Amazing Amazon

Travel Quote: "Don't listen to what they say. Go see."

After Rio, we hit a few ports before entering the Amazon region - Ilheus, Recife, Fortaleza and Belem. This was also Carnival week so each of these towns/cities were totally into a festive mood, with party preparations in full swing. Below are highlights of these ports.

Kids in costume.....

Why did the chicken cross the road? He didn't. He straddled it!

Church in Ilheus

Great little market in Ilheus

Partygoers out early!

Olinda, outside of Recife

The old church in Olinda

And then, it was time for "The Amazon Experience". We spent about a week sailing up the river, crossing the Equator, and visiting Santarem, Boca da Valeria, and overnight in Manaus, Parintins (where we attended the world famous Boi Bumba show) and Alter do Chao, before exiting again and heading north of the Equator to Devils Island in French Guiana.

Highlights for me had to be hanging out with sloths, swimming with pink dolphins (yes, they're really pink!!), taking small boat rides up estuaries along the Amazon, and hiking around in the rain forest. The Amazon was not exactly what I had envisioned - but I liked what I saw. It's a HUGE river. Huge.

Crossing the equator

This is kind of what I imagined the Amazon to be.

I didn't expect a city in the Amazon.......

The houses along the river are all on stilts, because the river rises quite substantially throughout the seasons

My first glimpse of a pink dolphin

Sloth!! Look at that face..... (heart melting)

The "meeting of the waters"...where two rivers meet in the Amazon, the chemical makeup of each river's waters is so different that they don't really blend. Very cool to see.

Yay! I got to hold a sloth! They are soooo soft.

The opera house in Manaus is world famous. It's a gorgeous place.

Again, who would expect there to be an opera house on the Amazon?

We were lucky to be able to see the orchestra having a practice session while we visited the opera house. They sounded marvelous.

Views from Opera House balcony

We visited this interesting history museum in Manaus. It showed the various indigenous peoples that settled in the area and how they lived. Fascinating.