Alter do Chao

The Tapajos is a clearwater river - green rather than brown, because it carries little sediment - and at Alter do Chao it drops through the dry season to expose a long white sandbar in front of the village, the Ilha do Amor, reached by a two-minute canoe or a wade. The colour and the sand are why the place is sold as the Caribbean of the Amazon, a comparison that is overworked but not baseless. Around it are the Lago Verde, flooded igapo forest that can be paddled between the trunks when water is high, and the Tapajos national forest downstream. The Sairé festival in September stages a contest between two pink and grey dolphin companies in a form derived from the same boi tradition as Parintins.

History

The Portuguese explorer Pedro Teixeira founded the settlement on 6 March 1626, and on 6 March 1758 the governor of Grão-Pará and Maranhão, Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado, made it a town, named after Alter do Chão in Portugal. Until the 18th century it was home mainly to the Indigenous Borari, whose pottery shards, pipes and polished stone axes still turn up, and missionaries established the cult of Our Lady of Remedies, its patron saint. In the early 20th century it lay on a route for latex from the rubber estates of Belterra and Fordlândia; the decline of Amazon extraction from the 1950s hit it hard, and since the 1990s it has lived mainly from tourism (Wikipedia, Alter do Chão, Pará).

What you'll find

• A white bar in green water - the Ilha do Amor exposed as the river drops.
• A clearwater river - the Tapajos carrying little sediment, unlike the Amazon.
• Flooded igapo forest - paddling between trunks on the Lago Verde.
• The Sairé festival - dolphin companies competing each September.

When to go

August to December for the sand; September for Sairé. Three days.

Good to know

Between about January and June the sandbar is under water and the village looks entirely different. Peak season brings crowds, loud music and chair-rental pressure on the bar. Accommodation is limited and books out. Boats are sold aggressively on the front.

Nearby

Santarem is upriver; the Tapajos national forest is downstream.

Key facts