Bulletin 7
– 1 September 1997
Telecom Amazon Adventure Update
 Update
from Andrew
River Boat Travel: Manaus to SantarΘm
At 1pm on Saturday afternoon I staggered
out of my hotel in Manaus
lugging my huge backpack, with small bundles of other
items in a couple of small shopping bags, ready for my
river boat trip to SantarΘm.
My boat wasn’t due to leave until 4pm, but my
earlier experiences taught me it’s best to be early
if you want a good space to hang your hammock. Arriving
on the boat ten minutes later, I dropped my heavy
backpack and proceeded to hang my hammock. Sometimes
supposedly simple things aren’t as easy as they look
– and I had to ask several people for help. We
finally figured it out and then I was able to relax in my
hammock waiting for the journey to start.
The boat began to fill-up with people
carrying a wide range of suitcases, boxes and crates.
Larger items were stored in the ship’s hold, but
most luggage ended up in a communal pile underneath the
hammocks on the main decks. I tried talking to the people
around me – on one side there were two young women
with a baby, and a middle-aged couple on the other side,
and a 17 year old boy suspended in the hammock above me
completed our little group.
Talking was very difficult, my Portuguese
is very limited and I often have difficulty understanding
people – especially when they talk fast. But I
understood that all were travelling to SantarΘm –
the same destination as me.
With the exception of me, and one other
"gringo", all the passengers onboard the ship
were Brazilian – many were from SantarΘm and were
returning home after visiting family and friends in
Manaus. Because Manaus is a duty-free zone (meaning many
items are quite cheap) lots of people were returning home
carrying new stereos and electronic goods. The other
"gringo" onboard was Rupert, a quietly-spoken
solicitor from London. He planned to spend his three week
holiday exploring parts of Brazil away from "the
beaten track". On this journey he planned to stop at
the small river-town of Obid≤s, visiting the remains of
an old Portuguese fortress built 350 years ago at a time
when the Portuguese were fighting the English and Dutch
for control of the Amazon.
The boat got underway at 4:30pm, the
"chuga-chuga-chuga" of the big diesel engine
providing dominant noise in the background as we slipped
out of Manaus harbour. We chugged along past riverside
factories and refineries – leaving the black waters
of the Rφo Negro and entering the murky-brown Amazon
River. I watched the scenery for a while before returning
to the comfort of my hammock. Figuring that two days on a
boat could be very boring, I’d brought along several
books to practice my Portuguese and note paper to write
my diary entries.
Dinner was served at 6pm. It was a simple
soup with chunky bits of beef, accompanied by rice and
chicken pieces. Because the table seats only 16 people,
dinner was served in several quick sessions – the
food was left in bowls in the centre of the table, with
people dishing up their servings onto plates in front of
them. This was the first meal that I’d been able to
eat in several days following a bout of stomach problems
resulting from giardia, so the meal tasted delicious even
though it was basic. After dinner I slipped back into my
hammock and worked on my Portuguese books before
succumbing to sleep. It got cold during the night as
technically I was sleeping "outside" because
the decks were open to the elements. I reached down into
my bag next to me and grabbed a jacket which I spread out
over me like a blanket.
The next day was spent entirely on the
boat. I talked more to the people around me – though
the language problems still existed and I felt a little
out of place, so I spent more time working on my
Portuguese books and writing notes in my diary.
We stopped at several small river towns
during the day where people getting off were replaced by
others getting on. Hordes of young boys climbed aboard,
selling fruit, cheese, cakes and other items to the
passengers. Ice-cream sellers and other vendors stood
alongside the boat doing business with people leaning
overboard.
Our biggest stop was in the late
afternoon, at the customs post between the Brazilian
States of Amazonas and Parß. The customs post is there
to charge duty on goods people bought in the duty-free
zone before entering into Parß so the State government
doesn’t lose out on revenue. Last time I was at this
stop, the customs officers boarded the boat very
dramatically – carrying guns, and forcing the ship
to dock alongside the post. But this time the guns were
kept hidden, and the boat stayed in the middle of the
river. The officers also had snazzy new uniforms to make
them look more respectable and professional. One officer
asked to see my passport and as I was a foreigner, just
passing through, he didn’t bother to check my
luggage.
We left the customs post just after dark.
The air was full of slapping noises as people swatted at
the small swarm of mosquitoes which had gathered around
our boat during our stop. I lay back in my hammock,
thankful I’d remembered to bring mosquito repellent.
I watched a group of young people who’d gathered
around near me. They were mostly in their teens –
boys and girls chatting, laughing, exchanging jokes and
teasing each other. One boy, hoping to make friends with
the pretty girl next to him, handed over his walkman. The
girl didn’t seem too interested in the boy, but
readily accepted his walkman – she sat there for the
next hour listening to the walkman and ignoring the
boy’s unsuccessful attempts at conversation.
