Edition: U.S. / Global

FRUGAL TRAVELER; An Amazon Cruise Turns Into a Party

Published: September 19, 1999
(Page 3 of 3)

I WALKED the waterfront, eating freshly fried tambaqui, a river fish, at stalls in the market, then wandering through squares lined with 18th-century storefronts and churches -- Santarem was built mainly in the last century, during the rubber boom. The townspeople were genuinely friendly, and, with their encouragement, my Portuguese got better (almost no one there spoke English). It was safe enough that I felt comfortable walking on the main streets downtown after dark, until around 9 P.M.

The local food was soul-satisfying. I had one of the best meals of the trip, Caribbean-style callaloo and the Bahian stew called vatapa, in a restaurant set up under mango trees in the front yard of a woman named Senhora Vinoca.

After three days, I forced myself to hop a bus that went nine miles down the road to Alter do Chao, a riverside village that the local tourist board has dubbed, enticingly, the Caribbean of the Amazon. I was skeptical until I walked to the tiny dock in the middle of town and saw, far in the distance, an island of white sand beach in the middle of the Tapajos River. During low-water season, you can walk to the beach from town, but the water was high, and so a small group of boys took turns rowing people there for about 50 cents a trip.

I checked into a little pension, the nicest and newest in town, called the Tupaiulandia. My room had air-conditioning, three beds, a refrigerator, a television and hooks for my hammock -- and cost less than $25, including breakfast.

In the mornings, I lingered over juicy papayas, bread and coffee at outside tables with Cesar and Eloisa, Tupaiulandia's genial owners. Then, I'd pack a beach bag and hire a rowboat out to the sandy strand. The water felt cool, and the swimming was excellent. There was a hut on the beach run by a woman who served plates of stewed fish and rice for about $3.

From inception, I had envisioned my Amazon trip as a mission, to get downriver, to keep moving no matter what. Languid and happy in Alter do Chao, I found myself questioning the game plan. Why leave now: Would the Amazon get any better than this?

But Santarem is a much smaller port than Manaus, and has fewer big passenger boats. It might take a day or two just to find a space, and I might have to settle for a tiny, dingy craft for the last leg of my trip -- a thought that didn't make me eager to move on.

What to do? I had some important logistical decisions to make. I remembered the Amazon poem, ''Everything important happens in a hammock.'' I strung mine up between two trees, jumped in, and got to work.

The bottom line

I spent seven days winding down the Amazon from Manaus to Santarem and Alter do Chao. Hotels, local transportation (excluding my riverboat ticket) and food came to a mere $29.37 a day, an amount that puts the Amazon in the league of India or Thailand as a frugal destination.

Getting Around

The biggest expense was $88, at 1.7 real to the dollar, for my first-class, private air-conditioned cabin on the Nadson Jeane IV, one of several well-maintained boats run on the Manaus-Santarem route by Carvalho da Rocha, 170 Rua Siqueira Campos, Obidos, (55-91) 547-1489, fax (55-91) 547-1412. First-class hammock space costs around $20.

I spent about $25 on taxis in Santarem and Alter do Chao (the Amazon Park Hotel in Santarem is a long walk from downtown). Local buses run between Santarem and Alter do Chao about six times a day and cost $1; a schedule is posted at the station.

Where to Stay

In Santarem, the Amazon Park Hotel, 4120 Avenida Mendonca Furtado, (55-91) 523-2800, fax (55-91) 522-2631), is a luxury hotel by Brazilian standards, straight out of the modernist 70's. My enormous room had a balcony with a view of well-tended gardens and mango trees bustling with iguanas; the free breakfast buffet included a spread of ripe tropical fruit and fresh-baked bread. All this cost $39 a night, including tax.

Pousada Tupaiulandia, 300 Rua Pedro Teixeira, (55-91) 527-1157, is the best bet in tiny Alter do Chao, a riverside town whose main attraction is a long white-sand beach. My family-sized room had three beds, air-conditioning, a refrigerator and TV, and a porch with hooks for a hammock. The price of $23.50 a night included a Continental breakfast buffet in a lovely outdoor covered area.

A hammock is the essential Amazonian accessory. I bought my double-wide model from a street merchant in Manaus for around $23. But I was in a hurry, and when I got to Belem, I saw the same model for $17.

Where to Eat

The price of passage on the Nadson Jeane IV includes two meals a day of rice, beans and soup -- edible, but nothing to write home about.

I ate very well in Santarem, which has a handful of good restaurants serving regional food. Casa da Vinoca, 367 Travessa Turiano Maria (no phone), is the front yard of Senhora Vinoca, who cooks rich, peppery callaloos, fish soups and Bahian-style vatapa (a pasty West African-inflected stew of dried shrimp, onions and palm oil) and serves them cafeteria style from 4 P.M. until 9 P.M. My meal cost about $5.

Just off Santarem's waterfront promenade, O Mascote, 10 Praca do Pescador, (55-91) 523-2844, is a more formal place serving a huge all-you-can eat buffet on Saturday and Sunday for $7. The offerings include a delicious bean stew, feijoada.

What to See

The Festival of Parintins takes place every year in the last week of June. For exact dates, festival history and hotel information check the festival's Web site, www.parintins .com. CD's from both bull teams, Garantido (the 1999 winner) and Caprichoso, are for sale on the site.

The easy, effervescent pop music (called Toada de Boi or Bull Song) melds catchy samba-style melodies to a simpler, steady rhythm that recalls the lambada. The CD's (I bought both, about $12 each) have the earmarks of a trend about to happen. DAISANN McLANE

Photos: The town square in Alter do Chao. The author's room at the Pousada Tupaiulandia. (Photographs by Daisann McLane)(pg. 27); The view from the Nadson Jeane IV as it pulls into Juruti, a town on the Amazon. Hammocks, an essential accessory for Amazon travel, line the Nadson Jeane's first-class deck. The beach in Alter do Chao, a village on the Tapajos River, not far from Santarem. (Photographs by Daisann McLane)(pg. 6) Map of Brazil showing the location of the Amazon River. (pg. 27)