Wednesday 25 February 2009

Know the Amazon through a Bird Eye


On a twin-engine plane you’ll fly over the Tapajos River to reach the view of your vessel docked at Santarem Port followed by the meeting of the waters. Looking down to the town you will spot Richard Hennington pier and a yellow house with blue windows. That is my home!

Flying over the line formed by the Tapajos and Amazon Rivers you reach the floodplain East of Santarem called Maica, where scientists like Spruce, Wallace and Bates explored and families of Confederados settled in the 17th Century. You will spot Taperinha, Rhome's home(confederado known for having built the first steam boat and car in South America)and an archeological site where Ann Roosevelt carried some of her studies about Amazonian aborigenes.

The Amazon Floodplain represents only about 5% of the Amazon Basin and is one of the most scenic ecosystems in the region. The boats you’ll see below carry your cruise mates. Please, take some shots and email me and them.

Westward you will see below Diamantino and Piquiatuba where The Wickhams lived with other Confederado families and previously the major settlement of the Tapajos Indians.

You fly over some soya bean fields that surround Bosque Sta Lucia owned by the Alexanders to view the Tapajos National Forest (600.000he) and Belterra, the second city founded by Henry Ford in 1935.

Northwestward you fly across the sea-like Tapajos River to reach the view of the village of Boim, where Sephardic Jewish families settled in 1860’s and Henry Wickham loaded M/S Amazonas with 70.000 rubber tree seeds in March 1876, the first certificated act of bio-piracy.

On your way back to Santarem you will fly over the right bank of the Tapajos River to spot some Igapo Forest and the village of Alter-do- Chão, known as Caribbean Amazon.
Ten minutes later you land at Santarem airport to be served a cold beer.

Book this and other trips via gilserique@gmail.com

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