At seven o’clock the boat docked in
Obid≤s, Rupert struggled off with his backpack which was
almost as big as mine. The boat remained at the port for
about two hours as goods were loaded on and off.
The remaining journey to SantarΘm took
five hours, with our boat finally arriving at the port at
2am the following day. Instead of getting off the boat in
the middle of the night with nowhere to go, I opted to
remain onboard (comfortable in my hammock), sleeping
until dawn before finally leaving the ship and catching a
bus into the city.
Talk to you next week
Cheers
Andrew
SantarΘm
Santar╚m is located along the Amazon
River, half-way between Manaus and BelΘm – where
the clear green waters of the Tapaj≤s merge with the
murky brown waters of the Amazon.
SantarΘm is the third-largest city on
the Brazilian Amazon - but it is unlike Manaus and
BelΘm. With only 60,000 people, it looks and feels more
like a frontier town from an old Western movie. The town
has red dirt roads, rough wooden shacks and the
atmosphere of the “supermercado” (supermarket)
is more like that of an old-style general store.
The farms around the SantarΘm look like
they’ve only just been cleared out of the
rainforest. The land is hot and dusty and all around the
town there are big black vultures called Urub·s, which
scavenge through rubbish along the streets and river
front. The sight of these vultures is very unnerving.
Appearances can be deceiving. SantarΘm
looks like a new town still under construction but
it’s much older than any New Zealand town or city.
Before Europeans arrived, it was the centre of a thriving
Indian culture - the Tapuiτu. The first European
settlement was a Jesuit mission built in 1661. The
current town grew up around this mission and was
officially named SantarΘm in 1758.
Ancient Indian Cultures
SantarΘm used to be the centre of a
large Indian civilisation, but very little is known about
how they lived because few of the Indians survived after
the arrival of the Europeans. The first European
explorers and settlers brought diseases with them, which
made the Indians very sick – causing many to die.
However, Francisco de Orellana - the first explorer to
arrive in SantarΘm - reported that he saw prosperous
Indian villages where the people raised turtles in
riverside pens, and made fine pottery. This ancient
civilisation was almost completely forgotten, until 1922,
when a rainstorm washed away part of a road and uncovered
a treasure-trove of ancient stone tools and pottery. A
more recent discovery is Caverna da Pedra Pintada which
contains ancient Indian artifacts – some dating back
more than 11,000 years.
Development in SantarΘm
A few hours up the Tapaj≤s River from
SantarΘm is a rubber plantation called FordilΓndia.
It was built by the famous car-maker, American Henry
Ford, during the 1930s. Ford tried creating a plantation
similar to the successful rubber plantations of Ceylon
(Sri Lanka) and Malaysia. It was intended to guarantee a
cheap source of rubber for the Ford Motor Company.
In addition to the plantation, Ford also
built a new town for its workers – which looked
small-town USA, transplanted to the middle of Amazon
rainforest.
Despite Ford’s efforts and great
plans, the venture was a failure because no-one
understood the problems of plantation farming rubber
trees in Amaz⌠nia. Amaz⌠nia is the rubber trees
original home, so it is also home to the tree’s
natural enemies.
In FordilΓndia the rubber trees were
planted close together, and if one tree got sick, or was
attacked by insects, then all the other trees around it
also got sick. Rubber tree plantations in SantarΘm
aren’t very successful – but rubber trees
growing naturally in the rainforest are safe because they
grow far apart from one another (mixed in with other
trees) making it difficult for diseases and parasites to
spread.
Realising that FordilΓndia wasn’t
going to be successful, Ford sold the plantation to the
Brazilian government. Today it is used for research and
training.
Goldmines
Goldmines
are another recent development in SantarΘm. An enormous
deposit of gold was discovered nearby, along the Tapaj≤s
river. Tens of thousands of people flocked to this area
hoping to make their fortune. Miners camps and new roads
appeared almost overnight. Unfortunately, the
miners’ desire for gold meant they weren’t very
interested in protecting the environment. One popular
form of goldmining used mercury to extract gold from the
ore. (Ore is a natural combination of minerals from which
valuable minerals can be extracted.) Because mercury is
highly toxic the waste left over from this processing was
very dangerous. This waste was washed into rivers and
streams – poisoning fish, wildlife, and people who
lived nearby. Today the miners are more responsible and
mercury isn’t used as often as it used to be.
The Tapaj≤s River valley is a beautiful
area and the people have started cleaning up the mess
left behind from the goldmines and other developments.
Santar╚m is trying to attract more tourists to visit the
city and to the nearby town of Alter do Chπo. The people
of SantarΘm still have a lot to learn about caring for
their environment (there is still rubbish thrown in the
streets and along the waterfront), but things have
improved considerably in the last few years.
Last few days . . .
