Lake Maria takes its toll, continued

As you can see, Cargill didn't do a very good job of draining Lake Maria, a name I've given to the mud hole to honor the mayor of Santarém, who's done nothing to resolve the problem. I need to look at my computer notes, but I think the "lake" will be celebrating its first birthday real soon. In all fairness, it wasn't Cargill's responsibility to help out. The grain company that buys up most of the soybeans from the Amazon was merely responding to the indignation of farmers and truck drivers over the lack of access to the grain deposits of Mato Gross, which can be seen in the background. The Mato Gross facility normally deals in rice, but this year there seems to have been a bumper crop of soybeans and according to one source, the Cargill sills in Santarém are overflowing. The story also has it that Cargill rented the whole Mato Grosso mill for taking up the slack. Hang on, I'll get back to the flat tire.