Jessie's Amazon Journal
Jessie Brown's Journal from her Amazon Trip - August, 2007
Jessie is CEN's board Secretary. Although she has traveled around Africa quite a bit, she had never been to Brazil and squeezed it in before she left to attend Graduate School in Oxford, England in September 2007. Jessie's been a volunteer with CEN since 2004 and covered the cost of her flight there and back.................................................................................................................................
Thursday, August 16th - Santarém
After a grand total of five flights from Seattle I arrived here in Santarém last night around 3am. I met up with Angela at the airport in Rio de Janeiro and the two of us flew together to Santarém. As Rio is in the South of the country, along the coast, and Santarém is in the North-central portion of the country, this was a significant journey - 2 plane flights that were a couple hours each.
The Santarém airport is about 30 minutes by taxi from the actual city of Santarém. It is very tiny - the singular baggage conveyor belt is about half the size of my living room, which for some reason in the wee hours of the morning I found amusing.
Santarém is a small city of over three hundred thousand people, situated in the middle of the Amazon Rain forest along the Tapajós River (one of the main branches that goes into the Amazon).
The Tapajós is so wide at this point that the waterfront almost feels like the ocean. You can see the other side of the river (or at least islands in the river), but it is many miles away. There is a wide sidewalk that goes down the beach for the length of the town. As you walk along the shore, you see riverboats crowding the shoreline with their front ends pulled up on the beach, vendors selling things from ice cream to soda to fish to coconut milk, and shops that line the street opposite the beach.
Santarem Waterfront
While Angela remarked at how calm the place seemed in comparison to Rio (which it definitely was!) I was all the same struck by how lively it felt in comparison to what I had expected. Lots of people were out and about in the middle of the day. Although, I must say that even though there were a lot of people, they didn't seem to be in a particular hurry, contrary to Rio. And there were so many boats! It really illustrated how central the river is to the local economy and way of life. Many of the nearby communities get their basic goods here in town, and can only get to town by boat. Things people buy here include flour, rice, beans, bottled beverages, and ice (since most people do not have access to energy for a refrigerator).
Today Angela and I did a lot of preparations for our upcoming trip into the Amazon communities. We had to purchase all of our food and drinks, as well as our hammocks, which we will need to carry on our voyage by boat to Suruacá tomorrow. Djalma, who would be our host in Suruacá, met up with us here in Santarém and helped us pick out what we needed.
During this process we got to explore the city of Santarém a little bit. I must admit that it is a more modern city than I had expected. I didn't expect so much development in such a remote area. For one, most of the cars were quite nice - on average not too different from what you would see around Seattle. Of course the major difference would be that your average person cannot afford to have a car (nor do they know how to drive, even), but still, I was struck by the definite lack of old beaters. Also, I was surprised by how many banks there were - an indication of how many local people there are around here who use them1. (And I can certainly attest that they do use them, having stood in many a line at the ATM's). Also there were lots of multi-story buildings, quite a few rather nice restaurants, and lots of hotels.
During the daytime it gets quite hot and humid - I was definitely really sweaty by the time we were finished with our errands! At least it cools off substantially at night, and after a shower going out on the town is quite pleasant. The mornings are nice too, but you'd better be prepared for it to be hot by 10am or so.
And if you want to go out for dinner, there is a range of options for food. You might spend $3.00 total for a full plate of buffet style fish, salad, meat, and potatoes or your could spend about $20.00 to have a fancier meal at a nice restaurant with live music.
As I have been here I have noted that the dress is quite casual. While I had expected this from pictures I had seen, I was nonetheless pleased to encounter men and women alike wearing shorts and t-shirts/tank tops and a generally laid back attitude regarding clothing. This was quite different compared to my personal experience traveling in the "developing" world (various parts of Africa and Asia) where as a general rule people (and women in particular) tend to cover up more even despite very hot weather.
1. A bank account is required to receive many forms of government assistance and so a very high percentage of families have an account.
Today we took the boat from Santarém to the small community of Suruacá. It was a small riverboat with about 30 people and about 15 hammocks strung up across the deck on top of one another. Angela and I brought our own hammocks which we stayed in for the majority of the six hour boat ride. The boat goes from Santarém to Suruacá only twice per week, so people really need to plan around the schedule.
In addition to the ice and groceries which they had purchased in town, many people on the boat bought gasoline as the boat passed the gas station on the way out of town. They handed empty 2-liter coke bottles to the gas station attendants to fill up. Apparently this is illegal, as it presents a fire hazard on the boat. But it appeared to be the accepted norm, as energy sources are very limited once you get out of the city.
