Continuing along the Amazon west from Macapa, we stopped in Santarem. It is just 2-1/2 degrees south of the Equator and is the Amazon’s 3rd largest city, about the same size as Belgium. Its economy is based on agriculture, cattle, gold mining, rubber tapping, coffee and soy plantations and piranha fishing. Wait until you see the dried & lacquered piranha we bought as a souvenir!
Santarem is famous for an amazing and unique natural phenomenom: “the marriage of the waters”. This is where the muddy Amazon and the clear, blue Tapajos rivers run alongside one another for hundreds of miles without mixing. The reason for this incredible separation is the difference in the depth, sediment and current of the two rivers.
We said au revoir to Santarem as we continued sailing along the Amazon to our next port.
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