Hey everyone! Back from another trip into the Amazon - this time traveling for 10 days without leaving Pará state. We left early Monday last week from Belem, and traveled by van several hours south of the city. We had a few holdups (flat tire, protesters laying big logs across the only road south...) but by mid-afternoon we were on the road headed to Tucurui Dam. Our first notice of the dam being near was the huge power transmission infrastructure parallel to the road. As one of the biggest dams worldwide, it sends more than half of the 8.3 GW of electricity produced through the wires in the photo to mining/aluminum industries in region.
After an hour of staring out at power lines, we were suddenly on top of the dam. At first we thought we saw a lake to our right, but it turned out we were driving along the paved 2-lane road crossing over the dam. The view was incredible. To our left about 10 meters down was this man-made lake as far as the eye could see, and then to our right about 200 meters down was the remnants of the Tocatins River that flowed through the dam. We drove on to the town, where we stayed overnight at an interesting hotel. It had an Third World Venice feel going for it: we had to cross some precarious stairs over a small canal to get to our rooms.
The next morning we visited the dam itself. Of course, public relations quickly wanted to show us how cool the dam looked from up close, so we caught a bus down to the dam wall. Going down we saw the huge tubes the water passes through (see those specs next to them? They were employees cleaning the walls...) It was really impressive. You could feel millions of gallons of water running under the concrete beneath your feet every minute. It gave a good sense of how much energy the dam produced, and how much energy 1/10 of Brazil uses a day.
Next we got a look inside the dam building itself. The blue concrete objects were actually the tops of the individual turbines. A 150-ton machine above us was installed just to move these 10-ton turbines into place.
After getting the official history of the dam (the tour guides of course didn't mention any of the social/environmental impacts it caused in the area) we drove back to the hotel. That afternoon we got back in the vans to go to a small farm half an hour east of the dam. There we met with a local social activist who had been fighting for social/worker rights in the region for the past 2+ decades. Up until this point our group didn't quite get why the region had been dubbed the "wild west" of Brazil, but after the activist told us about the dozens of death threats and attempts on her life we understood a little better. Just recently had she stopped traveling with a state-issued security detail to protect her from hitmen sent by big cattle interests or corrupt politicians in the area.
The next morning I woke up from my hammock (the 20 of us had strung up hammocks along the wrap-around porch after fending off a tarantula or two) and saw that a skinny cow 20 feet away had woken me up. Just going crazy. Then we made eye contact and he just stared me down. He seemed undernourished like several other cows. It was still really early (you can see the mist from the forest in the background) but the milk cows were being herded into the pen to be milked. It's often a chief concern for a new farmer that his farm be within access to the market, and having to deal with tough, washed-out roads requires some ingenuity. After the farmers milked the cows, a motorcycle arrived to pick up the milk with nothing more than two huge aluminum canisters on each side of the bike.
Next, the family showed me their capivara and their screaming parrot. Both really shy around the Americans of course. Next the farmers took us into their forest out back - something of a rarity in the region these days. After walking for awhile, we came across a rare Angelin Vermelho tree. We stopped and talked about the farms economics for a bit. We calculated that cattle-rearing brought in about $8/hr, agriculture about $3. Then our hosts told us that they had been offered over $120,000 for the one tree, and $400,000 for the whole forest. No work required said the logging company. It really put in perspective how easy it makes the choice to cut down forests around here...
That afternoon we left the farm for Maraba, a boomtown of 200,000 that saw many people who were originally granted small farms to open an 'Amazonian frontier' by the '60s dictatorship, just to go bankrupt and move to the cities. The next day we received a talk from an ex-hippie Frenchman who had arrived here in the 70s to work with local farmers on agriculture techniques. Really gave an interesting perspective on how agrobusiness is fueling deforestation. Then we headed out to see the pig-iron industries outside of town.
That night I had a wonderful acai/guarana smoothie back in town. We'd come back several days later and buy a big bowl of acai. Nothing like a big bowl of acai with granola for dinner.
The next day we headed to our last rural homestay, this time with MST, a landless peasant movement that takes place throughout Brazil (it's actually considered the largest movement of its kind in South America). The elite-controlled media here portrays MST members as power-grabbing criminals, and it was surprising to hear how much in line with that view of Brazilians were. In reality, the group got its start after the military dictatorship. Ever since, its been pushing for land reform, often taking the fight into their own hands. By law, any landowner not 'utilizing his land properly' can lose it to those who will (aka farm, mine, etc.). Before arriving at the community, we passed a roadside memorial of brazil nut trees that commemorated the massacre of MST protesters 15 years ago. It was an event that really put the movement on the map.
So we were placed with families in an established community called Palmares II which had taken over a farmer's land 16 years prior. I got to my hosts' house around dusk that night, and the whole family was there to welcome me. I live with just a host dad and mom, but their parents and several siblings lived within the same fenced plot as us. I got really close with the host brother, Tiago, in the time I was there. For the first time after meeting a host family here, my host parents recommended I take a shower with 30 minutes of meeting me. Very Brazilian. That night I watched videos of vaquejada (two cowboys on horseback trying to drag a bull down by its tail while running parallel with it...) and motojada (same thing, just with a motorcycle instead...) with my host dad Luis, a really macho cowboy himself.
The next morning I woke up in my hammock to my host mom offering me breakfast: homemade rolls, homemade cheese, and coffee with milk, all from the farm the day before. I'd later realize that the 1/4 acre yard was filled with fruit trees - mangos, acerolas, cajus, papayas - they were all there! It was great.
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| Local boys on the street outside my house. They had been helping to take away a fallen mango tree. |
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| host family's homes |
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| Me in the living room. |
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| My host mom (left), SIT coordinator (middle), and my host brother (right). |
The next two days were somewhat void of things to do, mostly because my host family didn't know what to do with me. They led a very basic life - wooden houses, basic showers, basic food - yet like everyone in this country they had satellite tv! It was still really great to get an inside look at MST life. The third day we went to the lake for a swim, then my brother Tiago and I headed down to the soccer field to play 6x6 with other Brazilians/Americans.
The last day was the greatest. My host dad took me out to the farm (about 50 acres 7 km outside town), where they had a whole Noah's ark of fruit trees and farm animals. My host dad and friend rode horses out to the cattle, and I followed on foot. I got to the fenced-off field just as they had started herding the cattle, and within minutes I was ducking into a thicket of trees to avoid getting gored. Before I knew it, my host dad had whipped out a lasso to get a calf! Really, it was the Wild West. As we were leaving a neighbor set his forest on fire. Too bad. Later we headed back to town for the closing meeting with host families.
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| Vegetable? Supposedly it goes well with beef. |
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| Almost backed into this guy while avoiding bulls. They're all over the place here. |
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| Host dad ready to take on the bulls. |
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| Forest fire! No Smoky the Bear here... |
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| Just for the photo... |
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| Turkey. |
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| Cowboy. |
The next morning we headed out early to take a look at the Grande Carajás iron mine, the biggest in the world. Supposedly it can be mined for the next 400 years without being depleted. The view of it reminded me of a cross between Machu Picchu and the Grand Canyon. Really incredible. There were rocks just lying around that were easily more than 70% iron, something almost unheard of in nature.
