Macapá, Amapá, Brazil
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Macapa, our first city officially on the Amazon and smack dab on the Equator....not too hot though as we wait for a bus into town in a very long queue. Then the line gets longer and some drops of either rain or sweat start their way down our faces, arms, and backs. Hurrah, the bus comes and loads of people squeeze on for the 25 minute ride from the dock in Santana. The beach and coast area are very nice, high water covers the trunks of many small trees..it's said that sometimes you can see fish in the branches. We didn’t hear the "pororoca" which is a loud noise generated when the current of the Amazon meets up with the incoming Atlantic, but there sure was a lot of water. The bus dropped us off at a lovely Mercado in front of the beach, and from there we had to cab it to the Monumento Marco Zero, 20 R each way. The monument is very modern, slick and even somewhat stark, but the obligatory pix of straddling both the northern and southern hemisphere were taken, with a brief movie of Michael jumping the spheres. There is a large soccer stadium which runs north to south, with goals being kicked on one side and scored on the other. From here we went to the
Fortaleza de Sao Jose, 18th century fort built to defend the Amazon from French invasions, beautifully restored but a sad history of its original construction, two decades of slave labor. After a long bus wait, with the equatorial sun shining on us, we decided to take another cab back to the boat. Our driver was delighted to “fala Portuguese” with Michael and keeps up a nonstop dialogue. By the way
Macapa is very clean....big interest in sustainable development of the region.
