" I haven't been
everywhere, but it's on my list." - Susan Sontag
January 16 - 20 Recife/Olinda
You would
think that with having booked a guaranteed reservation and paying $20 for it
that we would have gotten a room at the hotel we selected. Well, that was not the case. They had overbooked and had made a
reservation for us in a nearby, lower quality, hotel. In addition, we wound up spending another 1/2
day waiting to get moved out of the substitute back into the hotel we'd
originally booked in the first place. We
were not happy and promptly asked for a discount and asked to get our booking
service fee refunded. Fortunately the
booking agent did refund the $20, no questions asked which we did appreciate.
Brazilian run
hotels often leave a lot to be desired.
Things just don't work right.
Walls will have peeling paint, toilet seats will be broken, beds lumpy
and saggy, showers lukewarm. The lobbies
may look upscale and nice. But just wait
until you get into the room. Even though
these types of conditions often are found in Latin America
hotels, in other countries the prices are quite reasonable. You feel as though you are getting what you
pay for. Stay in the $15 to $20 range
and that's what you get, pretty low quality room. Get up to around $30 to $40 and you get
something fairly nice.
However, not
so in Brazil,
along the beach, in high summer season.
Here we were paying around $70 per night for an old room with lumpy bed
and only half was very poorly air-conditioned.
The lobby was very nice, complete with doormen, concierge, and uniformed
desk clerks. The pool was one of the
largest, cleanest pools we'd seen. But
the standard rooms were basically crummy.
Yet this is not uncommon throughout Brazil. In fact, the two very best hotels we stayed
in was the Ibis, part of the foreign owned Accor chain, and a small French run
pousada up in Belem. Sometimes it just
seems Brazilian hotels are way over valuing themselves or they just don't know
how to do things up to US or European standards.
Once we went
through the process of getting ourselves resituated into the hotel we'd
originally booked it was time to start seeing the town. Our first destination was the Museu do Homens
do Nordeste. The museum is supposed to
house crafts and artifacts from the native people of the north east region. However, this we cannot confirm. We never got inside.
In the
afternoon, we got on one bus heading downtown to the location where our
guidebook said we needed to get a second bus to the museum. This second bus had the name "dois
Irmaos" (two brothers). It turns
out there are a lot of buses with this name and naturally we weren't on the
correct one. So we soon found ourselves
headed right back through town to where we'd begun this trek and a little
beyond. The helpful bus driver then directed us where to get off and which bus,
the third, to get on to get to the museum.
This entire running around took over an hour.
With all this
running around we were so chagrinned to find that the Museu do Homens do
Nordeste was closed for renovation. The
only thing open was this art gallery housing a strange hairdryer contraption
that some modern artist claimed could read his thoughts. It didn't work and practically started a
fire. The only thing we got out of it
was finding a lady who spoke English well enough to give us directions for the
buses back to our hotel (two more buses at that).
So after
spending about $7 on buses and several hours to get to a museum that was closed
the only thing we could say we accomplished for this day was to have a round
about tour of the suburbs of Recife.
Day 2 was a
whole lot better. We managed to find the
direct bus to Olinda,
which was on a street different from the one indicated in the guidebook. We managed to see all the churches in town
and wander the streets before early afternoon.
Another direct bus took us back to within 2 blocks of the hotel, we now
knew the street numbering system so we could be more accurate as to where to
get off. And we even managed to get in a
good long swim in that nice pool we were paying an exorbitant fee to have. That's the way it is with independent
travel. Some days turn out a complete
disaster. Fortunately most do not.
Olinda is another colonial town located around
15 km or so north of Recife. Throughout Portuguese and Brazilian history
these two cities have been linked financially and politically. Olinda has
always been the center of the rich sugar plantation owners while
Recife with its rivers
and reefs has been the port. In the 17th
century revenues from the sugarcane industry made the Recife/Olinda combination
one of the most prosperous cities in Brazil,
second only to Salvador. This prosperity made this region a very
attractive prize for other European powers as well, the Dutch in particular.
While other
areas of Brazil
were able to resist incursions from other envious European interests, the
Recife/Olinda area was not. The Dutch
first managed to grab Recife
in 1624 under the flag of the Dutch West India Company. This first invasion was repelled a year later
when a combined Spanish/Portuguese army of 12,000 tossed them out. The Dutch returned in 1629 and this time
managed to hold the city as well as large holdings in the northeast until
1654. The sugar plantation owners
resented having the non-Catholic Dutch in charge and managed to put together an
army to expel the foreign interests once and for all. It is rather interesting to note that during
the time the rather religious tolerant Dutch resided in Recife, the Jewish also came.
After the
Dutch left tempers between the plantation owners of Olinda
and the merchants of Recife
flared. This came to a head in 1710 when
the whole feud erupted into bloody warfare.
The merchants, with the economic power of the Portuguese Crown, gained
significant power while Olinda
declined. Eventually as the sugar
economy declined, Sao Paulo and Rio eclipsed the economic power of Recife/Olinda.
Today
Recife remains a busy
city and port although it still does not enjoy the economic and political clout
of its colonial days.
Olinda
has essentially become a quiet suburb of Recife. Because it hasn't had the economic power or
growing population of Recife,
it has been able to retain its colonial charm.
Recife,
on the other hand, has continued to grow, adding modern high-rises and
neighborhoods sprawling for miles around.
Olinda has the usual collection of one and two
story white colonial buildings with painted window and doorframes. There are a few craft shops, a few
restaurants, and the normal plethora of churches. The best was the Convento do Sao
Fransisco. The outside of the church was
rather plain. But inside are some of the
most beautiful blue and white tile frescos covering the walls. The tiles are all in Portuguese and usually
represent scenes from the bible. But
there are some scenes of every day life, which are far more interesting since
they give a glimpse into rural life in Portugal of that era. The ladies and men of wealthier classes
wearing the funny looking curly wigs in vogue at that time are most
interesting.
The way the tiles were placed on the
walls is most unique. The original block
or adobe wall is first stuccoed over flat and smooth. Then along the bottom 4 to 6 feet an extra
layer of stucco about 1 1/2 inches thick is applied. The upper edge of this layer is not a
straight line. Rather it undulates to
match the form the tiles will eventually take.
