Chess...

...may have been invented by Indians and Persians, but the current Chess has its origin in Southern Europe during the second half of the 15th century.
It can be played on line, by correspondence, in tournaments or just informally like you see in this pix Ramon, Marcão, João & Ib, who is behind the camera.
Check, mates!!!

Tapajos River

The boys and the banks of the Tapajos River during the rainy season, one
of the most beautiful and least polluted river on Earth.(Pixs by Serique &Monteiro)

The book that never came out

Tks Ozi MF!

my booklet original cover

Wind is finally back

When I photograph I freeze time, when I windsurf I walk on the water, when I am at home, I am in heaven....

Drive carefully

Talking about rubber

Rubber History

The opulence of the rubber barons could only be exceeded by their brutality.
Wild Hevea trees, like all primary rainforest trees are widely dispersed, an adaptation that protects species from the South American leaf blight which easily spreads through and decimates plantations.
Thus to make a profit, barons had to acquire control over huge tracts of land. Most did so by by hiring their own private armies to defend their claims, acquire new land, and capture native laborers.
Labor was always a problem so barons got creative. One baron created a stud farm, enslaving 600 Indian women whom he bred like cattle.
Other barons like Julio Cesar Arana simply used terror to acquire and hold on to Indian slaves. Indians captured usually submitted because resistance only meant more suffering for the families.
Young girls were sold as whores, while young men were bound, blindfolded, and had their genitals blasted off. As the Indians died, production soared: in the 12 years that Arana operated on the Putumayo River in Colombia, the native population fell from over 30,000 to less than 8,000 while he exported over 4000 tons of rubber earning over $75 million.
The only thing that stopped the holocaust was the downfall of the Brazilian rubber market.

Extracted from http://www.mongabay.com/10rubber.htm

The importance of rubber during W.W.II

Chapada das Mangabeiras

Concentrates quite a number of endemic and threatened species. I worked on the protection of such amazing ecossytem(Cerrado) when soybeans megaprojects were only sneaking into it. Maned wolves, Hyacinth Macaws, Blue and Yellow macaws, Giant Armadillo, Red and green macaws, Sun Parakeet, Giant Anteater are some of the species

I had seeen Titi monkeys using a stick as tool, here the species are Capuchins.
They use rocks to crack palm nuts. It is amazing and fun to watch them.

Hyacinth Macaws were the major target by bird trapper.
Some of them joined us in project

Red and Green macaws nest in cliffs cavities as oppose to

tree holes like in the Amazon

From Andreza's album to S. Farah

Prof. Flavio Serique and his students

Amazon Secrets: Respect for beauty, nature, culture, people, scent...

My 2nd wish

But God never does it no matter how much faith I have.
(photo by my dearest friend Sheila Farah creator of Amazon Secrets and author of Amazonia, Floresta em Art)

Interview with Joe Jackson, author of the thief at...

1. When and why did HW come to Santarem? Did he intend to take the seeds from the very beginning?
Wickham came to Santarem from London in 1871. He had actually stopped briefly in 1870, when returning home aboard a riverboat after a disastrous trip on the Orinoco. Although he was interested in rubber when he came back, I don't think he had any idea that he was going to send seeds back to Kew. Instead, he wanted to come to the Amazon and become a planter, and rubber was one of the things he planned to grow. Sugar cane was the other. He'd tried to tap rubber on the Orinoco, and had been persuaded by the British consul in Belim that a hardworking young man could make it rich as a rubber planter on the Amazon. Young men spread out to the edges of the influence of the British Empire in those days and tried to become successful planters – it was one of the dreams of empire, along with military glory.

WICKHAM VEIO DE LONDRES EM 1871. NA VERDADE ELE TINHA PARADO AQUI EM SANTAREM QUANDO VOLTAVA DE UMA AVENTURA DESASTROSA NO RIO ORINOCO NO ANO ANTERIOR. EMBORA ELE JÁ TIVESSE INTERESSE EM BORRACHA QUANDO ELE AQUI VOLTOU, EU NAO ACHO QUE ELE TINHA IDEIA DE LEVAR AS SEMENTES PRA KEW.
ELE QUERIA MESMO VIR PRA AMAZONIA E TORNAR-SE UM AGRICULTOR, E SERINGUEIRA ERA UMA DAS ESPECIES QUE ELE PLANEJAVA CULTIVAR JUNTAMENTE COM CANA-DE- AÇUCAR.
ELE TENTARA PRODUZIR BORRACHA NO ORINOCO MAS FOI CONVENCIDO PELO CONSUL BRITANICO EM BELEM, QUE O LUGAR SERIA A AMAZONIA.
NAQUELE TEMPO, JOVENS IAM ALEM DAS INFLUENCIAS DO IMPERIO BRITANICO E TENTAVAM SER PRODUTORES BEM-SUCEDIDOS - ESSE ERA UM DOS SONHOS DO IMPERIO, JUNTO COM A GLORIA MILITAR.

