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!
