Located halfway between Santarem and Manaus is Parintins, a friendly small town of about 100,000 inhabitants is set amongst a lush, verdant rain forest. Although there are no roads to Parintins, it is unlikely centre of the fabulous Boi Bumba, held every year in June. The 200 year old town, located on the Tupinambarana Island, is rich in Indian culture. In the colonial times, this island was a resting point for a group of coastal indigenous Brazilians who made a remarkable trek through thousands of miles of dense forest to escape the devastation of the Portuguese slave trade. This island is now home to one of the country’s most important and spectacular festivals, Boi Bumba. In short, the festival involves a parade of human, and animal characters and fanciful creatures from Brazilian Indian mythology, and celebrates a 19th century fable about a resurrection ox. It is a competition where two teams, Garantido and Caprichoso, compete in extended retellings of the story, each team attempting to outdo the other with flamboyant dances, dazzling costumes, singing, and dancing floats. The dancers and the contagious rhythm of the Boi Bumba music is exhilarating.
We started out with a little rain today which fortunately subsided as we tendered our way to Parintins. We heard about a $10 USD hour pedicab tour around this nicely laid out city and decided to hide out of the light tapering rain by touring around in this fun form of transportation. This town is very much about the Boi Bumba and this is where we spend our time, from the 35,000 seat , Bumbodromo, built in the shape of bull’s head to seeing a HAL exclusive excursion to watch a hour worth of one of these shows in the Convention Centre. We had a great day here and loved the Boi Bumba show, I will be looking for this online this coming June. Here are a few pics of our day, hope you enjoy..
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