2 & 3. Was he alone? How long did he stay? ELE VEIO SÓ?? QUANTO TEMPO ELE FICOU???
Wickham came with his mother, his wife Violet, his sister and her husband, his brother and his wife, an undetermined number of English workmen, and his sister-in-law's mother. All were going to start the plantation described in #1. He stayed until 1876, the year he smuggled the seeds. By then, all of the workmen had either died or deserted Wickham; his mother had died, as well as his sister and his sister-in-law's mother, supposedly from either yellow fever or malaria. He saw the seeds as his way out of the Amazon – he'd nearly died twice himself, watched those he loved die around him in pursuit of his dreams, and was nearly penniless by 1876.
ELE VEIO COM SUA MÃE, SUA ESPOSA VIOLET, SUA IRMÃ E O MARIDO DELA, SEU IRMÃO E A ESPOSA E UM CERTO NUMERO DE TRABALHADORES INGLESES. TODOS COM O INTUITO DE COMEÇAR AS PLANTAÇÕES MENCIONADAS. ELE PERMANECEU ATÉ 1876, O ANO QUE ELE TRAFICOU AS SEMENTES DE SERINGUEIRA. SUA MÃE E IRMÃ JA TINHA MORRIDO MUITO PROVAVELMENTE DE FEBRE AMARELA OU MALARIA. ELE PERCEBEU AS SEMENTES COMO UMA MANEIRA DE SAIR DE SANTAREM - POR DUAS VEZES ELE QUASE MORREU, VIU AS PESSOAS QUE ELE AMAVA MORRENDO NA BUSCA DO SEU SONHO, ELE TAVA COM POUCO DINHEIRO EM 1876.

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4. What attracted your attention to Wickham? O QUE CHAMOU SUA ATENÇÃO PARA WICKHAM???

I was fascinated by the fact that he was haunted by ambition and the dream of success as defined by the British Empire, and he spent his entire life chasing that vision in one shape or another. His father was an attorney, or "solicitor," and so he was born into a comfortable middle-class existence, but his father died of cholera when he was 4 years old. He spent his life trying to regain that lost social caste, and in so doing, he dragged others with him into ruin – his wife, his mother, the Amazon Basin when the seeds he smuggled started to produce cheap rubber in Great Britain's Far Eastern colonies. It was unbelievable how one man could change the fate of nations, yet he did so in the grip of a delusion.

EU FIQUEI FASCINADO PELO FATO DELE SER AMBICIOSO E O SONHO DE SUCESSO DEFINIDO PELO IMPERIO BRITANICO, E QUE DE UMA FORMA OU OUTRA ELE PASSOU SUA VIDA INTEIRA NA BUSCA DESSA IDÉIA. O PAI DELE ERA UM "ADVOGADO" , E ELE NASCEU NA CONFORTAVEL CLASS-MEDIA DA ÉPOCA, MAS SEU PAI MORREU QUANDO ELE AINDA TINHA 4 ANOS DE IDADE. ELE PASSOU A VIDA TENTANDO RECUPERAR A POSIÇÃO SOCIAL ENTÃO PERDIDA, E NESSAS TENTATIVAS LEVAVA OUTROS A RUÍNA – SUA ESPOSA, A MÃE, A AMAZONIA, DEPOIS DE TER LEVADO AS SEMENTES E PRODUZIR BORRACHA NAS COLONIAS BRITANIAS DO ORIENTE. É INCRIVEL COMO UMA ÚNICA PESSOA PODE MUDAR O DESTINO DE NAÇÕES, AINDA QUE NUM MOMENTO DE DESESPERO.