The blue and white tiles with their elaborate scenes are then applied to
this thicker layer. The whole thing
makes the tiles stand out almost as if there were just a thick painted board
attached to the wall. It's a most
unusual tile attachment method.
Over the
years some of the tiles have fallen off.
Rather than go through the trouble of putting the puzzle back together
correctly, they have placed tiles found on the floor in miscellaneous places
just to have the shape and blue and white color. It looks like a child attempted to put a
puzzle together and got it all wrong. It
would seem better just to leave the tiles off or to make a better effort to put
it back together right. As it is, these
spots look strange.
Recife was the subject of our final day before
beginning our air pass flights. Much of
old Recife has
been replaced over the years by modern buildings. Modern, of course, doesn't necessarily mean
20th century. Like most cities it has an
eclectic mix of 17th through 20th century structures usually assembled in a not
too pleasing manner. There are a few
gems. The theater, governor's palace,
and house of justice to name a few.
In the oldest
section of Recife
is one site that is probably the most important from a historical
perspective. During the 1630s when
Recife was under the
control of the Dutch, this area adopted the Dutch liberal religious views. Jews who had found a religious haven in the Netherlands contracted with the Dutch West
Indies company and migrated to Recife. They came with only the clothes on their
backs but soon grew to be a very prosperous and wealthy sector of society. Unfortunately for the Jews, when the
Portuguese regained control of Recife
they were unmercifully persecuted. Some
fled back to the Netherlands. But, some 23 found their way to New
Amsterdam, today's New York. So how many of the Jews in
New
York know that they came from the Netherlands
by way of Brazil?
The Jews brought
one innovation to Brazil
that today has been taken to an extreme that we've never seen elsewhere,
installment payments. In Brazil you can
buy virtually anything on installment.
Every single store lists prices either "a vista", payment in
full at visit, or in payments usually listed as 5XR$10, 3XR$50, 12XR$15,
etc. Meaning you make 5, 3 or 12 equal payments of so many
Reias. We're not entirely sure how it
works, but we think it may be done the way things were done in the US back in the
40s and 50s. You set up an account with
a particular store and then make payments on your account that match what the
particular purchase.
We just
couldn't believe the things you could put on this type of credit. Shoes, shirts, household goods, vacations,
medicines, everything. Of course, today
in the U.S.
we consolidate all those installment purchases into a single credit card, VISA,
Master Card, or whatever. That way
you're just making one payment for everything.
Not in Brazil. Just imagine the nightmare of keeping track
of 6 or 7 different purchases at a single store with different payment
schedules. I'll bet payments are missed
all the time.
Anyway, this
whole concept of installment payments did not exist in Colonial Brazil until
the Jews showed up. Obviously it's
become a favorite way to buy things today.
Good or bad, we think we'll stick to cash.
In the middle
of the oldest section of Recife
sits a building that looks like nothing more than one of the neighboring
houses. Inside you'll find one of the
better museums in Brazil,
from an English speaker's point of view that is. This was the location of the western
hemisphere's first Jewish synagogue. Its
precise location was discovered only recently.
Recent
investigations into documents made during the Dutch occupation of
Recife revealed that
there was, in fact, a synagogue. Enough
information was found that through triangulation they were able to find the
exact location where they thought it would have been. Excavations eventually located the sacred
pool of water that would have been on the ground floor. In addition several items of metal and glass
showing the star of David and the Minora were found thus confirming the site.
Today the
museum has a very good explanation of the history of the Jews in Brazil and a
recreation of how they think the synagogue might have appeared. With the exception of a few archeological
traces, everything you see is a recreation.
But, it's interesting none the less.
Elsewhere in Recife is a fort that was also built during
Dutch occupation. This fort has the
typical star shape with little corner lookout posts that is common to Spanish
style forts. What is unusual, however,
is that the buildings inside the main wall were built so high they go way above
the top of the wall. You would think
this would have provided the enemies with a great target. Hadn't they heard that it's wise to keep your
head down in a fight.
Inside the
fort is a small military museum with a few old guns, replicas of all flags
flown over Brazil,
and an exposition of old maps. These
maps were of Recife and Olinda made during the Dutch years. It shows the location of the many forts built
to guard the narrow bay entrance, the layout of the streets, front views of
some of the buildings, and the paths of the channels and shapes of the islands
before any filling and restructuring was done.
Those maps were some of the most fascinating we'd found in
Recife so far. It's always fun to see how things looked so
long ago.
One more
church. We were beginning to get our
fill of churches as we'd seen so many since we arrived in Brazil. This one was nicknamed the "golden
chapel" and you can well guess why.
Inside virtually all the walls and ceilings were covered in gold leaf. Only the places where paintings were held was
there no gold leaf. It's amazing to see,
but rather overdone. It seems you'd go
into this church and be so busy looking at the decoration you'd forget to pray.
That was
enough of Recife. We went back to our hotel and expensive pool
for a good cooling soak and an early night in preparation for our very early
morning flight.
January 20 - 25 Belem
Belem is the Portuguese name for the city of
Bethlehem. It is believed that the town's founder named
it Belem
because he began his journey of exploration up the Guama river on Christmas
day. The town was founded in 1616 when
the Portuguese landed and built a fort to deter French, English, Spanish, and
Dutch from staking a claim. In a
practical move, the Portuguese set up the region of Para and Maranhao, the
northeast of Brazil, under
separate administration from the rest of Portugal. This was because the prevailing winds and
currents made the trip from Belem to
Salvador far longer than the trip from Belem
to Lisbon.
During the
1600s and 1700s the economy of Belem
was depended on the labor of enslaved Indians who knew how to find and extract
cacao, vanilla, cinnamon, animal skins, and turtle shells. As the Indio
slaves died from disease and torture, Portuguese slaving expeditions explored
deeper and deeper into the jungles in search of more. Some Indios did survive by escaping deep into
the jungle up some of the smallest Amazon tributaries. Some of these tribes exist there even today,
living much as they have for eons.
