Yesterday we visited Santarem.. It is a city of around 200,000 people -- mostly young people who come from all over the region to attend one of the eleven universities in the city! It is also a large port for shipping soybeans-- one of four great industries for this area. The other three are cattle, illegal and legal logging and mining.
The Amazon River and the rainforest provides 20% of the world's fresh water and 20% of the world's oxygen . A large part of this region is in danger due to illegal logging (80% of the logging is illegal) and the cutting back of the rainforest to grow crops. Surprisingly, the soil is very poor for raising crops. It is very sandy and has been leached of important nutrients by the constant rains. Still, this does not deter many people from doing "slash and burn". A family of five needs 70 acres of cleared land to grow the crops to support the family. In order to clear the land, they "slash and cut down the area of the trees and brush, put them in a pile to dry, and when they are dry enough, they burn it.. This produces the ash that will be the necessary fertilizer for the crop to be grown. This is happening at an alarming rate and the government just can't get a handle on it because the area so so vast and so hard to patrol. They are also clearing land like crazy to graze cattle. Brazil is now an exporter of beef.. We learned that 25% of all the prescription drugs dispensed in the US have some plant material from the Amazon in them. There are still thousands of plants yet to be researched and it is believed that many of them will have great curative powers. -- especially for cancer patients we're told..hopefully these species will not be destroyed before scientists get a chance to research them.
We did a four hour boat trip just outside of Santarem yesterday. It was called "A Meeting of the Waters". You will see in the photos below the dramatic color mixing of the "black" water mixing with the brown water of the main River channel. The water is black because of all the tannic acid in the water. This occurs during the rainy season when the Tannin trees get submerged and begin to decay. They put a lot of this black "tannin" in the water. One other photo shows a bright green stripe in the water. This is caused by algae and it is quite a stunning emerald green!
Our trip included finding a sloth, a howler monkey, multiple beautiful birds and piranha fishing! One of the photos below shows a "lump" in the top of a tree (sort of looks like a big seed pod). That is the sloth. We learned the sloth only comes down out of the Cicropia tree about once a month to "eliminate"! He climbs down, digs a hole by the base of the tree, does his thing and crawls back up. The sloth has caterpillars attached to his fur which help camouflage him in the trees. The caterpillars get off when the sloth comes down, lay their eggs in the dung, and get back on the sloth for their ride back up. This is a perfect example of symbiosis -- the sloth eats the leaves of the tree (gets all the water he needs from the leaves), provides fertilizer for the tree and a hosting place to lay the eggs of the caterpillar who helps camouflage him! This is a very delicately balanced Eco system..
Today is a "River day" as we drift further into the continent..sometimes the vegetation in the water is so thick it looks like you could walk on it. We are in the middle of their rainiest season so the waters are fairly high. Many of the huts you will see in the photos below are abandoned in the rainy season as the waters rise. The natives will be back in 6 months to rebuild or start a new simple hut if they can't repair the old one.
I will mention that they just discovered an extremely large Anaconda close to Santarem. They are building a road and encountered a 45 foot Anaconda snake.. They did say that was close to a record for this area. In case you ever encounter one of these guys (they crush you to death) try and gouge their eyes. That will make them release their hold on you. They say that is about the ONLY thing that works once they have you in their "grip"! On that note of helpful advice, I'll sign off for now and hope to post tomorrow night after our tour..
PS. Our boat had some good fisherman on it and we caught 3 Piranha and one small catfish. However, we were not one of the lucky fishermen!
PPS I am posting a few photos of the impressive "fire" drill the crew did on our deck! Had the fire hoses shooting water and everything! Very comforting.
I did not know about the black water, or the very informative information about the sloth.
ReplyDeleteThe reason none of you caught any fish is because you are always the "catch of the day"
Enjoy your last 2 nights.