March 18: Parintins, Brazil - Part 1

Parintins is a city in the far east of the Amazonas state, Brazil. It is located in the municipality of the same name, which is part of a microregion also named Parintins. The population for the entire municipality was 109,150 (2005). The city is located on Tupinambarana Island in the Amazon River. Parintins is known for a popular folklore festival held there each June called Boi-Bumbá.

[source: Wikipedia]

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MAASDAM anchored in the fast-moving Amazon River.  We took a tender ashore for our first tour.  Along the pier were several river ferries loading cargo prior to departure for their respective destinations.  

A group of Sea Scouts were providing assistance to anyone requiring it. 

Our tour bus was a school bus.  Flat Stanley thought this was neat.

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TOUR #1:  Parintins Highlights

Description

First-time visitors to Parintins will delight in exploring the commercial, residential and highlights of this colorful riverside city. Aboard an air-conditioned mini-coach, you will leave the pier and proceed toward the Caprichoso Pavilion for an outside view. Your drive will then pass through residential area and head into the town center. En route, your guide will point out the many residences with façades painted in blue or red, according to the owner’s preference for each of the two "Bulls"—Caprichoso or Garantido. Stop at the Bumbodromo, the city’s premier arena. It’s designed in the shape of a bull’s head and is home to the annual and world-famous Boi-Bumba Festival. Only 35,000 people can attend, so tickets are the community’s most cherished commodity. Re-board your mini-coach and, after traversing the central commercial area, pause at the new cathedral to see its impressive tower. Drive to the Garantido Pavilion and proceed on foot through this flourishing assembly point for the famous giant gears, puppets and beautiful costumes used during the annual festival. Browse at leisure among these fascinating arts—your guide will answer your questions.

[source:  MAASDAM cruise website]

Experience

The first stop was not promising.  It was the original cathedral on the island.  The guide commented that it was not worth even getting out to see. I was not even inclined to take a picture of it.

Our next stop was much more interesting.  It was a series of three dimensional murals depicting the history of the island.  The following pictures are examples of what was a fairly large number of murals.  

A quick picture of us and it was back on the bus.

Our next stop was the arena where the Boi-Bumba festival competition takes place drawing huge crowds including people from as far away and Manaus and even Belem.  It is all about Red and Blue teams.  Apparently everyone in Parintins and beyond supports either one or the other.

This is an intense rivalry, underwritten in part by Coca Cola which gives each team about $2,000,000 every year to help fund the competition.  Coca Cola is careful to say neutral; so much so that Parintins is probably the only place on earth where one sees blue & white as well as red & white Coke cans.

The arena where the competition takes place holds 35,000 people.  It is literally divided down the middle.

There are two 90 minutes parades each night for three nights.  When the red team is parading blue team supporters must remain silent or the judges will penalize the blue team.  The reverse is true when the blue team is parading.  Enthusiasm apparently knows few bounds when one’s team is parading.  People not only cheer but dance and jump up and down.  After the first year, arena officials were so concerned that they built shock absorbers into bleacher’s supports to dampen the impact the commotion was having on the structural integrity of the arena.

Each team has a rehearsal area connected to a warehouse where costumes are made a stored.  From the arena we went to see the red (Garantido) team’s facility.

We had observed that the arena performance area while spacious was nothing compared to the Sambadome venue we saw in Rio.  And whereas the Sambadome was a straight pass-through from one end to the other, in the Parintins arena the parade needed to move in a 360 degree circle, exiting next to where it entered.  The large Rio Carnaval floats would never make such a tight turn.  We were therefore curious about what made the Parintins parades impressive.

While the two dragons in the rehearsal area were uninspiring, the costumes in the warehouse were amazing.  Bear in mind that each parade each year must be composed of new costumes in keeping with that year’s theme.

Some of the costumes are large…very, very large.

For those of us unprepared to not just wear but dance in a 75-100 pound costume, less spectacular but nonetheless impression options were available.

We also visited the Blue (Caprichoso) team’s facility, but they have a reputation for being much more secretive, so all we saw was their rehearsal area.

Our last stop on the tour was the new(er) cathedral.  It might best be described as functional.

We returned to the pier.  The departure time of the morning’s tour having been early, we opted to board a tender and return to MAASDAM for a while prior to our afternoon event.