Houston, we gotta a problem!!!

Cruises

Several cruiseships are due to cruise the Amazon River between September to March 2010. This industry represents an excellent alternative to other activities that degrade the environment.

Pink Dolphins under Threat

Dr.Michael Brines and Dr.Yamin w/ a pink dolphin near Manaus

Fishing boat that comes 900km from the East

A vulvae of Pink dolphin at the Ver-o-peso market in Belem

photos: Gil Serique






The Amazon River Dolphins(Ignia geofrensis), a.k.a Pink dolphins, are likely to be the most mythical creatures in the Amazon Basin. People believe they can turn into men. For the visitors they are a MUST SEE attraction, PERIOD!

New fishing technologies, access to ice and styrefoam boxes have increased fishing missions and the necessity for more bait.

Dolphins reach 3 metres and weight some 200Kg, being the second largest water mammal after the rare manatees.

They get into scene again!

Fishermen are currently killing them to use as baits, placing them into a sad list of threatened species.
Other parts of their bodies(vulvae, penis and eyes) are sold as amulets behind the curtains in open markets.

Image and Sound-Salgado& Tapajos

photo:Podalyro neto

Image & Sound are are two tools used by both artists to present their concern about environmental issues and love for nature.

Sebastião Tapajos has been highly inspired by the Nature to compose his amazing songs when Sebastiao Salgado is inspired by the same to present his awareness and care for nature as a whole.

Learn more about them at www.sebastiaotapajos.blogspot.com
and www.amazonimages.com

Two amazing men!!

GIL

 Gil Serique was born and raised on the banks of the Tapajos River in the municipality of Santarem, Brazil. The 8th child of a village teacher and Jewish merchants. He spent his childhood in close contact with the wonders of the Amazon rainforest. This formative experience forged a bond with nature that he has never relinquished. From 1984-1986, he worked as a tour guide at Varig Airlines' Tropical Hotel Santarem and then as bilingual reservations agent for Varig Airlines on the coast of northeast Brazil (in the city of Maceio, Al). In 1988 he returned to his home town of Santarem, where he organised private and scientific expeditions to the Tapajos River (one of the main tributaries of the Amazon) and then followed that with two years of the same in the Rio Negro area near Manaus, one of the largest tributaries of the Amazon. There, Gil worked as a guide for the travel agency associated with Varig's world-famous Tropical Hotel. Returning to Santarem, he organised land and river tours for several cruise ships, including HMS Ocean Princess, Sea Goddess and Stella Solaris. During this time he also worked and guided at the Center for Preservation of Indigenous Art, Culture and Sciences (near Santarem), and worked as naturalist and lecturer on M/S Explorer, M/S Lyubov Orlova and M/S Mercury. From 1994 to the present Gil has guided and organised scientific expeditions to various parts of the Brazilian Amazon. For instance, in 1995 he helped organise and participated in a University of Quebec expedition that studied the ecological impact of mercury use in gold mining in the Brazilian Amazon, and with his late brother, Flavio Serique, participated in the Kota Mama Expedition organised by the Scientific Exporation Society,;He is credited the book The Thief at the End of the World by Joe Jackson and dedicated The Drowning World, by Alan Dean Foster. Recently he contributed to Dr. Greg Gant on a book about Fordland and currently works in a book project with Jennifer Davis about the Confederados in the Amazon. Since 1996 Gil has worked as field director of a research project on Hyacinth Macaws for the Wildlife Conservation Society (founded in 1895 as the New York Zoological Society). Between September and November 1996 he also helped implement the Amazon Basin's single richest site for wildlife, the Manu Wildlife Center in the Amazon of southern Peru. He also participated on the most watched video in history, "The Earth Song," an http://www.gilserique.com/?exibe=biography

Tarsila

Tarsila do Amaral, (b. September 1, 1886 in Capivari, São Paulo,- d. São Paulo on January 17, 1973).
Tarsila do Amaral, known simply as Tarsila, is considered to be one of the leading Latin American modernist artists, described as “the Brazilian painter who best achieved Brazilian aspirations for nationalistic expression in a modern style.”[1] She was a member of the Grupo dos Cinco (Group of Five), which included Anita Malfatti, Menotti del Picchia, Mário de Andrade, and Oswald de Andrade.
Biography Tarsila was born in the city of Capivari, part of the interior of São Paulo, Brazil, to a wealthy family who were coffee growers and landowners. Her family’s position provided her a life of privilege. Although women of privilege were not expected to seek higher education, her parents supported her educational and artistic pursuits. During her teens, Tarsila and her family traveled to Barcelona, where she attended school and first exhibited her interest in art by copying images seen in the school’s collections.[2]
Beginning in 1916, Tarsila studied sculpture in São Paulo with Zadig and Montavani. Later she studied drawing and painting with the academic painter Pedro Alexandrino. These were all respected but conservative teachers.[2] In 1920, she moved to Paris and studied at the Académie Julian and with Emile Renard. The Brazilian art world was conservative, and travels to Europe provided students with a broader education in the areas of art, culture, and society. At this time, her influences and art remained conservative. 4 more go link Blow


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarsila_do_Amaral

Tarsila do Amaral Versus Gil Serique

Abaporu means He who eats





One is abundance the other famine; one is dry the other super wet; One is colourful the other B/W; ...

Land turtle or terrapins

about one hundred terrapins from both species (Chelonoidis Carbonária & Enticulata). have been returned by IBAMA and a local zoo from Santarem into the Tapajo National Forest.
It sounds like they never took into consideration territory neither cared much about the animals that were packed like beer cans, as the pix shows.

Cruiseship spotting

It is the least entertaining and most depressing activity. It is inevitable as I live just in front of both rivers.
It is scary the increasing of cargo ship traffic!! It will soon be like the Atlanta's airpor.
They come in empty and leave full, the cargo is for free. It totally sucks!

Boring day at Paju and at Saulo's

Pix by Podalyro Neto

The Three Last Confederates Alive in Santarem, Brazil Submitted by Telma Anijar-Andersen

The lady on the left is Sarah "Sallie" Vaughan daughter ofJames Vaughan and Elizabeth Britt (Jennings). Sarah wasborn in 1861 TN, probably in Silver Springs, Wilson Co. Sarahwas married to Fountain Elliott Pitts, the son of Dr. Josiah H.Pitts and Martha E. Butt. Josiah was the son of the famousRev. Fountain Elliott Pitts and Martha E. Britt of MiddleTennessee.

The man in the middle is David Riker, the Riker family wasfrom Charleston, SC.
The woman on the right is Martha "Mattie" Amelia Vaughan,married name was Machado. She was also the daughter ofJames Vaughan and Elizabeth Britt.
This was taken in front of the baptist church in the city of Santarem, state of Para, Brazil.

http://asdecon.blogspot.com/

Last time I had held a camera...