During the
1820s and 1830s there was a period of intense civil was between the white
ruling class and the Indios, mestisos, and blacks known as the Cabanagem
Rebellion. In 1835 the mob descended on
the city of Belem,
expropriated the wealth, distributed the food, and declared independence. Unfortunately for them the British, who were
big beneficiaries of the local trade, put into place a naval blockade which
held these rebels at bay until the Brazilian government could strike back. Unfortunately the Brazilian government took things
a bit too far and even 4 years later they were hunting down and killing anyone
who looked like they might have had a role in the uprising.
In the early
1900s Belem
prospered once again during the rubber boom.
Some monuments to this temporary success were built, the Teatro da Paz
and the docks for instance. But even
this short boom was not to last. With
the decline of the rubber boom, the city fell into a general state of
stagnation. Today the city is humming
along once again at a reasonable pace.
There's quite a bit of restoration work under way and the port is still
busy. It seems fairly prosperous but
probably nothing like it was back in the Rubber boom heyday.
We'd begun
our trip to Belem
at the wee hour of 4AM so we could catch a 6AM flight. Two stops, 4 1/2 hours, one box of cookies,
one sandwich, and a bag of peanuts later we touched down in Belem, in the heart of the Amazonian
jungle. Belem
isn't exactly located on the Amazon river, but
it's close enough. A town of 1 1/2
million, it's almost hard to believe this is a city hacked out of dense jungle.
Once again we
had hotel problems. This time it wasn't
a matter of them being full. It was just
that our first two choices were undergoing complete renovation and were closed,
both of them. We finally wound up in the
little French run Le Massilia pousada that proved to be one of those real
finds. It has just 16 rooms overlooking
a small tropical garden with a little swimming pool. The rooms are all spotless, modern, and
everything works just as advertised. The
French owner speaks French, Portuguese, Spanish, English and a little
German. He has such a welcoming
countenance that it's hard not to feel at home.
You just need to learn to say "Bonjour" and "Comment ca
va?" in the morning.
Friday
afternoon and Saturday morning we did almost nothing other than get to know the
town. The atmosphere of
Belem
is far more similar to the Andes countries
than any other Brazilian city we'd seen so far.
One trip report we'd read indicated that these people thought
Belem was a real
dump. Well, that report had to be taken
in perspective. It was written by a
fellow who flew first class to Rio, who stayed with a former exchange student
who warned them about how bad Belem
was, who stayed in the most expensive hotel in town, the Hilton, and who wound
up having money stolen from his room. So
his view was a little biased.
Belem does have more of the chaotic atmosphere
of the poorer Andes countries as well as a
more down in the heel appearance. It's
not the kind of town you can wander around willy-nilly. You do have to be on your guard. As in La
Paz the sidewalks are crowded with makeshift stalls
where people sell just about anything.
There's clothes, food, electronics equipment, knock-off CDs and DVDs,
cheap jewelry, phone cards, all sorts of stuff.
The only problem is there's hardly enough room to walk. Pedestrians almost need to walk in the
streets if you actually want to get anywhere.
What to do in
Belem? We had a lot of time scheduled for this city. We'd planned it that way on purpose just to
make sure we could get on a boat headed up river and get to Santerem in time to
meet our next flight. But, with so many
northern Brazilian cities it's hard to find much to do after the first couple
of days. We did not have to hurry to do
anything.
We started at
the Goeldi museum/park. Unfortunately
most of the museum itself was closed.
Only a couple of rooms, one containing a few pottery shards and the
other a single pot and a basket, were open to visitors. Surrounding the museum is a small zoo that
has several of the Amazonian animals, birds, fish, and reptiles with signs in
very good English. There were turtles,
turtles, and more turtles everywhere.
Evidently breeding Amazonian river turtles must be quite easy. Also, little capybara run wild all over the
place. They look almost like a tailless,
hunchbacked rat with extra long legs running around on its tiptoes. As a nice, shady park, it makes a pretty good
place to spend another hot, muggy afternoon.
On Monday the
museums, galleries, fort, zoo, and all tourist spots are closed. So the tourist just spends time wandering the
streets looking for every possible air-conditioned nook and cranny in which to
hide from the sweltering heat. Again and
again we found ourselves returning to the Iguatemi shopping and the Estacao das
Docas for relief. The cold, dry climate
of Bakersfield
is beginning to look more and more attractive by the day.
Tuesday, it
turns out, all the museums are free.
Closed Monday, free Tuesday. I
guess that's a good trade-off. We took
this opportunity to visit some that we probably would not have seen
otherwise. The Museu do Arte Belem
housed in a government building built at the height of the rubber baron era was
worth visiting just to see the opulent structure. The fort has a number of relics from the
nearby Ilha Mahjory housed in a, thank goodness, air conditioned room, along
with the reconstructed fort walls, a display on the evolution of the fort
structure, and several canon from the 17th century up to the 19th. Finally the "casa das onze janelas"
(house of 11 windows) houses a modern art exhibit that in no way we would have
paid to see. As we looked at these
modern art contraptions we were constantly wondering who in the world would pay
for these things and being ever thankful that we did not pay to enter this
gallery.
Finally, we did wander back and forth
through the "ver o peso" (see the weight), market several times. It was so named because it was here that the
port authorities originally weighed the incoming imports in order to assess
taxes. The current market building is an
iron structure built in Europe and then shipped in pieces to
Belem for assembly. It's painted light blue and is absolutely
covered with steel rivets. With its four
corner towers, it looks a little like a light blue castle. Inside the smell of fresh fish pervades as
this building now houses the main fish market.
Each morning the fishermen in their bright white wooden fishing boats
unload their catch, clean in, weigh it, and display it for sale. We saw some mighty big fish sitting on the
tables in there.
At the wee
hour of 4 AM the phone rang and the alarm went off. Time to head out on the one organized tour
we'd decided to subject ourselves to.
Usually if we can visit a site on our own we do. Tours are just too organized and
limited. In this case, however, we
wanted to visit an island for which there was no public transportation. Just 1/2-hour boat ride toward the ocean is a
small island with an unusual feature.
For some reason parrots have decided to make that particular island
their nighttime roost. At this time of
year over a thousand Amazon Amazonica parrots rest on that island every
night. At other times of year other
migrating parrots join the party making up a flock of some 6 to 7000
birds. Every morning at sunrise the
birds wake up, squeak and squawk, then fly off in pairs to their daytime
feeding grounds.
