Jessie's Amazon Journal
Friday, August 24th
This morning we went to Ibama, the Brazilian Ministry of the Environment, to purchase our permits to enter the nature reserve in which Maguary is located. We were running rather late, and by the time we got there I realized that I was supposed to have brought my passport and didn't. But they gave me the permit anyways, phew! We caught the bus from the other side of town. When the bus stopped for a break, we realized that Arimar, the Manager of Couro Ecológica, who were were going to Maguary to meet, was in fact on the bus. He spotted us and came to introduce himself. The bus took a couple of hours.
When we got to Maguary, I realized how different it was from Suruacá. First of all, Arimar got off the bus before we did - he is in the same community but lives way down the road from other people in the community. Thus Maguary is a lot more spread out. It doesn't have that same tightly-knit community feel that Suruacá did.
Sunset along river in Maguary
We got off at the stop for Dona Idu's house, the woman that we would be staying with. We are only here for one night, which is a bit odd, but due to the bus schedule and the timing of my flight back to Rio, that is the only way we could work it. I think Angela will be coming back, though.
The part of Maguary where Dona Idu's house is located is right next to the beach. There are several houses there, including one that is being built right next door. They are going to move into that house and leave their house for tourists. That should give an idea of just how into tourism they are here. Also, there is a little shop just a little ways down from their house that sells some of the ecological leather bags/purses as well as jewelry and other crafts. To be honest, I wasn't all that impressed by the selection of Couro Ecológica they had in the shop, but I bought several pieces because I knew that we wanted samples. But later when we went to the factory they had some really nice bags. I would have bought one for myself if I had brought more money. Drat! I think they may have been for a special order anyway, though. On the way back from the store, Dona Idu's husband, Joachim, showed us the rubber trees where they extract rubber for the natural latex. He actually has a small business doing this, and sells the rubber to the factory who uses it to make the eco-leather bags.
Tapping a rubber tree
As we knew coming here, there is a lot more tourism here in Maguary, particularly in the touristy seasons (which I believe are July and January). There was a Brazilian tourist staying with Dona Idu while we were there. He was a very odd, quiet dude - a white guy with dreadlocks who never seemed to care about anything.
After visiting with the family for a while and looking at the shop, we finally went to the ecological leather factory. I say finally, because I was starting to get worried that we would miss our chance to film it if we dilly-dallied much longer. It doesn't stay light all that late (maybe 6 or so). I must say, I think I have been very patient on this trip. What with not knowing the language and being lost the majority of the time, I am usually pretty relaxed about it. But I have to admit I was starting to lose my marbles this afternoon. Since the main reason we decided to come here, after all, even just for one night, was to film the factory. So I was darn set on filming it! Anyways, we got there eventually and did get to film it, which was quite cool. Unfortunately it was not in operation (as in, people weren't there working). However, we did get some of the guys to show us through the process, starting with the rubber, pouring it over the fabric to make the "leather", letting it dry, and showing some examples of the final product, all sewn and colored. After the filming, Angela talked with Arimar and some of the other guys at the factory for a couple hours.
After our conversation we went out for a beer at a little bar in the community, and then back to the house for a late dinner, and then to bed. The bus was going to come at 3 in the morning, so we didn't want to stay up too late. (Plus people don't exactly stay up late around here anyways). I am actually a little bit cold - what a weird feeling! I wish I had brought my long sleeved shirt.
As Angela and I were talking on the way back from the factory, we agreed that Maguary seems to be much more organized in terms of entrepreneurship. I was surprised at how official Couro Ecológica was. I thought it was just getting off the ground, but they already have quite a few customers in different countries (mostly Europe I think). However, there is not the same sense of community as there is in Suruacá, and they don't seemed to be as organized from the point of view of the community as a whole. However, we didn't exactly get very much time to assess that, so hopefully Angela will be back here to interview some more people and get a feeling for the leadership of the community.
