Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Parintins – April 3rd 2011 - Day 31

The city of Parintins is located east of Manaus, on the island of Tupinambarana, in the Amazon River.  It has a population of about 100,000. Main harvest products are avocado cocoa, banana, coffee, cashew, tapioca, watermelon, pineapple, sweet potato, coconut, corn and beans.

Each June the city hosts the famous Boi-Bumba folklore festival.  Tens of thousands of visitors pour into the town for the party, with costumes and floats comparable to those seen in Rio Carnival.

We arrived on a Sunday and so most of the shops were shut.  We took a ride around the town on a rickshaw

and saw the 35,000 person stadium built specifically for the Boi-Bumba festival.  We then watched the local boats loading and unloading,

stumbled upon a street party where we sat and had a beer, listened to the local music until it was time to get back on the boat.