Two days to go in Telecom’s
Innovative Amazon Classroom Activity Competition.
Let us know by 3 September how
you’re using technology as part of your Amazon
studies and you’ll be in with a chance to win some
beautiful books about the Amazon, donated by Andrew
Mercer.
Here are the competition details again .
. .
There are six books to be won, so
we’ve divided New Zealand into six regions:
Northern North Island
Central North Island
Wellington region
Nelson, Marlborough, West
Coast, Buller
Canterbury
Otago, Southland
The class in each region with the most
innovative use of information technology, as part of
their Amazon studies, will win one of the books donated
by Andrew.
How to enter
You can present the information any way
you like, but remember it has to be faxed or posted.
You may like to write a description of your activity, or
draw a poster – choose the way that you think best
represents your Innovative Amazon Classroom Activity.
You can either fax your entries to Adventure
Line on 0-4-498 5575 or post them to Explorers and
Adventures
Telecom Education Foundation
Level Two, Telecom Networks House
PO Box 570
Wellington
Your entry must be clearly marked “Innovative
Amazon Classroom Activity Competition” and
must include the region you’re in (from the above
list); your school name; your class; your teacher’s
name; your school address; and a contact phone number.
Entries close 3 September
and the lucky winners will be featured in the 8 September
Fax Bulletin.
Information submitted to the Innovative
Amazon Classroom Activity Competition may be shared with
other schools.
Amazon activity
Collect and bring from home as many items
as you can that are made from rubber or have rubber in
them. You could use these to make a “rubber
sculpture’ or “rubber statue”. And you
could hold a “rubber day” to celebrate the
importance of rubber to us and our world.
Fun facts
Plants which originally grew in
and around Amaz┘nia include: cacao, used for
making cocoa and chocolate; cotton; brazil nuts;
sarsaparilla; and coca, the original ingredient
for Coca Cola which is now used to produce the
drug cocaine.
At the height of the rubber boom
wealthy "rubber barons" sponsored the
building of a spectacular European-style Opera
House in Manaus, which was then little more than
a small town in the middle of the Amazon
rainforest. Construction began in 1896 and took
12 years. The Opera House was built using the
finest European materials – Italian marble,
English cast iron pillars, and French
chandeliers. The courtyard was paved with
Portuguese tiles (and the stone masons who made
and installed them were also from Portugal). The
ceilings and curtains are decorated with ornate
paintings, and exotic woodwork made from Amazon
woods. Unfortunately, when the Opera House was
nearly finished, the ship, carrying the Italian
marble pillars for the front of the Opera House,
sank. This disaster coincided with the end of the
rubber boom and because the sponsors could not
afford to replace the pillars, plaster pillars
were used instead.
Amazon books
More books on the Amazon you might find
interesting for your Amazon Adventure . . .
Wildlife of the Forests,
Ann and Myron Sutton, Harry N. Abrahams
Publishers, New York. This book features detailed
information, and photos, about forests and wildlife all
over the world. It contains a small section about
tropical rainforests in Central and South America.
Explore a Tropical Forest,
National Geographic Society Action Book. This is a
non-fiction pop-up book, hand made in Ecuador.
Inside the Amazing Amazon,
Don Lessem and Michael Rothman, Crown Publishers,
New York. This is a big colourful foldout guide revealing
the plants, animals, and other secrets of the Amazon
rainforest.
Explorers Mystery Quiz - Bulletin 7
Answer the Explorers Mystery Quiz
questions below correctly and be in to win a Panasonic
cassette recorder for your class. You will find the
answer to this week’s first question on your
Explorers and Adventurers Mystery Trail poster. You might
need to do a bit more research to answer question two.
Fax your answers to the Telecom Adventure Line: 0-4-498
5575. Entries close at 5pm on Friday 5 September 1997.
The classes whose students correctly
answer the most Explorers Mystery Quizzes during the
Explorers and Adventurers programme will go into the draw
for a grand prize in December. So good luck everyone.
This week’s questions
Question One
What’s the biggest buzz an electric
eel has ever given?
Question Two
Between which years did the rubber boom
take place in Manaus?
Last week’s winner
The winner of last week’s Explorers
Mystery Quiz was :
Form 1 and 2, Iona College, Havelock
North
Last week’s answers
Answer One
The rubber we use to make
products like balloons and tyres comes from sap from
rubber trees
Answer Two
The city of Manaus was founded by
the Portuguese in 1669.
Amazon Adventure homepage is cool
The Amazon Adventure homepage is a cool
site according to the American group Exploratorium.
The homepage was chosen as one of the
"Ten Cool Sites" for September 1997.
Every month, Exploratorium picks the best
sites in science, art and education. Sites are submitted
by visitors to the Exploratorium homepages or by
Exploratorium staff and are selected based upon their
content, their design and the overall experience of
visiting them.
 
|