5. Did he become rich by smuggling the seeds? ELE TORNOU-SE RICO LEVANDO AS SEMENTES?

Not at all. He was paid somewhere between 700-740 pounds sterling, a healthy price but no fortune. He hoped to be sent to India with the rubber seeds, but upper-class British society found him too low-class and coarse and basically washed its hands of him. In later years, he personally asked Queen Victoria to help him in a legal case against mahogany cutters in British Honduras, and she snubbed him. He became known because of the theft, but not rich. He spent the money for the seeds on land in Queensland, Australia, but he was never a very good farmer and within 10 years he was broke again.

DEFINITIVAMENTE NÃO. ELE FOI PAGO ALGO EM TORNO DE 700-740 LIBRAS ESTERLINAS, UM PREÇO RAZOAVEL, MAS NÃO ERA UMA FORTUNA. ELE ESPERAVA SER ENVIADO PRA INDIA JUNTAMENTE COM AS SEMENTES, MAS A ARISTOCRACIA INGLESA O ACHAVA CLASSE-BAIXA E MESQUINHO E BASICAMENTE SE LIVROU DELE. ANOS MAIS TARDE, ELE PESSOALMENTE PEDIU AJUDA A RAINHA VITORIA NUM CASO LEGAL CONTRA EXPLORADORES DE MOGNO NAS HONDURAS, MAS ELA O DEIXOU NA MÃO. ELE FICOU FAMOSO PELO ROUBO, MAS NÃO RICO.
ELE GASTOU O DINHEIRO DAS SEMENTES EM QUEENSLAND, NA AUSTRALIA, COMO ELE NUNCA FOI UM BOM FAZENDEIRO EM DEZ ANOS ELE TAVA "QUEBRADO" DE NOVO.

Maria's birthday party last year.

Maria, you are cool. "No wonder my heart beats faster when I think of you.

Luv U and and Eduardo too". It even rhyms, LOL!

Tangier from an encyclo...

Seaport city (pop., 1994: 521,735), northern Morocco. Located at the western end of the Strait of Gibraltar, it was first known as an ancient Phoenician trading post and later became a Carthaginian and then a Roman settlement. After five centuries of Roman rule, it was captured successively by the Vandals, Byzantines, and Arabs. It fell to the Portuguese in 1471; it later passed to the British, who gave it up to Morocco in 1684. When the rest of Morocco became a French protectorate in 1912, Tangier was granted special status; in 1923 it officially became an international city, governed by an international commission. It remained an international zone until it was integrated in 1956 with the independent kingdom of Morocco. It became a free port and royal summer residence in the 1960s. The old town is dominated by a Casbah (citadel) and the Great Mosque. It is a busy port and trade centre; industries include tourism, fishing, and textiles, especially carpets

Andre my friend and neighbour is...

a quite smart young bloke, I wonder who has influenced him.

His grand-daddy is certainly one (1) good bet! He is also quite coooool.

Pedro Ivo...

...having an bird-eye-view from the wonderful city of Rio de Janeiro. Fly bitch fly!!

PS: E a melancia, será que passa de lado??

Parintins Boi Bumba-Cigarretes&alcohol

Pix taken by Emano Loureiro, a good friend and film director from Santarem.

Tanger bird eye view

homes flags

Morocco

I was always eager to know my grand-daddy's place...i am eager to breath the same air, walk on the same streets, see the same sea, sea the same signs, hear the same language, pray same prays...

What??? I shall miss this anyway

Windsurf in Mirleft, Morroco

Lucas

Happy birthday bro!!!! and replace the drinks pls.

Desde que nasci tô no conflito Aflito pra saber Por que com tanta gente que eu podia serEu nasci EU !(Sorte nossa!!!!)

Next Destination: Morocco

pra

I am working my way to my grand-daddy's country. Wish me luck.

