Alter de Chao is located an hour bus ride away from Santarem. We booked a 2 days trip to the primary rain forest located on the eastern bank of the Tapajos river. The trip started at 8.30 am which is actually quite late for jungle trekking. From Alter de Chao, the village we spent the night we had to take a boat upstream on the river. The ride was quite bumpy because of the waves and took 1.5 h. We arrived to a small riverside community with 90 families. After arrival we looked around in the village, visited the local bars- there were 2 of them, both had a pool table, which seems to be obligatory in all the communities - the small school, the community house where they hold meetings, the manioc processing hut, and the football field (every small village must have one). The houses seemed to be in a good shape, scattered far away from each other and with animals running around them, e.g. pigs, chicken, ducks. That village even had electricity and most of the houses had satellite dishes in order to receive lots of TV channels. We were told that there is a huge soap opera cult in Brazil and the theory goes that this is why the birth rate has decreased dramatically over the past few years... Indeed in the house of the village chief the TV seemed to run all the time we were around and most of the family members were watching it. It has to be added however that it was a weekend as well, when people tend to have more time for such activity.
In the afternoon we went for a bit of paddling on a small creek which ran into the Tapajos river. The landscape was very impressive, with bright green grass on the banks and semi-dry trees. The water was the clearest I have ever seen before with all the water plants visible and with many many fish one might see in aquariums in Europe. I just loved that area. During paddling we have spotted jackanas running up and down along the bank, and a few other birds including king fisher and an eagle. It was very easy to see the fish in that transparent water and so we have seen among ca 10-15 other species piranhas. They were relatively small and harmless as we were told, so at the end of the boat ride we even went swimming and snorkeling. It was a very cool experience!!!
When we finished with snorkeling, we paddled closer to the Tapajos, which was separated by a big sand dune from the small creek and started walking back to the village on that sandy beach. The next surprise was the 6000 years old pieces of pottery scattered all over on the beach. These are the oldest signs of human civilization in whole Latin America. And we were just walking among them!!! Those pieces were really everywhere. Our guide told us that archeology is underfunded in Brazil, so the scientist have no money to collect them. Weired. In Europe such a site would be closed down from the public and would be buzzing with archaeologists... On the beach we also found colored clay in yellow and red which was used back then to paint the pottery. Quite strangely, this whole beach is flooded during the wet season - when by the way one might see peixe boi (manatee) in these waters – so why all these pieces of pottery are not washed away is a mystery to me...
Next we jumped into our motorboat and drove downstream to a neighboring community where most of the people live on latex production. This area used to be a rubber plantation a few decades ago and now they are tapping the remaining trees to produce rubber. They are also making a few articles for sale, e.g. bags, hats, sandals, pen holders and rubber animals (similar to the rubber ducks used in the bath tubs...). In the village we were shown the process of latex making and visited the small shop. We bought a rubber manatee (what else?!) and a small rubber frog as an amulet. This frog is the symbol of good luck in this region and is depicted on the pavement and in the parks in the towns we visited.
After a sunset cruise we returned to our home community where we had dinner and slept on the beach in hammocks. We were sitting at a bonfire and sipped caipirinha before going to bed. A relaxing way to end the day.
Next morning we had a jungle hike which was supposed to take 6 hours. The community we visited is located a protected area, the Floresta Nacional do Tapajos . There are few hiking trials which one can visit with a guide. The guides all come from the communities in the park and are trained by the EMBA, the organization which is responsible for the National Parks and Reserves. This is also a way how locals make a living. Besides the latex production they live on tourism.
The hike was pretty cool, the first half was in secondary forest and we passed by plantations as well. The second half was in primary forest with quite a few huge trees. The end point of the hike was a 600 years old gigantic tree. We felt like small ants standing next to it. It needs 25 people to hug its trunk!!! it was very impressive!!! Along the way our guide explained us a lot about the trees we have passed and their possible usage e.g. eatable fruits, leaves to cover the roof of the houses, resins to make boats waterproof and which part of which tree is good as medicine. He was really knowledgeable and told us that their community learned all these things from the indigenous population which does lived there before them and which does not exist any more. Nevertheless their genes survive partially, because the colonizers produced offspring with them, so the current inhabitants are their descendants. About the jungle: it is really as it is described in the books. Many trees, impressive flora but very little visible of the abundant fauna. One only sees the small animals, which I found just as interesting as the big mammals. The funniest thing was the swarms of caterpillars on tree trunks. The aggregate for the sake of protection and form fuzzy spots on the trees. Touching them is not advise as they burn the skin with their secrets. An other cool creature was a huge grasshopper ca. 20 cm long!!! We also saw huge butterflies, some of them had camouflage colors but some of them were shiny blue. These latter ones one can see often in insect collections of museums and here they were just flattering around everywhere. There were also many many ants, most of them marching in a line across or along our path. Some of them were like 1.5 cm big and had huge scissor like mouth-pieces. These are used by the local to stitch wounds, just like in Africa. At the end of the hike we also saw silver tamarins jumping around on the trees (small white monkeys with black tail). So at the end it was a very enjoyable trekking. As we stopped so many times along the way to listen to the guides explanation, the hike took us 8 hours. Eventually we got back to Alter de Chao around 8 pm, a few hours later than planned, but for that we had a beautiful boat ride back with the setting sun and a few river dolphins jumping around our boat.
