I’m currently in the large jungle city of Santarém. Antonio, my recent guide, returns home today to Almeirim. His young wife is expecting the imminent arrival of their second child. It was a good experience walking with him, he was keen to learn some English and I picked up a few more Portuguese words. He was also aware of the global interest in and importance of the rainforest ecosystem and the history of European colonisation.

I plan to cross back over to Alenquer to continue my journey from my last point of walking, but first i have to wait for Edson Lima (previous guide) to arrive in 6 days time with my other spare kit bag currently stowed in Soure, Marajó at his house. We arranged to do this a few months back, and he will be walking with me again to Oriximiná and maybe on to Manaus.

If you’ve been following my Tweets, you will know that I had a technical glitch with my DeLorme tracker recently. It basically shut off when we left the Bom Futuro community next to the Paru river, so i can’t show the whole route we took. We were lucky to get WiFi in the small community of Cupim, so I emailed Delorme and picked up a reply further along the route at a petrol station via WiFi, and managed to reboot the tracker following the advice from Delorme. Unfortunately in my desperation I had already ordered another unit from Amazon UK, in spite of my precarious financial position, but is was too late to cancel the order – so soon I will have two! However, I guess a back-up unit is always good to have. While the unit was down, I marked waypoints every thirty minutes on my GPS to record my route whilst the tracker was out of action. And speaking of money, I also have no cash at all at the moment so I need to get enough together to last me for about a month. This entails visiting the bank everyday for the next several days in a row and drawing to my daily limit from the cash machine.

I pay my guides well and treat them with respect, i pay for all their clothing, boots, food, accommodation, transportation any other things they need to walk with me. When walking in the jungle, I show them how to use the compass, how to change and walk on a compass bearing. Since this is their territory, I am happy to let them lead when they wish, although of course I have to do the initial route-planning and navigation. We make mutual decisions to resolve problems when confronted with difficult and dangerous situations. This so far seems to work well and I think the trust and respect is reciprocal.

The large city of Santarém sits on the opposite side of the Rio Amazonas to Alenquer. I don’t need to swim the river, as I’m just visiting Santarém. Being a large city, it has better facilities including more reliable banks and faster WiFi, so I thought it better to base myself here to prepare the next leg of the expedition and wait for Edson to arrive from Marajó.

The vast Rio Tapajós also sits to the west of the city. Further up the Tapajós river is Fordlandia. In 1928 the Ford motor company purchased 10,000 sq kilometres of rainforest to build a complete industrial town with the plan to plant rubber trees and harvest the rubber for car tyres and other products. Unfortunately for Ford, over the years a series of unforeseen problems arose,  and the lack of knowledge regarding tropical agriculture, poor logistics, tropical disease and the invention and production of synthetic rubber all doomed the attempt to failure. Read more about Fordlandia here.

In spite of earlier and repeated warnings about the roads being very dangerous to walk, I found the opposite. The passing motorbikes, cars and lorries were few and far between, and most of the people passing asked us if we wanted help or a lift to the next town. But I guess if I was walking alone, it might have been different.

Antonio and I had a few celebratory cerveja’s (beer) last night after the safe and successful traverse, so our heads, like our eggs, are lightly scrambled this morning at breakfast. The food, including watermelon, bread, and cheese, helps, although I feel the weight of having lots of organising and thinking to do. Antonio thinks I’m a bit of a ‘hard man’ to be doing what I’m doing, but I don’t think you have to be like this to do it. Maybe just a little scrambled at times!

A few more photos from my walk from Almeirim below. For live updates and photos follow me on Twitter here or view my twitter feed on the left of this page.

 

Facts & Figures Santarém

Santarém is a municipality in the western part of the state of Pará in Brazil. Located at the confluence of the Tapajós and Amazon Rivers, it has become a popular tourist destination. It is the second-most important city in the state, and the financial and economic center of the western part of the state. It leads the Santarém Metropolitan Area, made up of Santarém, Belterra and Mojuí dos Campos. It was once home to the Tapajós Indians, a tribe of Native Americans after whom the river was named. They were the leaders of a large, agricultural chiefdom that flourished before the arrival of Europeans.

It is located some 800 km (500 mi) from the two largest cities in the Brazilian Amazon: Manaus, upriver in the state of Amazonas, and the Pará state capital Belém, located downriver at the mouth of the Amazon on the Atlantic Ocean. Santarém has an estimated population of 299,419 people (2012 Census), and is the third most populous city of the state. The city occupies an area of 22 887,087 km2² (14 304,42 sq mi), of which 77 km2 are urban areas.

The city was founded by Portuguese colonists in 1661 as New Santarém (after the city in Portugal). It is one of the oldest cities in the Brazilian Amazon. This is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santarém.

Because of the crystalline waters of the Tapajós River, Santarém has more than 100 km (62 mi) of natural beaches, such as those of the village of Alter do Chão, known as the “Caribbean in Brazil.” The Guardian ranked the latter beach as one of the most beautiful in Brazil and the most beautiful beach on fresh water. Alter do Chão is also home to Sairé,one of the most important folklore festivals of the region, which is held annually in September.

Some political activists have lobbied to create a new Brazilian state by dividing the enormous state of Pará into western and eastern regions. The new state to be established in the west would be called Tapajós, with Santarém serving as the capital.

Information source Wikipedia.

 

Header photo: The temptation of an ice cold cerveja after walking in the tropical heat is hard to resist here.

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A scorpion decided to join us for drinks, luckily i still had my boots on.

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Leaf cutter ants, an amazing sight as they trail down a tree and across the forest floor: near to Bom Futuro, Pará, Brazil

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The women and men of Bom Futuro get together with other communities every month to connect, play football and volleyball. Rio Pará

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The roads resemble the surface of Mars! Boots need an upgrade also.

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We encountered a few Villas selling food and drinks. A welcome sight and break from walking.  Nr Monte Alegre, Pará, Brazil

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Antonio demonstrates an animal shotgun trap. These are placed in the forest with fishing line to trip and trigger the gun. We had to watch out for these when walking as they could potentially blow your leg to bits.

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Not sure of the name of this large flying beetle, my guide said they also have a powerful sting.

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Street on the waterfront – Almeirim, Pará, Brazil

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Antonio and myself having a beer at a community:  Cupim, Pará, Brazil

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My DeLorme tracking map showing part of the route we took from Almeirim to Alenquer (opposite santarem)

Pan and zoom map below  to see more detail.