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Today we visited Parintins, a town of 80,000 on the Amazonian island of Tupinambarana (say that 10 times fast!) and on the Amazon river. Its’ inhabitants survive on fishing, logging, cattle and the tourism associated with their annual Boi Bumbá festival and competition which is responsible for about half of the cities annual income.
Boi Bumbá is a festival, similar on the surface to the Carnival celebration in Rio, which is based on myths, tales and legends using festooned dance troupes, fancily costumed mythical characters, parade carts and giant puppets surrounded by the words of a master of ceremonies who describes in detail every bit of the action. There are also bands that play non-stop Brazilian-style music accentuated with heavy percussion.
Digging a little deeper it starts to get more interesting. The Boi Bumbá festival is a hyped-up process that is based on the story of Pai Francisco, who worked in a farm, and Mãe Catirina, his pregnant wife (apparently, no Buta dolphins involved here). To make a long story short, Catirina had a longing desire for some beef tongue (go figure) and tells Francisco that if he really loves her he’ll bring her some of that supposed delicacy. Not wanting to lose his lover, Francisco kills an ox (Boi in Portuguese) and brings back the tongue to satisfy his wife’s craving. Unfortunately for Francisco, this ox was a favorite of the rich owner and, despite losing its tongue, a priest and a doctor attempt to revive the ox, and not surprisingly, they fail. I personally wonder about the quality of life for a tongue-less Boi, but it makes for a good story.
Normally, our hero Francisco would have been sent to jail but thanks to a ritual performed by a shaman that resurrects the dead Boi, Francisco is forgiven and we ended up with a reason to have an Boi-based celebration party or Boi Bumbá!
While this seems like a pretty crazy story, at least it’s tied to their culture compared to crazy fairy tales we memorialize in all kinds of things including Disneyland. I originally came from the Los Angeles area, attending the Rose Parade in Pasadena every year where my family and I got to work on making the famous floats…pasting flowers, seeds and other assorted stuff onto the elaborate motorized structures. I liken this celebration to the Rose Parade except that the theme doesn’t change every year,the celebration is held in the Bumbódromo that holds 35,000 spectators instead of Colorado Boulevard and you don’t get all the music and dancing. Well, maybe it isn’t so much alike after all except for the fancy floats.
Each year the Boi Bumbá is a competiton between two teams called Bois. Everyone in town takes sides and prepares for months building their “floats”, costumes and designing the music and choreography. Garantido is the white Boi with a red heart on its forehead, while Caprichoso is the black Boi and has a blue star. Throughout the year there are Red and Blue teams and people wear those colors, get tattoos and who knows what to show their allegiance to their team. Because of the importance placed on these colors even Coca Cola has given permission for their logo to be blue in Parintins!
After each team performs for three nights in a row in front of huge crowds and a national TV audience the judges announce the winner on the morning of the fourth day and the winners parade around town with their entourage. With no rest for the weary, they start their planning for next year’s competition.
What I actually did is pretty boring compared to all that Boi Bumbá action.
- I took a tender to the dock, waiting for the last moment where I could arrive in time for the 2:50 pm show. It was HOT!
- We were greeted by a contingent of what appeared to be Boy Scouts in sailor hats (maybe Sea Scouts?) that were very helpful and courteous. A very nice way to make a good first impression.
- We walked about 100 feet to the convention center where the Boi Bumbá demonstration show was being held. On the way there were the normal handicraft vendor carts along the street selling lots of colorful Boi Bumbá paraphernalia.
- After arriving I discovered that the fluorescent lighting inside the arena was quite poor. There were probably 500 Regent guests in attendance, sitting in plastic, Kmart style patio chairs. The place was packed! Unfortunately, I brought my D200 which, while being lighter is nowhere near as good in low lighting situations as the D700, but I did the best I could.
- Our friend Sherrie gave me her front row seat so that I could take pictures. She and I are two of the biggest picture takers on the ship and she had seen this show on a previous cruise. That was very nice of her!
- The show started and took place (see below).
- I left a few minutes early so I could take a few pictures in town and then catch the tender before “rush” hour. I beat the rush but not without sweating a bit. It was still HOT!
- The ship pulled out just before five o’clock, heading for our next stop of Santarem.
The show itself was really quite good. Lots of continuous heavy-handed percussion, bass and rhythm guitars, a brass section and an orange referee whistle blowing band leader (it’s important to note that the whistle was orange, not the band leader). It was LOUD and unrelenting but got the point across about the excitement of Boi Bumbá. The show itself was filled with very fit and tastefully, albeit scantily, clad girls and boys (maybe high school and a bit older) who were wearing a lot of colorful feathers and were sweating throughout the strenuous and highly choreographed routines.
During the show, they were apparently telling stories in each routine as there was a main character (probably Francisco, Catirina and for sure, one of them was the shaman). And, this celebration wouldn’t be complete without the bull (I only saw the white one with the red star) who was a real ham…getting up really close to the people in the first row and blowing smoke out his nose!
A great time and something I would highly recommend for future cruisers.
Parantins Picture Gallery: http://travelwithdm.smugmug.com/Travel/South-America/Parentins-Mar-6-2010/25178533_jZWk9p#!i=2065191553&k=CMVRV6d
Marlene Shirley - Well, I thought your camera did a great job. What an awesome experience. I bet not too many people of the face of the earth have been to this show and the Rose Parade! So I am curious, did you figure out what it was all about on your own or did someone explain it to you? That quite an interesting plot.
Marlene Shirley - P.S. Sorry for all of the spelling mistakes and errors in punctuation. It’s past my bed time!
AJG - I’d like some beef tongue to go please (ok – YOU were the ones who suggested that I blog)
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