PARINTINS, BRAZIL

Parintins, Brazil is a typical third world town along the Amazon River whose claim to fame is their Boi Bumba festival (boi is Portuguese for bull) held on the last 3 days of June every year. This is Brazil’s answer to Rio’s Carnival. Legend has it that a pregnant woman got an urge for a bull’s tongue, and her husband killed their master’s prize bull to satisfy her. The owner set out to punish the man, and the woman raced to the local priest who restored the bull to life. Of course a celebration was needed for the happy ending, and so the tradition was established.

Somehow over the years, things changed, and when two wealthy families began a friendly competition, suddenly there were two bulls instead of one. The festival now incorporates a competition between a black and white bull, and the locals choose one of the teams to support. It’s evolved into a huge carnival-like celebration, similar to our Rose Parade with floats, singers, dancers, drums and costumes that draws up to 200,000 visitors every year. It’s a very colorful, energetic, exciting and noisy event. We were treated to a small preview of what the festival is like when a local folkloric company gave a performance on the ship.

There are few paved roads and highways along the Amazon, so transportation is by boat and may take several days depending on distance. For example, Parintins is 350 miles from Manaus and the riverboat trip takes 15 hours downstream, but 27 hours going upstream against the swift and powerful current! The people are used to this, and bring hammocks that they set up side by side wherever they can find room, and stay in them for the trip. There are a few ferryboats that have cabins and suites for those who can pay.

There were a few shops and souvenir vendors, pedicab drivers, an open produce market and a small park, but not much else. The locals used motorbikes to get around town, with only a few cars. We found it to be hot and dirty, and decided to head back when I spotted two dead rats in the gutter …