In the afternoon we went for a bit of paddling on a small creek which ran into the Tapajos river. The landscape was very impressive, with bright green grass on the banks and semi-dry trees. The water was the clearest I have ever seen before with all the water plants visible and with many many fish one might see in aquariums in Europe. I just loved that area. During paddling we have spotted jackanas running up and down along the bank, and a few other birds including king fisher and an eagle. It was very easy to see the fish in that transparent water and so we have seen among ca 10-15 other species piranhas. They were relatively small and harmless as we were told, so at the end of the boat ride we even went swimming and snorkeling. It was a very cool experience!!!
When we finished with snorkeling, we paddled closer to the Tapajos, which was separated by a big sand dune from the small creek and started walking back to the village on that sandy beach. The next surprise was the 6000 years old pieces of pottery scattered all over on the beach. These are the oldest signs of human civilization in whole Latin America. And we were just walking among them!!! Those pieces were really everywhere. Our guide told us that archeology is underfunded in Brazil, so the scientist have no money to collect them. Weired. In Europe such a site would be closed down from the public and would be buzzing with archaeologists... On the beach we also found colored clay in yellow and red which was used back then to paint the pottery. Quite strangely, this whole beach is flooded during the wet season - when by the way one might see peixe boi (manatee) in these waters – so why all these pieces of pottery are not washed away is a mystery to me...
Next we jumped into our motorboat and drove downstream to a neighboring community where most of the people live on latex production. This area used to be a rubber plantation a few decades ago and now they are tapping the remaining trees to produce rubber. They are also making a few articles for sale, e.g. bags, hats, sandals, pen holders and rubber animals (similar to the rubber ducks used in the bath tubs...). In the village we were shown the process of latex making and visited the small shop. We bought a rubber manatee (what else?!) and a small rubber frog as an amulet. This frog is the symbol of good luck in this region and is depicted on the pavement and in the parks in the towns we visited.
After a sunset cruise we returned to our home community where we had dinner and slept on the beach in hammocks. We were sitting at a bonfire and sipped caipirinha before going to bed. A relaxing way to end the day.
Next morning we had a jungle hike which was supposed to take 6 hours. The community we visited is located a protected area, the Floresta Nacional do Tapajos . There are few hiking trials which one can visit with a guide. The guides all come from the communities in the park and are trained by the EMBA, the organization which is responsible for the National Parks and Reserves. This is also a way how locals make a living. Besides the latex production they live on tourism.
The hike was pretty cool, the first half was in secondary forest and we passed by plantations as well. The second half was in primary forest with quite a few huge trees. The end point of the hike was a 600 years old gigantic tree. We felt like small ants standing next to it. It needs 25 people to hug its trunk!!! it was very impressive!!! Along the way our guide explained us a lot about the trees we have passed and their possible usage e.g. eatable fruits, leaves to cover the roof of the houses, resins to make boats waterproof and which part of which tree is good as medicine. He was really knowledgeable and told us that their community learned all these things from the indigenous population which does lived there before them and which does not exist any more. Nevertheless their genes survive partially, because the colonizers produced offspring with them, so the current inhabitants are their descendants. About the jungle: it is really as it is described in the books. Many trees, impressive flora but very little visible of the abundant fauna. One only sees the small animals, which I found just as interesting as the big mammals. The funniest thing was the swarms of caterpillars on tree trunks. The aggregate for the sake of protection and form fuzzy spots on the trees. Touching them is not advise as they burn the skin with their secrets. An other cool creature was a huge grasshopper ca. 20 cm long!!! We also saw huge butterflies, some of them had camouflage colors but some of them were shiny blue. These latter ones one can see often in insect collections of museums and here they were just flattering around everywhere. There were also many many ants, most of them marching in a line across or along our path. Some of them were like 1.5 cm big and had huge scissor like mouth-pieces. These are used by the local to stitch wounds, just like in Africa. At the end of the hike we also saw silver tamarins jumping around on the trees (small white monkeys with black tail). So at the end it was a very enjoyable trekking. As we stopped so many times along the way to listen to the guides explanation, the hike took us 8 hours. Eventually we got back to Alter de Chao around 8 pm, a few hours later than planned, but for that we had a beautiful boat ride back with the setting sun and a few river dolphins jumping around our boat.
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