books referred in the article below

Jornal O Estado do Tapajos pelo wise Sebastião Imbiriba

Estado do Tapajos de GIL SERIQUE – REFERÊNCIAS
Estou com uma fila livros aguardando a de vez de serem lidas e apreciados. O primeiro é “East to the Amazon” (A Leste da Amazônia), de John Blashford-Snell e Richard Snailhain. O Segundo, “Drowning World - a novel of the commonwealth” (Mundo Alagado - uma novela do bem-estar-comum), do autor de bestsellers Alan Dean Forster. O ultimo, “The Thief at the End of the World - Rubber, Power and the Seeds of Empire” (O Ladrão no Fim do Mundo - Borracha, Poder e as Sementes do Império), de Joe Jakson, autor do incrível trabalho de pesquisa de “World in Fire” (Mundo em Fogo) que li e comentei recentemente.
O que estas três obras têm em comum? Todas fazem referencias ao nome de conterrâneo muito especial, Gil Serique.
“East to the Amazon”, para meu gosto literário e preferências por informações científicas, dentre as três obras a menos interessante, relata como, em maio de 2001, John Blashford-Snell,e sua equipe partiram através da densa floresta tropical da Bolívia em busca do Grande Paititi, a mística letra que os conquistadores espanhóis denominaram El Dorado, e dos segredos de suas rotas de comércio para o Velo Mundo.
Os aventureiros percorreram rios perigo em jornadas incríveis em pleno coração da Amazônia, onde encontraram e obtiveram ajuda de Flavio e Gil Serique.
“Drowning World” é uma obra de ficção cientifica – sobre Fluva, imaginário planeta onda chove o ano todo, exceto um mês – dedicada por Alan Dean Forster a Gil Serique por causa de... “Mamirauá, a floresta inundada, onde vimos a preguiça de três dedos, o boto rosa e o elusivo macaco uacari branco. A força do Iguaçu. A cerimônia do candomblé nas favelas de Salvador. Os grandes jacintos azuis do Piauí, Os pássaros de Itatiaia. A observação de capivaras e jacarés. A estupenda festa gastronômica no pequeno restaurante de Tefé. O licor caseiro de maracujá no Dia das Mães na Bahia. O mercado de Manaus e os sorvetes que tomamos lá e em Barreiras. E, o mais memorável, nadar com lontras gigantes no Pantanal”,
De todos, “The Thief at the End of the World” me parece a obra mais importante, quer pelo primoroso trabalho de pesquisa–para a qual contribuíram, entre outros, meus amigos Cristovam Sena e Elcio Amaral - quanto por se, tratar de assunto pertinente a Santarém. Joe Jackson narra a estória de Henry Wickham, que se aventurou pelas escuras fiorestas da Venezuela e do Brasil, das quais emergiu com setenta mil sementes de seringueira, obtidas ilegalmente, - o primeiro caso -de bio-pirataria em massa da era moderna O autor enviou a Gil Serique um exemplar com a seguinte dedicatória:
“Gil, I couldn’t have written this without you, pal. It’s as much your book as it is mine. Best, your friend, Joe Jackson (Gil, eu não poderia ter escrito isto sem ti, meu chapa. Este livro é tão teu quanto meu. Tudo de bom, teu amigo,Joe Jackson.”
Além de haver contribuído para a produção literária de outros,Gil possui seus próprios méritos como autor de “Birds - Your personal guide to Amazon wildlife (for the inquisitive initiate)”
(Pássaros - Seu guia pessoal para a vida selvagem da Amazônia [para o iniciado inquiridor. Eis o que Alan Dean Foster, autor de Star Trek, Star Wars e Alien, escreveu sobre “Birds”: “Mestre guia e naturalista, Gil Serique não apenas vive na Amazônia...!Ele vive a Amazônia-cada dia de sua vida. Desde suas populosas e vibrantes cidades às pequeninas nas vilas que abraçam igarapés margeados de árvores, das filas de formigas hiper-ativas, em busca de alimento, à onça que, silenciosamente, percorre sombras beijadas pela Lua, enquanto ruidosos macacos fazem coro nas topas, ninguém conhece os segredos do grande rio, e do território que o envolve, melhor do que Serique”.

Flávio Anchieta, Bass Guitarrist from Santarem...

...showing one of the best things he can do with Fred Sun Walk: http://youtube.com/watch?v=q1a9n8i-trY

Pure Blue!! An example to be followed by Tapajos Jazz Band.. Go for the complete work: Sun Walk and Dog Brothers's "Blues to feel good" ...and burn me a copy pls.

Dog-headed Bat

Bats are the most successful mammals in Neotropical regions. They count for 50% of local mammal fauna and the most neglected group by scientists.

Jolen Serique a Darwinist biologist (if i may say)took this pix of a Dog-headed bat resting at a jasmin tree at home. Bizarre sight!!

My favourite dosh toy

..taken from Yasmin albun