Saturday, August 25th
Today we attempted to get a hold of several people back in Santarém, but didn't have a ton of luck. We ended up not being very productive but having some fun instead! First of all, we got up at 2:30 in the morning and got our bus around 3:30am (okay, so not very fun). The bus was a little late. By the time we arrived in Santarém it was around 6 am. This is just the way the schedule is all the time, which must suck for people like Arimar who seem to take the bus multiple times per week. We went out for breakfast at a random little place across town where our taxi driver took us. (We have our own personal taxi driver now - he gave Angela his number when she took a taxi to go meet the Magnolio from PSA the other night, (with whom she had an appointment but never showed or called to apologize). Pretty much anytime we call he comes and gets us in just a few minutes. It is nice if you don't happen to be on a busy street where you can hail a cab. By the way, taxis are pretty cheap here compared to the US. I would avoid taking one for longer distances, but in town it is not a bad way to go if you are in a hurry or don't know how to get where you are going.
Even though we were really tired after breakfast, we couldn't go back to our hotel because check in wasn't until noon. So we did some shopping for a couple hours. When it was finally noon we went back to our hotel for a nice nap.
Fish lunch at an outside restaurant.
In the evening we went to a restaurant out by the water where I had a couple of traditional Brazilian things. One was a really strong drink made from sugar cane, and for food we had some sort of fish thing.
We decided after dinner that since it was Saturday night after all, we wanted to go out and see some Samba dancing. So we called our trusty taxi guy to take us to a place our waiter recommended. The taxi guy said sure, but it may not be very busy because there is a big concert tonight that a lot of people are going to. We said we would give it a try and if it didn't look fun, hey, maybe we would go to the concert. When we got to the Samba place it was closed, so we said we wanted to go to the concert. I was picturing something in town that would perhaps be crowded but not all that large. Wow, I was really wrong. We drove about 30 minutes out of town, but then it took a lot longer because cars were all lined up at the entrance to some large event space. It felt sort of like the Gorge at George.12 (i.e. all this concert traffic out in the middle of nowhere). Okay, so there weren't as many people as there would be for Dave Mathews Band at the Gorge, but there were TONS of people! We got there around 10:30 or so and saw the opening band, which did some Calypso dancing and a variety of more modern pop types of songs. Angela pointed out that there were a lot of couples that seemed to be at the concert by themselves, without being in a group, which she thought was different.
Soybean terminal in Santarém.
I didn't really notice that, but what really stood out to me was that everyone (particularly the women) were really dressed up! I felt like a total bum. I explained to her that in the US for a rock type concert, particularly an outdoor one, people would not be wearing nice cocktail dresses! Shorts and T-shirts or even bikini tops would be perfectly acceptable. The other weird thing about the concert, which we found out upon arrival, was that the main stage act (who was some Brazilian folk type artist) wasn't going to come on until around 2 am! Oh dear, I am not going to make it that long, I realized. So we enjoyed the openers as well as just the cultural experience of it all, and then left around 1am.
12. A lovely outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Columbia River in central Washington State.
Sunday, August 26th
Today we had reserved for Alter de Chão. At least we were hoping to go if we didn't have anything urgent to get done. And we got to go - woo hoo! It turned out to be a fantastic activity for my last day in Santarém. We took the bus from town, which was very cheap. When you get there you walk down the hill through a little town to the beach, where you find lots of vendors who want to sell you things. I had expected their prices to be jacked up, since we were in a touristy area, but they really weren't bad. I bought a beachey dress as well as some yummy snacks to take on my long trip back home.
Alter de Chão with a view of
"lover's beach"
Due to the water level being relatively high, you had to take a little canoe over to the Island (which is sometimes a Peninsula) where most of the beach area is. The entire Island is all white sand and palm trees and lots of little bars and restaurants set up along the shore. It is long enough to walk down in about 5 minutes.
We enjoyed swimming in the river and I at least lied out in the sun for just a little while. I seemed to be one of the few people doing this - I guess most people are tan enough as it is!
Boy dancing for fun at a
beach side table in Alter de Chão
We took the bus back in the late afternoon. We had a lot of stuff to sort out when we got back to the hotel in terms of what I was taking home with me and what I was leaving with Angela. My flight didn't leave until the middle of the night. I got to the airport plenty early, and it was back to the "on my own" mode where I am constantly making a fool out of myself in my attempts to communicate. I actually find it fun, though, since people are usually very nice.
I am really glad that I went on this trip. I am glad that Angela will be going back to both of the communities, as we have unfinished business at both of them. I certainly hope to come back in the future, hopefully with a little more Portuguese!