We stood in
the quiet of the early morning, rocking gently on the boat. We'd joined a couple of English travelers and
a huge group from French Guiana. We stood quiet in the bow while some wise-guy
French speaking fellow at the stern kept cracking jokes. It would have been far more pleasant enjoying
the tranquility of this river scene. At
just a little after 6Am a sudden squawk hit the air. That was just the start. For the next hour the loud din of these very
vocal birds filled the air and flocks upon flocks headed for the sky.
In the early
morning light it was almost impossible to tell the birds were different from
any other we've seen. Yet as daylight
grew we could finally start to make out the green flash of wing feathers and a
little yellow around the eyes. Although
even well into sunrise we still could not tell what kind of birds these were.
These Amazon
Amazonica parrots are the only ones that live in the coastal mangrove forests
of Brazil. They're about 1 1/2 ft in length and have
very short, stubby wings. These are not
birds made for soaring. Rather they have
a very short and fast wing beat needed to keep them aloft. And they do like to squawk while flying. Seems to be some sort of messaging between
the pairs as sometimes they even squeak in unison.
There wasn't
anything else to the tour. Just a ride
in a boat down to the island, an hour or so at anchor while we watched the
birds, and a slow boat ride back. It was
rather expensive for what you got, around $30 each. But there's no other way to get there and
where else do you have the opportunity to watch over 1000 parrots. Although we had thought we'd get a much
closer view than we did so in that respect is was a bit of a disappointment.
January 25 - 28 The Amazon
There are
many ways you can explore the Amazon.
There are package trips that include guide, scheduled tours, first class
boats, and all the works. On these tours
you do the same old stuff; take a walk in the forest, see medicinal plants,
visit a local family, try your hand at a blowgun and piranha fishing. We'd already done all this and had no
interest in doing it again. So that
option was out.
There are
also huge cruise ships that sail up river.
These gigantic hotels on water must look entirely out of place against a
backdrop of rustic wooden houses lifted up on poles and small canoes or packet
boats. In addition, with the passengers
so high above the locals how can you ever interact.
You could try hiring your own boat crew, a difficult,
uncomfortable, and probably expensive.
Or you could
do what the locals have done for decades, buy a spot on one of the transport
boats. There are about 4 that run
upstream each week taking 2 1/2 days to get to the midpoint
port of Santarem
and 5 days to get to Manaus. On Wednesday, the day we wanted to go, it
happened that the largest passenger boat was departing. It was also one of the newer boats, newer
being a relative sense here. So we
thought it'd be the most comfortable and most interactive way to get up stream. Although there was no way we were going to go
all the way to Manaus. Santarem
was more than enough.
Our boat, the
NM Amazon Star, carried a total of 850 passengers. The majority of these passengers are housed
in one of 2 hammock sections. The lowest
class hammock section, lowest in cost and location, houses about 300
people. They're on the lowest deck that
has open sides and no air conditioning.
They string their hammocks up so they are literally shoulder to shoulder
four in a row. Baggage is strung out on
the floor below. They share toilets, 4
or 5 for men and women, and they eat in a stuffy, hot unair-conditioned room
way at the back where all the engine fumes congregate. Showers during the trip are obtained from
using the on deck open showerheads that are turned on for 3 hours in the morning
and 2 in the evening. Not an especially
great option.
Second class
hammocks have very nearly similar arrangements with the exception that glass
windows enclose their deck and supposedly they have a/c. Although it seemed that the a/c often wasn't
working properly. These folks do get to
eat their meals in the a/c restaurant, although the meals aren't all that
great. We accidentally ate their
breakfast one morning as we were having trouble interpreting when we should
eat. They got one tasteless roll, one
piece of fruit, and coffee. We returned
later at our proper seating time to find that the cabins get all the fruit and
rolls you can eat as well as cold water, juice, ham, cheese, and crackers. Quite an upscale.
The next step
up are the camarotes. There are about 44
of these although some house crew members.
These folks have a small room with 2 bunk beds and an individual
a/c. They share a set of 2 toilets per
deck and 2 showers. The cabins could be
quite comfortable for 1 or 2 persons.
But it seems that folks are allowed to pack in children plus tons of
luggage which must make it extremely tight.
Finally there
are the suites. These are almost
identical to the camarotes with the exception of a small bathroom with a small
shower as well. These are not luxurious
cabins, there's a lot of rust on the metal, mattresses are thin, and bedding
consists of a lower sheet and pillow only.
But the room does have enough space for to add 2 plastic chairs and the
bathroom was nice to have. We got the
full upscale meals as well. The suites cost
around twice the cost of the second class hammock section, but we concluded
they were well worth it. We were far
more comfortable than most other travelers were.
By taking the local transportation we had
the opportunity to really see what river life is like. The first thing that surprised us was the
fact that the boat didn't seem to stop very often. We had expected a stop after the first day at
the town of Breves. But that just didn't happen.
Along the
route there aren't that many towns and the ones we saw were extremely
small. Mostly there are small wooden
houses all standing on stilts. The house
is small, but it usually has an accompanying roof covered shelter where much of
the daily work is carried out. There are
pole-mounted docks everywhere. In places
where more than one house has been built there will be pole-mounted walkways
connecting them together. Every house
has at least one wooden canoe and often these square looking packet boats that
are the equivalent of the local bus.
On the river we saw some barges floating
lumber or tractor-trailers up or down stream, a few of the packet boats, and
lots and lots of wooden canoes. The
folks in the canoes were the most amazing.
First, the age of some of the youngest canoers was incredible. Kids that looked to be no more than 3 were
out on the river in their own canoe, no adults, no life jackets. These kids must learn to swim and paddle a
canoe before they even walk.
There is a
tradition whereby folks on the passenger boats will pack up food, clothing or
other store bought items into plastic bags.
These are tossed to the waiting canoes.
One man told us they do this in part because there are no stores
anywhere nearby. There are a few small
"portos" where the locals can buy such as beer and gasoline and there
are a few floating stores that go from house to house. But otherwise they are living mostly on what
they can find in the forest. The plastic
bag wrapped gifts are meant as some assistance.
Almost every house we passed had a canoe out on the water filled with
either one person or the entire family.
