Just over 2 years ago, I heard about this small village in Pará, known as the “Amazonian Caribbean” and quickly added it to my (long) travel wishlist. This year, planning my first trip to the North of Brazil, I managed to include a few days in Alter do Chão to my itinerary, and now I can say for sure: Alter do Chão is paradise, and everyone who loves beaches and nature needs to go there!
Recently, Alter do Chão has gained more visibility in the Brazilian media and many people are now curious to visit the paradisiacal landscapes they see on social media or TV. However, being in the Amazon, Alter do Chão is perceived to be very inaccessible, very expensive, and very rustic. This post aims to demystify this idea, and show that Alter do Chão is for everyone, including you!
How to get there?
Getting to Alter do Chão is actually quite simple. The village is one of the districts of Santarém, Pará, a city which receives direct flights from Manaus, Belém, and Brasília.
Alter do Chão is just a 40 minute drive from Santarém, on asphalted roads in excellent conditions. Taxis and transfers cost around R$ 100,00 (about US$25 in August 2019). For those who want to save money, there is also a bus that goes from Santarém to Alter do Chão. If you’re a light packer and comfortable enough to ride public busses, the bus leaves from downtown Santarém and is about US$1!
When to go?
Alter do Chão, like most of the Amazon, has two well-defined seasons: the flood season (rainy season) that usually goes from January to July; and the dry season, which begins around mid-August and runs until January.
I was there towards the end of July, a transition period between the two seasons, and I highly recommend visiting at this time! You can see the beauty of the full rivers (the famous Ilha do Amor was still flooded at this time), but you can also visit wonderful beaches, that begin to appear around this time of the year. When it’s more fully flooded, you may not be able to experience as many river beaches.
Where to stay?
If you are staying in Alter o Chão for a few days, or have a tighter budget, and want to go on tours every day (which are usually full day tours), I recommend staying in one of the budget hotels or inns near the central square. This way, you can save on accommodation and transportation, since you will be close to the main restaurants, bars, shops and the ATUFA, where the boat tours depart from.
During my trip, I stayed in two different accommodations here.
The first was Pousada Vila Alter. The rooms are very simple, but super clean and have air conditioning (important in Alter do Chão!). The inn is very small but quite charming, and the owners, Federico and Chris, are extremely friendly and helpful. The room cost R$150,00 per night (around $40 dollars) for a double room, and includes breakfast.
For those who have more time in the village and/or have a bigger budget, my recommendation is the lovely Vila de Alter – Pousada Boutique Amazônia. I stayed there for two nights and loved the experience! The hotel is a bit far from the village center and we ended up needing a taxi to get there (you can walk, but it’s about 30 minutes walking). But this is not an inconvenience, since the idea of booking a stay at Vila de Alter is precisely to offer quiet accommodations in the middle of nature!
In addition to the beautiful architecture and decoration, what impressed me the most was the hospitality and attention of all who work there, especially the owners Regina and Andrea. Another important thing to mention, and which we value very much here at Viare, is the fact that the hotel adopts several sustainable practices, such as the use of natural resources, composting, and sewage systems using ecological pits.
For those who are willing to invest more in accommodation in Alter, the Vila de Alter is my recommendation!
What to do?
We only stayed in Alter do Chão for 3 full days, so we could not do all the tours we were interested in, such as the Flona do Tapajós, ideal for those who enjoy walking trails in the jungle, and want to explore the diversity of the fauna and flora of the Amazon. The Canal do Jeri is also a highly recommended tour for those who want to see typical animals of this region such as alligators, sloths, monkeys, and that unfortunately, we didn’t have time to do as well (even more reason to return as soon as possible!).
Here’s a short list of what we did get to do in those 3 days in Alter do Chão, and recommend:
Watch the sunset from Alter do Chão’s shore
We arrived at Alter around 4 pm so we didn’t have time to do any tour. We walked to the waterfront, got some ice cream (try the tapioca and chestnut ice cream at Nildo’ kiosk, in front of the village’s main square!) and watched the boats come and go while we waited for the sun to set.
I found out on the first day why the village’s sunset is so famous. It is impossible to describe the twilight in Alter do Chão without seeing it for yourself!
Take a beach tour
This was our first day tour, and it made us fall in love right away with all the beauty of the region. We visited beaches with calm and crystal clear waters bathed by the Tapajós River, which in some points is up to 21 km wide, leaving us with the feeling that we were facing a freshwater ocean. It really is an incredible sight!
