We entered the mouth of the Para River (part of the greater Amazon estuary) at midnight and made our way up-river through the Quiriri Channel; a winding route between sandbanks.  It is poorly marked with the occasional buoy and we relied heavily on our Electronic charts and Navigation systems. 

The passage is just over 70 miles, the last 10 miles are with a compulsory pilot, who, in our case, sipped his coffee and offered advice as to depths and currents.  We are unable (too deep) to make Belem itself and instead have to anchor off this town, tender gusts ashore, where they travel to Belem on shuttle buses.  The Para river has enormously strong tidal currents, initially heading into the ebb when we anchored, we swung through 180° when the flood tide started.  It rips through too, up to 3-4 knots.

I did not go to Belem, (too much to do) and left the ladies to ‘do their thing’.  I may be able to update this post if they have photographs of interest.  I did, however, take a quick run ashore, the purpose being to take some photos for our ‘port file’; these are files containing photos and notes about the ports we visit and are of enormous assistance when one visits next time.

We are meant to depart at 5 p.m. however I have my doubts if we’ll manage it, the shuttle-buses often have challenges and the journey from Belem can be delayed; the tender embarkation can be slow too.  I’ll keep my fingers and toes crossed.  Here is an ‘amateurish’ video for you.

Well, as I suspected, K1 came back with some photos 🙂 .  Most of the city shuts down on Mondays, however the market was open……