,
again beautifully painted.
The Romans were big on public baths. However, in Pompeii they were not for the public. They were more like a modern country club. The men went to the bath to spend 2 or 3 hours with their friends, talking business and politics while going through a three-stage bath process: hot bath, steam room and cold shower. The women had their own bath house. Here is a hot bath tub from the men's section.
When the volcano erupted, the people of Pompeii were killed right where they stood or laid. Their bodies were buried in the muddy ash which then hardened to rock. When the bodies decomposed, they left a hollow space in the rock that was an exact mold of the body that had been there. So, when the archeologists discovered this in the 1700's they pumped plaster into the hollow spaces, chipped away the rock, and had an exact replica of the victim at the time of death. Here are a few, including a thinker. Actually, they speculate that he was covering his mouth because of the ash.
Well that's it. It's arrivederci as we leave for the Rome airport early tomorrow and arrive home in the afternoon.
We would lke to thank you for your interest, e-mails, and especially those 8 of you who figured out how to post a comment. Our blog had 1740 page views from Canada, 481 from the US, and 300 others, whatever a page view is.
Wevhave enjoyed putting together these blogs each day, and hope that you have enjoyed looking them over.
Today we docked at Sorento, Italy. Sorento is a lovely resort town on the east coast of Italy in a section known as the Amalfi Coast. This is a beautiful section of coastline that has been a vacation area for Italians and particularly Romans for thousands of years.
Here is a shot of Sorento with its coastline of high cliffs looking over the beautiful blue water of the Mediterranean, and our ship anchored in the harbour in the distance.
From our veranda on the ship we could see Mount Vesuvius some miles up the coast to the north.
About 600 BC (2,600 years ago) the Romans built a beautiful resort town near here called Pompeii. For 600 years it was a high-end resort and living community for wealthy Romans, politicians, nobles and notables. After 600 years of development it covered 67 acres, the main street was one mile long, and it had every convenience imaginable, including beautiful homes, running water, sewage disposal, daily garbage pick-up, all types of stores, churches, stadiums, theatres, exclusive clubs, restaurants, etc.
Then, one day, in an instant, it all came to an end. Mount Vesuvius, about 10 kilometres away, erupted in a gigantic volcano. Althouth the lava did not flow as far as Pompeii, volcanic matter from the eruption rained down on the city and literally buried it 15-20 feet deep in ashes mixed with water, extinquishing all life. No one had time to escape. People died right where they were.
No one wanted to rebuild in the same location as they considered it jinxed, so Pompeii was forgotten for 1700 years. It was totally covered with earth and forest. Then one day in 1700 people were digging in the area and discovered some ruins. Since, then 70% of the city has been uncovered, cleaned up, and put on display. It is now a huge tourist attraction. When we arrived this morning about 10am our guide could tell by the ticket numbers we were given that there was already 5,500 visitors there ahead of us, just today. Fortunately, with 67 acres of space, it didn't seem that bad.
Here is the entrance to the city. The road is the famous Appian Way. The small entrance was for the citizens; i.e., the nobles, the owners, etc. The large entrance was for the carts, and the slaves, who did all the work. The nobles and owners did not work; they just lived a life of luxury.
Peggy, the retailer, is standing in front of a row of boutiques in the market square.
We think we may have invented the sliding doors for shops. No way! See the groove in the doorstep to the shop. They had sliding doors back then.
A typical home of a wealthy family had a courtyard,
with beautifully painted walls,
a kitchen,
and a number of tiny bedrooms,
again beautifully painted.
The Romans were big on public baths. However, in Pompeii they were not for the public. They were more like a modern country club. The men went to the bath to spend 2 or 3 hours with their friends, talking business and politics while going through a three-stage bath process: hot bath, steam room and cold shower. The women had their own bath house. Here is a hot bath tub from the men's section.
When the volcano erupted, the people of Pompeii were killed right where they stood or laid. Their bodies were buried in the muddy ash which then hardened to rock. When the bodies decomposed, they left a hollow space in the rock that was an exact mold of the body that had been there. So, when the archeologists discovered this in the 1700's they pumped plaster into the hollow spaces, chipped away the rock, and had an exact replica of the victim at the time of death. Here are a few, including a thinker. Actually, they speculate that he was covering his mouth because of the ash.
On a happier note, we think we invented Lego. Then what is this?
We would lke to thank you for your interest, e-mails, and especially those 8 of you who figured out how to post a comment. Our blog had 1740 page views from Canada, 481 from the US, and 300 others, whatever a page view is.
Wevhave enjoyed putting together these blogs each day, and hope that you have enjoyed looking them over.
P&G
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