Sun 22 Nov: Santarem

Sunday evening. Went back down to river front and met Gil Serique (above with Samuel and Gabriel). Gil is a guide and seems to know everyone who passes through Santarem - incl Prince Charles recently. He helps to organise the Jungle Marathon (see T shirt in Alter do Chao blog below). This year was held a month ago in Otober and one of the runners - Brit SAS - was hospitalised. The marathon is over a 210 km course over 5 days. He was a guide for The Jungle Marathon (a book out this year by Mark Hines) and also for The Thief At the End of the World (Joe Jackson) which is about the Brit who stole 70 seringuera seeds to start rubber planatation in Far East, and also the book Fordlandia (Greg Grandlin). Gil's brother Flavio (died 3 years ago) also went to Leeds Univ in 1990/1 on a Chevening Scholarship. He studied linguistics and on his return set up a language school which is still operating. Gil has produced a useful Guide to Amazon Birds, and gave me a copy.
In the evening at Samuels we watched a couple of music DVDs. Samuel is a great fan of Brit rock in the 70s - esp Yes & King Crimson. Interesting DVd about Choro - said to be the first Brazilian music, a kind of Brazilian jazz as it includes improvisation. Also, Lenine who is a famous Brazilian rock artist - and very good, too.

Sun 22 Nov: Santarem: Mutunuhy

Above. Went for Sunday lunch to Mutunuhy restaurant - BBQ chicken. The restaurant is built over small lakes that feed into the river - this (small lakes feeding into river) is called Igarape.

Sun 22 Nov: Santarem & Tapajos

Above. Samuel's clinic. I counted Samuel as having 4 jobs. His clinic. He also lectures part-time at a couple of universities (there are 4 universities in Santarem: a federal univ, a state univ and 2 private universities), he is also an occupational health inspector (he visits companies to check their occupational health standards - a job not without dangers and he has received threats), and he also works to develop his own project on occupational health - he has developed a web site which details all the health regulations and is designed to help occupational health technicians in companies. This latter is Samuel's favourite work. Samuel went to UK - to Leeds university/Nuffield institure- in 1990/1 on a Chevening Scholarship and it was following this that he started to develop his project.

Above. Not clear but in distance there is a large ship - for tyransporting soya (Brazil is
world's largest producer).

Above. View along river to the port.

Above. Tapajos (foreground) and Amazon (top right) rivers.

Above. The dark coloured water is the Tapajos and the light ("white") coloured water
is the Amazon. The river in the foreground is the Tapajos and the river top right is the Amazon. This time of year the water is low and so the Amzon water mixes with the Tapajos. In June when the water is very high there is a clear division between the two waters.

Sunday morning drove around Santarem. It was a religious festival - Ciriu do nossa senhora do concepcao (Our lady of the conception) with large processions, which for some reason I did not get a picture of. Above is a view looking across the Tapajos river - the low island is quite recent (last 10 years or so), from silt from the Amazon. Tapajos was the name of the indigenous indians - unfortunately they were not prepared to submit to slavery under the Portuguese and were completely exterminated.

Sat 21 Nov: Santarem: Alter do Chao

Above: another person going fishing.

Above: Just as we went past this fisherman caught a fish.

Above. This was the driver of our launch. His T shirt is interesting - see more in Santarem blog above.

Above. Entered a small stream feeding into the lake and followed it up stream until it became shallow. Then we bated in the stream. Water crystal clear and full of fish. Lots of birds - egret like birds as well as parrot type birds. Also heard group of macaques in the forest.

Above. After lunch we hired 2 "launches" to explore the lake a bit, 5 in each launch.

above. Alter do Chao is actually on a lake - Lago Verde (Green) - which feeds into the Tapajos River.

Above. Lunch. Great fish - this is Tucunare - a well-known Amazon fish.

Above. Lunch. Jacquelina (blonde - Samuel's wife) and some of Samuel's friends and work colleagues.

Above:A view of the town. We had lunch at this restaurant. The triangular shaped tree is called Jambu - they are always the easiest trees to identify as they are all triangular.

From Belterra drove to Alter do Chao. a small town that is building a tourist reputatio. Already attracting international tourists. Apparently The Guardian did a report on it earlier this year calling it Brazils most beautiful beach. It is certainly pretty.

Sat 21 Nov: Santarem: Going to Belterrra

Above: this brave little boy was keen to have his picture taken. But looks a bit dubious.

Above. It was a lovely spot, full of wonderful butterflies - a few of which you can see here.

Above: From the road, looking across a small farm to the river.

From Cajutuba drove along more forest roads to Belterra. This town was developed by Henry Ford to supply rubber. In the town there is a Palacios do Seringuerias (Museum of Rubber trees). Still lots of rubber trees (no longer tapped) and many houses from the original Ford delevopment. Further along the road vstill is the town of Fordlandia - also started by Henry Ford (see also comment in Santarem blog above). Drove through Belterra - no photos I'm afraid. From Belterra continued along forest roads to Alter do Chao. On the way, encountered a group bathing in a small stream who were keen to be photographed.

Sat 21 Nov: Santarem: Cajutuba

Above. Had some snacks. The small fish are called charutos (cheeroots - as they look like cigars, apparently), the small oval ones are called Isca de peixe - literally fish bait (always best not to ask), the others are fish balls - bolinho de piracui - fish and farinho (flour).

Arrangements for Christmas celebrations already well in hand. Gilberto and his band will be performing, followed by a traditional cocktail and bingo.

From National Park we drove along dirt roads through forest following the river Tapajos south for about 50kms. Small farms on either side of road - largely cashews and coconuts. Massive river - can't see across to the other bank. Came to small community of Cajutuba. This pousada (small "hotel") opened last year. Beautiful white, sandy beaches along the river shore. Completely unspoilt.

Sat 21 Nov: Santarem: Tapajos National Forest

Above: the large tree is a Brazil nut tree: castanha do Para.

Above: huge tree over 60 m high with enormous buttresses. Samaoma.

Above: this hut now used to store illegal logs that have been confiscated. Weren't many in there - not sure if this indicates few illegal loggers or poor capture rate.

From the tower we drove a further 15 mins into the forest to a place that had been cultivated for rubber tapping - Seringuera trees - many years ago, now disused. Above is Seringuera with cuts for tapping the latex still visible in trunk.

Above: Fortunately not a windy day but tower did sway a bit so we tended to keep a grip on something. ({hotos out of sequence - see above). Observation tower about 40 m high.

Danger! Falling Brazil nuts!

Below: our guide, Zee. Above: wooden walk way leading to observation tower. Zee naming various types of tree (mostly with indigenous names): Jatobah, Itauba (wood used to build ships), Jarana, Angelim, Oochee (?sp), Samaoma (60 m high), also castanhas (nuts), obviously including castanha do Para (Brazil nut tree).

0845 Sat morning set off from Santarem driving south with Samuel (eldest son of Samuel I am staying with in Fortaleza), Gabriel (Samuel's son) and Adson (friend of Samuel). Drove about 45 mins to Tapajos National Park (Santarem is located where the Tapajos River joins the River Amazon). Samuel had previously arranged the necessary authorization to visit the Park and a guide (called Zee) was waiting for us at the entrance to the Park. Entered Park and drove for about 20 mins along dirt track which led to an observation tower constructed by NASA.