The tour was organized by our partners in Alter, and we were guided by Gilson, who was very lovely and knows everything about the region! Marupiara works only with small speedboats (maximum 7 people), so there are no guides rushing you and tight schedules as with large groups. Everything is done according to the wishes and time of the travelers.
Gilson knew the best times to visit each beach, and so our group was usually the only one at the places we stopped at to swim. It was a wonderful experience to have the whole beach just for us!
Lunch was at Pindobal Beach, which has a few beach bars options. We had a roasted Tambaqui (a type of fish found in the rivers here) for lunch, and it was amazing. You choose your fish and the time you want to have lunch and at the agreed upon time, it arrives accompanied by rice, beans and farofa (a roasted tapioca flour side dish) – a very Brazilian meal! Best of all, the prices are super fair: this meal cost around R$ 25,00 per person (around $7 dollars), and was very filling.
The tour ends at Ponta do Muretá, where we watched the most beautiful sunset of the trip (and perhaps of life). Just surreal!
Visit the Arapiuns River
The Arapiuns River is one of the tributaries of the Tapajós River and it also has paradisiacal beaches. During the tour, Gilson stopped the speedboat in the middle of the river, where there was no one else, and announced that it would be the first stop for a bath. We found it odd and asked him if it was safe to swim there. Gilson calmly answered, “Yes, this is a beach. Look down.”
Without even noticing it, we were only 30cm (12 inches) above a huge sandbank that stretches over one kilometer toward the middle of the river. Since we were in the transitional season, the beach had not yet appeared, but it was there. We immediately jumped into the water and stayed there for over an hour, swimming in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by pink dolphins who made sure to appear on the horizon from time to time just to show us that this was their home. And what a beautiful home!
The best part of this Arapiuns River tour is that it includes visits to some riverside communities. Even the lunch stop is in one of these communities, São Marcos, where two lovely ladies prepared a homemade lunch just for our group. In this community and in another one, we were also able to see the production of straw crafts, very present in this region.
This is a beautiful and very important initiative, since it generates income and brings opportunities for needy communities that basically survive on handicrafts. Although we didn’t have much time in each community, we had a chance to chat with some locals and get an idea of what their day to day is like there. It is an experience that provokes great reflections and that I would like to write about more soon in another post. Let me know in the comments if you’d be interested in learning more!
The end of the tour was at Ponta do Cururu, where we watched one more horribl(y stunning) sunset:
Watch a Carimbó presentation
Carimbó is a musical genre typical of the state of Pará, and has indigenous and African influences. It is impossible not to be carried away by the contagious rhythm and joy of those who sing and dance during the performances.
Thursdays in Alter do Chão, are for Quinta do Mestre, which is part of the Carimbó Movement of Western Pará, formed by Masters, groups and lovers of the Carimbó in order to strengthen the cultural heritage in this region. We were lucky to be there on a Thursday, and it’s amazing how the event brings together locals and tourists in a unique way! It is a very beautiful, colorful and lively party.
Final Tips:
- Make sure to try the banana chips, very common in the North of Brazil. In Alter do Chão, you can find it at several food stalls on the main square. I dare you to open a package and not eat all of it in less than 10 minutes!
- Near the village’s central square, there is an excellent restaurant option for vegetarians and vegans (or for those who just enjoy a very well made home-cooked food): it’s the Siriá Bistro. The prices are very good (about R$ 25,00/US$7.00 for the main course with juice/tea), the decoration is super colorful and cute and the service very friendly.
- Although most places will accept credit cards, I recommend taking a reasonable amount of money to pay for community tours, handicrafts in these communities and taxi if necessary. If I’m not mistaken, there is an ATM in Alter, the Mingote Market, which is in the central square. Only Brazilian Reais are accepted here.
- Contrary to what many people think, Alter do Chão has no mosquitoes, despite being in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest (we are told that it is something related to the acidity of the Tapajós River, which does not attract many mosquitoes to the region). In any case, we recommend you take repellent if you plan to do a hiking trip or tour into the jungle.
- For those who haven’t heard of Alter do Chão or for those who knew little about this magical little place in the middle of the Amazon rainforest, I hope this guide convinced you to include Alter do Chão to your Brazil travel destination list!
This post was written by Nathalia Segato, our trip planner and sales consultant. If you’d like to plan a trip to Alter to Chão, get in touch with her directly here: nath@viaretravel.com Or fill out our tailor-made travel form here: Tailor-made Brazil Vacation!
