Day 58 - 12/03/23 - Parintins, Brazil

December 06, 2023

Parintins is an interesting little town that we also visited in 2019. Pretty much the only reason to stop here is to enjoy the Boi Bumba show at the Convention Center right at the end of the cruise tender dock. Holland America buys out the entire performance which this year cost $100 per person. Since that was the only real thing we had planned for that day, we didn't make an effort to get off on the first tender, but enjoyed a leisurely breakfast. We then gathered our things and walked right on to a tender and were whisked to shore.

I already owned a blue Boi Bumba shirt so Angela went in search of a red one (the opposing teams). She found one for $10 and donned it. We then went walking towards the Bumba Drome where they hold the festival. We were joined by a couple other couples, but they decided to not pursuer walking there. We headed off on our own and about a half an hour later we reached the stadium and met Richard Watkins, one of the lecturers, and he recommended that we visit the nearby warehouse where the prior ceremony's floats are stored. Many of these are two or more stories tall and very colorful. There were floats of snakes, tigers, castles, people, etc. We then walked back to the Drome and looked at the street art adjoining it, before walking back to the Convention Center for the performance. Along the way we passed by the large Cathedral and found that walking along the divider between the opposing traffic lanes was an easier walk. During our walk, local males generally would give me the thumbs up for wearing a blue shirt, while the ladies would identify with Angela's red shirt.

At the Convention Center, we joined the entry line which stretch down to the tender dock. The line went smooth and we were in our seats by 11:45am for the 12 noon one hour long performance. The performance involves some 40 people dressed in all sorts of colorful costumes and / or carrying floats on their back. A band was playing and singers sang non-stop throughout the performance. It was very loud and they served capieners and / or water. At the end of the performance we could get pictures with any of them.

With a 1:30pm last tender, we used the second to last tender which was a shore side two story tender. Unfortunately some people with mobility issues, were loaded on deck 1 on shoreside, but at the ship, deck 2 was used for unloading. And there was a very steep set of stairs. And during the unloading process, a gigantic rainstorm occurred with large streams of water coming off of the roof.

Back on board we took quick showers to cool down, and spent a nice and leisurely afternoon on board. The interdenominational church service was at 6 and the evening entertainment was a very unique "glamping" experience in the central LIDO pool area. There were camp chairs set up around the LIDO pool surrounding electric campfires. There were hot dogs, corn on the cob and other camping type food served. And the ocean bar band played much of the evening. In the LIDO pool there was an inflatable canoe which was occupied by shifts of singers and dancers. Angela borrowed a guitar and played around our campfire and we attracted a small group there including a number of staff curious about the guitar. At the end of the evening, the shops held a raffle, but we didn't win anything. This was another different type of activity not held on the regular cruises.