So many had hopeful looks on their faces. They were cheerful and waved
as we went by. But, you could sure see a
little look of disappointment on some of those faces when not a bag hit water
near them. In this case it was much
better to live further downstream where the pickings are greatest.
The most
incredible act of the canoers was the hitchhiking. That's right.
As our boat would approach we'd see a canoe coming in perpendicular at
full speed. Usually there were 2 people
on board, women and even kids were included.
As the canoe neared, the bow person would take up a grappling hook while
the stern person continued to paddle and steer.
When close enough the person in front with the grapple would reach
forward and hook something on our boat, usually a tire or another canoe. Often the sudden shock of the canoe being
turned 90 degrees and accelerated up to our boat's speed would pull the bow up
and swamp the rear. The aft person would
use their paddle as a rudder while the fore person would hastily tie off the
grapple hook, climb aboard our boat, and attempt to secure a second rope while
pulling the bow of the canoe up onto one of the tires. The helmsman would then use the paddle to get
some of the water out of the canoe. It
all looked highly dangerous to us.
We saw one
instance where one very, very strong fellow paddled like crazy and still missed
the grapple. So he grabbed his bowline
and jumped into the nearest dragging canoe letting his own canoe drag behind on
the line. Now that was daring. We're convinced he did it just to show off as
he seemed to be moving too slowly at the start of his run. It was as if he gauging his distance to make
this show. It was quite a feat. We never saw him in the upper parts of the
boat and we wondered if those in the lower, hammock section were handing out
tips.
Once aboard,
the canoers would sometimes come around ship selling goods such as palm hearts
in a jar, shrimp, acai fruits, and sugar cane.
These entrepreneurs were making a killing and often would leave ship
with empty canoes and full pockets. Or
they would just hook on for the upstream ride.
Often they carried large plastic fuel containers to be filled at the
local porto. For one thing we did notice
is that these isolated little houses all have a generator, a few electric
lights, a TV, and a satellite dish.
They'd float down river to the porto for the few goods carried there and
then hitch a ride back up.
Our canoe
hitchhikers came and went all day long.
One hour you'd look down to see one set.
An hour later there'd be an entirely new crop. There were so many canoes attached to the
sides and stern on our boat that one passenger said he counted 21 at one
time. Now this was a part of river
travel no cruise liner would ever see.
In fact, we were told that most riverboat captains will not allow the
hitchhikers. So we were lucky. It was the best part of the whole adventure.
Getting the canoes disconnected was an
even trickier maneuver. If there were
another canoe in the way it would be difficult to get yours out without getting
tangled. Often the inexperienced boys
would get swamped. We watched one trio
while their canoe went under the one behind and one by one the boys got left
behind in the river. With some effort
from someone aboard out boat, the canoe eventually let go. Fortunately these boys are expert swimmers,
there are always other canoes around to help, everything they own floats, and
the current isn't especially strong.
They were fine. But, it seems
that one-day some of these canoers will get hurt or killed and this old
tradition will come to an end.
Today going
up the Amazon on the passenger boat has to be about the closest thing to riding
up the Mississippi
in the days of the paddle wheelers as you can get. Yes the propulsion system is different; you
don't have to stop to load on wood all the time. But the river life has to be very similar. Mark Twain notes in his book "Life on
the Mississippi"
how there were just scattered houses along the way, usually on stilts. Everyone went everywhere in boats, rowboats
or rafts. Everything, absolutely
everything, revolves around the river, as there are no roads.
Life aboard
the boat quickly becomes a repetition of the same thing day after day. We'd chosen to take the boat only as far as
Santerem figuring that 2 1/2 days was plenty.
We'd heard many times that while staying on for the full 5 days is quite
an experience, it is also a huge relief to get off. We figured that 2 days would be more than
enough to get a feel for river life.
You're not going to see animals, so it's things like these daring
canoers that you come to see. So while
we settled into our 2-day adventure housed in our little suite under the care
of the ever-watchful cabin guardian, Vitoria,
we lazed the days away. And yes we were
quite ready to get off the boat by the time it reached Santarem.
January 29 - 31 - Santarem
Santarem is a small town of around 200,000
located almost exactly midway between Belem and
Manaus on the mighty Amazon river. It is an isolated city carved out of the
middle of the dense jungle with primary access only through the river. It's a place that gets hot and steamy during
the day and just slightly less hot and steamy at night. Even the daily rains do nothing to mitigate
the oppressive heat.
Early
European explorers came to the Santarem
area in the early 16th century. Their
chronicles give accounts of swarms of canoes coming out to do battle and Indian
long houses lined up along the riverbanks.
In fact archeological evidence indicates that people had been living in
this region for over 10,000 years. It
wasn't until disease and slavery decimated the locals that the Amazon attained
its current unpopulated appearance.
Santarem began life as a Jesuit mission in the
17th century. It grew slowly
experiencing short booms during the rubber era and just after the construction
of the road to Cuiaba. One of its most colorful events in
Santarem's history
involved henry Ford. In an attempt to
kill the British monopoly on rubber, Ford set up a similar rubber tree
plantation program that the British had going in Asia. Unfortunately for Ford the site selected was
not suitable for growing rubber trees.
He never did manage to get the rubber program off the ground, but he did
leave an interesting legacy. There are
two nearby towns; one that is called Fordlandia and to this day mimics a
Midwestern town.
In Santarem
there's little to see or do. There's one
small but surprisingly good museum and a church or two. Outside of town is the small beach community
of Alter do Chao where most Saltaremos go to shake off some of the heat on
weekends. Alter do Chao is popular only
because it has a long white sandy beach and clear water. There are many things, some very large and
very vicious, lurking in the muddy waters of the Amazon and many even who were
born and raised on its banks are afraid to enter.
We went over
to Altar do Chao for an afternoon just to see what was there. As expected we found a beach covered with
beach chairs, umbrellas, and swimsuit clad bodies. There were swimmers in the water and canoes,
kayaks, motor boats, water skiers, and tube riders on top. The primary beach is located across a lagoon
on a white sandy spit of land. In low
water season you can wade across. At
this time there was a brisk business of rowboats porting people back and forth
all day long. There's a continual stream
of boats crossing and recrossing which was a rather amusing sight to see.