On the Boat
Being out on the huge river with a nice breeze and under the shade of the boat's roof the weather was really almost ideal. It did rain twice during the six hour trip, which meant that people had to pull tarps down to cover the open sides of the boat and prevent everyone's belongings from getting wet. But the rain starts and stops very suddenly. And when the sun came back out it was truly a beautiful scene. We passed by many sandy beaches nestled between the rain forest and the river. There were several people out on the water in canoes who flashed the "thumbs up" sign to us. Which reminds me that here in Brazil hand gestures are very important for communication. Thumbs up can mean anything from "okay" to "thank you" to "that's good!"
When it came time for a stop where people get off, the two boat crewmen would throw the ice chests into the water and walk them up onto the shore. They would carry the non-waterproof items over their shoulders as they were knee-waist deep in water. This included my large backpack full of electronics - "please don't drop it!" I hoped, but they never seemed to drop anything.
At one of the stops a little girl about 9 or 10 years old was washing her laundry in the river, on one of the common wooden platforms designed for this purpose. As we were leaving her big sister ran into the water and tackled her - starting a rowdy frenzy of splashing, dunking, and swimming. This life didn't look too bad!
The first sight I saw of
Suruacá:
The stairs from the river up to the community
As we were nearing Suruacá, Djalma pointed out several other communities that would benefit from the micro-hydroelectric dam2. They were even smaller communities, only about 10-20 families each. He said it would be about 800 people total who would benefit.
Suruacá was one of the last stops, and by the time we got there the sun was about to set. Angela and I were very surprised to discover how big Suruacá is in terms of land. While all of the houses and buildings are clustered together in one place, the land belonging to the community continues for several kilometers along the shore. When we finally arrived, I could see that Suruacá was different from most of the other communities we had stopped at. While the others are settled right next to the beach, Suruacá is perched atop a steep hill (almost a cliff) overlooking the ocean-like river, with a long sandy beach below. Kids were swimming in the river when we got there and seemed to be having a grand old time. And while they definitely seemed to take interest in me, they didn't have that look of astonishment at seeing a white person that I have experienced in other remote rural parts of the world.
When we got to Djalma's house we had a simple but tasty spaghetti dinner. His wife, Margarete, prepared it for us and their family. They have three adorable sons who are young enough to still be living at home. Their other 5 kids are grown up and out of the house, although they come around often. Well, actually one teenage guy I wasn't sure if he lives here or not, but he is around a lot at least. They also ate armadillo, which Djalma had hunted. Being pseudo-vegetarian I did not partake in the armadillo consumption, although according to Angela it was really quite good!
Djalma Lima and his family
(with wife Magarete)
A typical "stove" in a Suruacá house
When it came time to sleep, we hung our hammocks up in a brand new house right next to Djalma's. Nobody has even lived in it yet - I am not sure why. Like other houses in the community, it was equipped with running water as well as electricity (although the electricity only comes on for a few hours on certain evenings of the week and most homes only have a couple of light bulb and a receptacle or two). The house seems to be made out of clay bricks, which is different from a lot of the older houses that are made of wood. It has 4 rooms and a bathroom with a shower, toilet, and sink.
I was so comfy in my hammock that I did not want to get out to take a shower. But I finally did, which was a bit of an adventure I must say. Since our new shower wasn't working, we used Djalma's outdoor shower. Since it was dark, I had my little keychain flashlight (which I had purchased at the airport when I realized that I forgot my flashlight/headlamp). The little light was enough to scare away the cockroaches but not the gargantuan spider that situated himself right at eye level on the inside wall of the shower. I tried turning on the shower and spraying him, and banging on the wall of the shower, but nothing would make him go away. Djalma had warned us about these huge spiders - including their legs they are at least as big as my palm. Their bodies aren't too huge - about like half of my thumb - but they have these long blue-gray plastic-looking legs that are both cool and creepy at the same time. According to Djalma they aren't poisonous, though, although if they do bite you (which is rare) it will itch. So I just got in the shower with my little spider friend and kept my eyes on him the whole time. "If you move so much as one millimeter" I said to him, "I am out of here!" But he didn't move so I cautiously proceeded with my shower.
Clean and well fed, I am now about to go to sleep in my hammock, with the sound of crickets and occasional dog barks coming in the open window.
2. CEN has been mentoring the community leadership from Suruacá on building a micro-hydroelectric dam. Suruacá developed a preliminary proposal and has driven through most of the approvals they need. We are now helping draft a more detailed proposal and attempting to locate sources of funding for the project.