Back in Belém!

And just in time for Círio de Nossa Senhora de Nazaré, considered by some to be the largest manifestation of religiousness in the world. But more on that later. The last two weeks, after we left Manaus, were filled with plenty of interesting meetings and events worth mentioning. Our first two days were spent on the boat, the Barão do Mar III, making our way to the Trombetas River. One of the first stops was at the "meeting of the waters" in Manaus, where the Rio Negro and Amazonas rivers meet. It was an awesome sight, and we even got to swim back and forth between the rivers for a bit. And across the border between Amazonas and Pará states a couple of my friends and I actually got to drive the boat for a bit (if our incredibly supervised steering can be called "driving").After reaching the Trombetas, we visited two really interesting places. The first was Main Coé, a quilombo of well under 100 people who lived largely outside of the view of the Brazilian state until recently. It was only after bauxite was discovered in the area and mining companies began to explore there that this community and others--very few of which engage in any commercial activity, but rely primarily instead on fishing, hunting, and gathering to survive--were even recognized as existing. Because the area was later declared a National Forest, the activities of the communities have been limited and they are legally not allowed to engage in commercial activities. Oh, and technically they're living there illegally.

The other large actor in this scenario is the bauxite mine itself, run by a company called Mineração Rio do Norte. As the largest bauxite mine in the world, MRN extracts about 17 million tons of bauxite per year. The company plans to strip-mine the area for 30 years, when all of the bauxite is expected to be removed.

After those visits we moved onto Juruti Velho, a municipality a bit downriver from Trombetas. The communities of the region have been fighting for several years now against ALCOA because of--yes--their bauxite mine there (a different one than the mine in Trombetas). Their organization, ACORJUVE, has succeeded in being the only community or communities in Brazil (and possibly the world) that have forced a mining company to reimburse local communities for the negative environmental and other effects of the mine. It was in these communities that we had our first "rural homestays," in which we lived with families for three days to learn about riberinho life there. More or less these are communities of the descendants of Indians and Portuguese colonists who have survived for several hundred years thanks to an incredibly deep knowledge of both the rivers and lakes and the forest.

We also spent October 3rd, election day, in Juruti Novo (the town where the ALCOA port is located) to talk to people about what was going on and about the political process here. The two most important elections here (for governor and president) are both entering a runoff and will be decided on October 31st.


From there we moved onto Santarém, where we relaxed a bit before heading to Monte Alegre where there are 11,000+ year-old cave paintings and--you guessed it--bauxite deposits that may begin to be exploited in the next several years. We also got the see the "meeting of the waters" in Santarém, which was much less impressive than the one in Manaus. But we were still able to witness amazing sunsets almost every night, which were absolutely beautiful. It was a busy three weeks and things show no signs of letting up as Círio is tomorrow and then I'll be off to the (ocean) beach tomorrow!

Going Downriver...

Tonight is our last night and Manaus, and tomorrow morning we leave by boat to (eventually) make our way to Santarém. It'll take just over a week to get there because we'll be making various stops along the way, one of which is a three day "rural homestay" in which we'll all stay with different families living in small communities along the river. One of the main attractions in Manaus, which we'll be able to see tomorrow morning, is called the "meeting of the waters". What happens is the brown-colored Solimões (the local name for the Amazon River) meets with the black-colored Rio Negro. Because the two have drastically different minerals, they meet but don't combine for a while, dividing the river into two distinct colors. Though they eventually do mix completely, the phenomenon is repeated again in Santarém when the Tapajós River meets the Amazon. So, we'll be lucky enough to see both.

The past few days have been packed with lectures and other things, but I've been able to visit an art gallery just a few blocks away from our hotel featuring the work of a local artist and explore the downtown area and market a little bit. And at the Permaculture Institute I was also able to eat heart of palm (freshly cut) and was able to try (for the second time) the Miracle Fruit. It pretty much makes anything you eat after it taste sweet...even limes, which we were eating it with. Don't know why I forgot to mention those. I also visited a local store that sells books and handicrafts made by nearby indigenous populations. Interestingly enough, they had the Portuguese version of one of our required readings this semester -- "Rainforest Cities," written by Prof. Brian Godfrey of Vassar! I took his class on Brazil last spring and learned an incredible amount about this exciting country, and I'm now getting the chance to experience so much of that learning.

Today we had a little bit more of a relaxing day. We drove to a nearby town, Presidente Figueiredo, about two hours north of Manaus. There we visited a private hotel/preserve area that had some beautiful waterfalls. We spent the whole morning there so after some exploration I set up next to the water and took a nice nap under the trees. We had a lecture later about "community-based ecotourism," then came back to Manaus for the night. So, time to gather together all of the goodies I've accumulated and get ready for a few days of living on the Amazon River!