We hadn't
come to swim, just to watch and walk along the beach. UV ratings this close to the equator and at
the middle of the day reach the 10 mark.
Even just sitting in the shade on our Amazon boat we were still getting
burned over and over again. So we covered
up, endured the heat, and just sat in the shade to watch the swimmers and
boaters. The sun is just too brutal for
us northerners.
Despite not
having much to visit in the way of museums, the little city of
Santarem proved to be quite interesting. All along the new, concrete river walk the
river life that is the mainstay of this city buzzes with activity day and
night. For over a km there are
riverboats of all sizes tied up, pulling in, or departing, loading, unloading,
or just waiting for their next departure.
With the water at midlevel, people had to climb down about 10-foot
ladders to gain access to the boats.
However, we heard that at high water it's even possible for the river to
overrun the wall and flood the city.
Amazon river boats come in all sorts of sizes but are
usually of a common style. Their hulls
are long and narrow with fairly rounded bows and sterns. They have flat decks and roof and can be from
one to 3 decks high. They're made of
wood, painted white with colorful, usually blue, trim. The lower deck is usually used for cargo and
the upper for passengers. Wooden
railings surround all decks. At the
front and back of the upper deck there is usually small cabin space for the
bathroom, crew cabins, passenger cabins, galley, and the wheelhouse. When in transit, the space between cabins
becomes absolutely filled with hammocks.
Given the
shape and characteristics of these river boats, you'd just need to add a couple
of black smoke stacks and a big wheel on the back or sides and you'd have
precisely the kind of paddle wheel boat that used the ply the waters of the
Mississippi. With over 50 boats tied up at the river front
railing to railing at all times, all the activity including animal traffic, and
the shape of the boats we could easily imagine what a typical Mississippi river
city of, say of the was like. We felt as
though we were getting a rare peek into the past.
There are
probably very few places remaining where you can get this kind of unique
view. We did not see it in
Belem because our up
river transport did not depart from the main docks. Even at Manaus
it didn't quite feel the same. The boats
there are larger, more uniform in size, the docks more structured, and the
access more difficult. So while in
Santarem we just couldn't
resist watching this boat activity all day long. We spent hours and hours walking up and down
the river walk or finding shady places to sit and watch this remarkable scene.
We weren't
the only ones. The new and improved
river walk is a continuing project of the Santarem
municipality. Recent additions were put
in place in 2000 and the materials for more distance currently sit on shore
waiting funding to be put into place. At
the time we visited there was over 3 km of walkway available and every evening
the townfolk come out to stroll or jog its length. But, nothing compares with Sunday.
On Sunday
evening, as the sun sets and the river walk finally moves into the shade, it
seems that the entire town comes out from their houses and descends on the
walkway. While just one block inland the
town is dead quiet, the riverfront is absolutely alive. Families bring their kids to the park to play
on the swings. Teen-age girls come out
in their finest version of the latest styles to get noticed by the teen
boys. The elderly bring folding chairs
to sit by the wall and people watch.
Vendors selling fresh cooked pizzas, hotdogs, hamburgers, and hot
sandwiches pull their carts alongside the wall and set out cushions for
seating. Balloon vendors, candy sellers,
and even a fellow who converts old cans into unique caps all come to the park
to sell their wares. This is the place
where all the activity can be found.
Even though
we arrived at Santarem
wondering whether we should have made our stay a day shorter, we wound up
finding it a great place to make a stop.
In the end it will probably prove to be one of the most memorable places
of our Brazilian trip. The entire scene
was so amazing. We wouldn't have missed
it for the world.
February 1 - 3 Manaus
Manaus is located about 1000 miles up the
Amazon which really is less than 1/2 the total distance of the river. It's a huge city of 1.7 million whose only
access is either by a road-stretching north to Caracas or by ship. Virtually everything you
find in the stores has to be brought in by boat and, consequently, prices are
significantly higher. To encourage
investment and development in the region, Brazil set up part of the city as a
duty free zone. The idea was to
encourage development of manufacturing plants and bring money into the
region. What it wound up doing was
bringing a lot of people into an area way in the middle of nowhere and a lot of
import companies. It helped a few people
right in the area, but did little for the rest of Brazil.
Tourists usually
come to Manaus
to make some sort of excursion into the jungle.
Usually this is in the form of a Jungle lodge visit. However, coming to Manaus to see wildlife at one of the local
lodges is just wishful thinking. With a
city of this size, almost all wildlife within a 250-km radius has been woefully
reduced in numbers. You'd have to
venture way up one of the small tributaries to regions where only the local
Indios have the skills to penetrate.
Then you'd have to stay in this backcountry for weeks or even
months. Maybe then, if you are real
lucky, you might see some wildlife. But
don't count on it. It's easy to imagine
all those wildlife shows put on by National Geographic. But, you have to realize that those
photographers and movie producers do exactly what we just described.
If you do opt
for a jungle lodge visit you'll see lots of plants, probably those 1 inch long
poisonous ants, lots of insects, maybe frogs, some birds, and probably a few
caged animals. All the lodges do the
usual piranha fishing, which may yield a few nibbles and not much else, a visit
to a local family, a blow gun contest, walks in the forest, and some discussion
of the medicinal uses for the various plants.
Not much else.
Having done
all these things at the Yarina lodge in Ecuador the year before we opted
not to do it again. That did not prevent
the multiple of tour guide operators from trying to get us to sign up. At the airport, walking down the street while
looking for a laundromat or in front of the Teatro Amazonas obvious jungle tour
salesmen continually approached us. We
quickly got to the point of ignoring their usual introduction query of
"Are you looking for information?"
Manaus downtown is not a particularly
attractive city. Very few of the
buildings from the rubber boom days remain and most that do are in wretched
condition. During the day the sidewalks
are crammed with pedestrians and street vendors. It is almost impossible to walk anywhere at
any faster pace than what the throng is moving.
Brian would manage to squeeze past a row of pedestrians just as they'd
close ranks and I'd be stuck strolling along behind. At night, after the venders shut down, you
find a street filled with trash both from the stores lining the streets and
from the pedestrians. Brazilians have
that very common Latin American litter habit.
