Alter Do Chao

Today, we arrived at Alter Do Chao.

It was another tender port, that didn’t, initially at first, seem to be inspiring anyone to queue for a tender ticket. When we passed the ticket handout point soon after finishing our breakfast, we were offered number 4s, which were about to leave any minute. They had the tickets because they’d been returned…

The reason for the lack of enthusiasm was undoubtedly the rain, which was coming down in torrential bucketloads, washing out the decks, and making visibility extremely poor. Add to that the fact that we’d been told that the Magellan was anchored a long way out, and that each tender trip would take about twenty minutes, it’s surprising everyone on board ship didn’t just throw in the towel and go back to bed.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen. We opted for a number 6 ticket, and took the tender trip just as the rain was starting to ease up, and by the time we made landfall, it was actually starting to clear up nicely.

There isn’t a great deal to do in Alter Do Chao. It’s basically like a seaside resort for the Brazilians, with a beach and boat-trips to the ‘Love Island’. I hunted down a bar that had free, and more than half-decent, wi-fi while Tracey went off hunting for wildlife to photograph.

After a couple of hours, we started heading back to the quayside; Tracey happy with the photos she’d taken, and me happy because I’d finally been able to do some online stuff that I’ve been itching to do since Mindelo.

Anyone who chose not to go ashore based upon the rain really missed out. It’s actually quite a nice place; not very large, but still pleasant to visit. It’s often toted as the ‘Caribbean of the Amazon’, for obvious reasons, but it still has a very unique feel to it.

By the time we’d got back to the quayside, the heat was noticeably greater. The forecast for the day was for it to reach temperatures around 40-degrees. It’s probably a good thing, then, that today was just a half day for us, with the last tender back to the ship at 12:30pm.