Santarém - the Rivers

Now another image of Santarém and the rivers, the Amazon and the Tapajós. That's the Tapajós River flowing past the city and that's the Amazon far out there where you see a difference of color. They're probably not much difference than back in 1542, when the first European, Francisco Orellana, made his way down the Amazon returning to Spain. Visitors often comment on the lack of traffic on the rivers. As you can see, there's not one one ship, not one barge, not one riverboat out there on two of the largest rivers in the world.