Choosing not
to head out on another jungle trek, we spent our time trying to find things to
do in the town. There were a few
museums, Museu do Indio
and Museu Amazonica both house essentially the same types of displays. They both have feathered headdresses,
pottery, baskets, blowguns, arrows and bows.
Explanations for the items were in Portuguese, if they existed at all,
but the Museu Amazonica did provide a good English-speaking guide.
Such a nice
lady, she added so much to the exhibits that we would not have gotten
otherwise. She told us about the ritual
the young girls of one nearby tribe go through after their first menses. Their hair is pulled out, they are restricted
to their homes for 6 months, and they're only allowed to see their mother or
sisters during the entire time. After
the 6 months they come out looking somewhat white, white compared to the
natives but still dark compared to us northern Europeans. Immediately she is married and expected to
produce children. Our guide told us
she's encountered 10 year old Indios who were already pregnant. One grows up fast in those societies.
The boys get to go through their own
particular form of puberty rites of passage.
They are required to stick their hand into a woven basket that is full
of those poisonous ants. They get stung
many times and have to endure a full day of wrenching pain and sickness. Any boy who refuses to pass this test is not
considered a man. What fun.
After visiting
the museums we made an impromptu stop at the Palacio Rio Negro. Behind this lovely old rubber baron's mansion
we found several full size examples of typical Amazonian structures complete
with English explanations. There was a
river dweller's house, a typical riverboat, a tribal roundhouse, a rubber
collector's workshop, a shop for converting the manioc root into powder, and
several other buildings. This was
perhaps one of the most interesting museums we've seen in Brazil. It's almost, but not quite, like a living
history museum. Definitely well worth
the stop.
Of course we
had to visit the Teatro Amazonica. This
incredibly opulent building was first envisioned in 1881 and finally
inaugurated in 1896 following several years of no work due to massive
corruption. It operated for 72 years and
then was shuttered after the collapse of the rubber boom. It was not restored and reopened until 1997.
It's a
beautiful structure; very similar in form to the Teatro do Paz in
Belem only seemingly a
little bit more sophisticated. Except
for the odd dome on top. The then
governor purchased this colorful tiled dome while on a trip to Europe. He saw the
dome and decided, on a whim, it would be nice to add to the theater. It looks wholly out of place especially since
it was never envisioned in the original design.
Imagine the architect's horror when, upon his return, the mayor proudly
presents this huge colorful dome to be perched atop this elegant theater
structure.
The theater is constructed mostly from articles
imported from Europe. Italian marble, French chandeliers, iron
columns from Scotland, and
even an electric generator from the US.
Even though the wood is of local origin, much of it was sent off to Europe for carving.
So it really was a European theater stuck out in the middle of the
Amazon jungle.
The building
was designed with a few rather interesting technical innovations. Under the main floor there are air
passages. Every 2 or 3 rows there are
large round disks under the seats. These
are ventilation shafts used to admit some cooler air during the show. They're still in place only for show as the
entire theater today has air conditioning.
The interior
columns are all made from Scottish steel.
The idea was that the steel would better reflect the sound than wood or
plaster thus improving the acoustics.
Also, outside the entire drive that used to encircle the theater was
originally paved in a composite of rubber and stone. This was intended to deaden the noise of late
arriving carriages. The doors to the
theater were left open during performances so any external noise would be
distracting. Finally the electric
generator was used to light all the chandeliers as well as the interesting
lampposts out on the street. This was
probably one of the few buildings in all of Manaus that had electric lighting so it must
have been quite a sight at show time.
We did have
the unique opportunity to experience a performance in the theater. It happened that on our last night there was
a free concert put on by the Manaus
orchestra. It was an hour or so long
show with a small string ensemble. Most
of the music was good, although their final piece was rather weird. Best of all was the fact that it was free one
of the few free things we've found in Manaus.
The last
thing we visited was the local zoo run by the army. This branch of the army is different in that
they are not trained to fight other armies.
They're supposed to be in charge of protecting preserved sections of the
Amazon. How good a job they're actually
doing remains to be seen. Our guide in
the Museu Amazonica told us that even though the citizens of Manaus keep
replanting the Pau Brazil trees, 20 or 30 years later companies keep coming
along and chopping all their trees down.
So maybe the army isn't all that successful after all.
Anyway, this
zoo houses examples of Amazonian fauna that were "rescued" by the
army. Or, as one Dutch fellow we met
proposed, maybe they used these animals to study and for training. In any event, it's here in this zoo where
you'll see the most Amazonian animals.
Certainly far more than you'll see in any jungle lodge. There were all kinds of parrots, two harpy
eagles, a toucan, some tapirs, several of the larger cats, turtles, crocodiles,
and an interesting small cat they called an Eyra cat. Looking at our Amazonian animal reference
book we concluded that it is actually a jaguarundi. It's not much larger than a house cat with a
longer, sleeker body and a dark silvery gray coat. The sign claimed that these cats could be
found from Texas
to the Amazon. We'll have to check on
this, as
we've never heard of them being in
Texas.
The Brazilian
phone company has a lot of fun with its public phone booths. There are the normal ones, the funny blue
fiberglass covers that have been given the nickname "ear". Then there are the more unique. We've seen phone booths made to look like
coconuts, ancient pottery, a crab sitting on top a carved coconut shell bowl, a
cashew fruit, fish, piranha, and parrots.
Here in the zoo the company went to extremes. They've got phone booths dressed up like
large cats, tapir, capybara, crocodiles, parrots, and toucans. It's fun to see a new version of the phone
booth and even more amusing to see someone standing talking into the belly of
some gigantic bird.
The zoo was
well worthwhile even though the cages were more reminiscent of early zoos
rather than the more commodious accommodations now built in such places as the
San Diego zoo. At least we did get to see some of the
animals on our list of must see, even if they were captive.
February 4 - 9 Cuiaba
Around 1000
miles back south, a long way from the equator and the Amazonian river basin, we
headed for our final stop on our Brazilian adventure, Cuiaba and the Pantanal.
