Alter de Chao

Alter de Chao is a small city twenty miles from Santarém. It’s not really on the Amazon, but on the Rio Tapajós, a tributary that dumps into the Amazon.

Black Witch
Black Witch

We tendered into a small wooden dock on the beach. Then a long walk in the sand past a number of vendors selling souvenirs. You can get a piranha for 3-5 dollars. Notice that the have several of the many species on the Amazon. We were told 13 species, only four are dangerous to humans.

Mounted Piranhas
Mounted Piranhas

We walked around town looking at birds and stopped at a native handicrafts store.

White-throated Kingbird
White-throated Kingbird

Chestnut-headed Chachalaca
Chestnut-headed Chachalaca

We think that this odd behavior of bending its head over backwards is a mating dance. After doing this for 20-30 seconds, a second bird flew over.

Palm Tanager
Palm Tanager

Spotted Tody-Flycatcher
Spotted Tody-Flycatcher

Great Kiskadee
Great Kiskadee

Blue-gray Tanager
Blue-gray Tanager

Thatched roofs are used here yet.

Thatched roof on a restaurant
Thatched roof on a restaurant

There is a native handicrafts store here that has good quality items and reasonable prices.

Then came back to the ship for a quick lunch and went back out to swim. The Rio Tapajós is not as muddy, and doesn’t have the piranha species that are dangerous to humans in it (they like the muddy waters). At the end of the dry season, it’s easy to wade across the river to a big sandbar called Ilha do Amor that makes lake Verde.

Wading across
Wading across