Cuiaba itself has just a few items of interest
to the tourist. We stopped in at the
municipal aquarium where we had the opportunity to see several of the fish
species that inhabit the river right out in front of the building. The tank full of piranha was most exciting. Such calm, innocent looking fish. There is also a small historical museum that,
unfortunately, was closed for renovation when we arrived. So we found ourselves just wandering for a
full day while we waited for the day for which we'd reserved a car. Once we had that car, however, we were off
and running.
While the
Amazon is the place to go to experience the river life, the Pantanal is the
place to go to see wildlife and Cuiaba
is one of the main portals to the Pantanal.
Around 500 million years ago this are was covered in ice. Another 200 million years later it was
covered by a shallow sea. Eventually the
Andes rose up while the area of the Pantanal
remained low or even sank. Today it is
still somewhat a shallow sea that is drying up.
More like a seasonal swamp, as it is usually flooded for 6 months and
dry for the other six.
What makes it
so easy to see the wild life is that it has mostly grass lands with islands of
tree covered high ground. When flooded,
the grass lands become swamps and the wild animals congregate on the high
ground. In the dry season the wildlife
congregates around the few ponds. So
visiting either time of the year will usually yield good wildlife viewing. Yet again, there is always the element of
luck involved.
The lands that are really known as the
Pantanal start just 10 miles south of a little town called Pocone which is
around 75 or so km south southwest from Cuiaba. There is a dirt road that continues around
150 km further south deep into the Pantanal itself. Originally intended to provide a direct
connecting road between Campo Grande and
Cuiaba, the government
eventually gave up on the idea figuring that it would be unwise to build a road
through a region that is flooded half the year.
Today this rough dirt road can be traveled using even the small VW Gol
car for as far as you feel comfortable.
Along the
Transpanteira there are over 100 wooden bridges that are periodically
rebuilt. The further from Pocone you get
the less often the bridges are rebuilt.
We went as far as around 117 km, actually passing the 4 or 5 men who
were tasked with bridge reconstruction, and finally came to a bridge that
looked just a little too rickety. Here
we turned back and returned to Cuiaba.
As our luck would have it, we were not
fortunate enough to see as many of the mammal species as we'd hoped. One deer and an armadillo was it. We did add a large number of other animals to
our "have seen" list including: roadrunner lizards, several iguanas
including one bright green one, a large whip snake, and some crocodiles. Yet it was birds we spotted the most, an
amazing variety of birds. We saw loads
of snowy egrets, gray storks, hawks, vultures, kingfishers, and parrots. In addition we were fortunate enough to spot
no less than 4 toucans including the toco toucan with its black body and orange
beak, 4 huge white storks with their red neck ring and black neck and head, one
mottled brown burrowing owl, and one large eagle with a brown back and creamy
white head. Plus all sorts of little
birds with colors ranging from bright orange to pure black.
Even after we
left the lowlands of the Pantanal to hit the higher grounds of the Chapada das
Guimereos, we saw even more parrots and a big flock of those gigantic
rheas. The rheas were busy nipping seeds
or insects from some farmer's newly planted fields. Certainly we would have to say we did see far
more wildlife around Cuiaba
than we ever did in the Amazon, even if we did not get to see the mammals we'd
hoped for.
After the
long, slow drive up and down the Transpanteira we headed 5-km northeast of
Cuiaba to the cliffs of
Chapada das Guimereos. When the Andes were rising and the Pantanal was lowering, the
Chapada was also going up, a little.
It's less than 3000 ft above sea level, so it did not raise all that
much. The area that rose makes a sharp
cliff going east to west. Wind and water
erosion over the eons have produced dramatic canyons, caverns, caves, and rock
sculptures. These can be visited in the
Parque Nacional Chapada das Guimereos.
We entered
the park at around 9 AM hoping to get in some descent hiking before the heat
and humidity of the day set in. Lucky
for us we arrived on a day that started with a cool, misty fog. By the time the mist burned off, around 4
hours later, we'd finished hiking the few trails that there are and were ready
to head back to Cuiaba. One thing you quickly learn is that just
minutes in the Brazilian heat and you're covered from head to foot in
sweat. It's just not a comfortable place
for extreme activity.
Chapada das Guimereos park is situated
along the edge of these red eroded cliffs whose total height is only about
1,000 ft. The red rocks in their
bizarrely eroded forms look a bit like the hoodoos of Bryce
Canyon in Utah.
The valleys are covered in dense green jungle, a perfect hideout for
some of the park's residents including monkeys.
The top of the cliffs are covered with short bush size trees and
grass. The upper cliff lands must be
ideal for farming, as there are huge farms all along the top. We're talking thousand acres, fully
mechanized farms. It was on one of these
farms where we saw all those rheas munching on the seeds. The park, at least, has been left natural.
There are
about 4 to 5 km of trails within the park.
Probably 95% of Brazilian visitors simply walk the 50 or so meters to
the veu da Noiva (overlook of bridal veil falls). With a vertical drop of 85 meters over a
recessed cliff, this is the most spectacular falls in the entire park. As we find so often in the U.S. people in
the parks will do as little as they possibly can. They drive to the overlook, get out of their
car (maybe), take one look, and leave.
Brazilians are no different. One
family who arrived just as we were leaving walked to the overlook and then
returned to the restaurant to eat. Lucky
for us this meant that we were able to hike the rest of the trails absolutely
by our selves.
The trails
aren't well marked. You're left guessing
where you are until you do happen across one of the few signs that gives you
some indication of where you are. The
trail heads out across the flatlands on the top of one of the eroded
peninsulas. Then it drops over a
precarious route to the edge of the river that it follows for about 1-km. There are side trails to a series of 4
waterfalls each having drops of just a few meters. In some places in the U.S. these
would be considered to be just a series of large rapids. But here, in this relatively flat country,
they're waterfalls. Probably the main
interest for any Brazilian are the pools that form under the falls. One thing we learned about Brazil is that
swimming seems to be the most favorite pastime.
We wandered
around the park for several hours until the heat and humidity became just too
oppressive. We scanned the treetops
hoping to see a monkey or two with no luck.
We did get to see another flock of green parrots, a bird that seems to
be quite common here. After that it was
time to return to Cuiaba
and prepare for our flight back to LA.
So much for Brazil and
South America.
It's time to concentrate on another continent.
References:
Lonely Planet
Brazil,
2005 edition
