Passionfruit on barbed wire

FOCUS students at Bosque

We were pleased to receive Nathan Darity and his FOCUS students at the Bosque this past week. Another group is scheduled maybe yet this week.

Fungus

Another blooming orchid

This one is Epidendrum schomburgkii and it's been in full bloom for 2-3 weeks. It's native to Bosque Santa Lucia and the region. A real beauty!

Small flowers and big bracts

Bougainvillea at CEPES.

Gil Serique

I was feeling guilty about having scared up that grasshopper into the spider web, but my friend Gil Serique told me a story even more somber. "Steve, once I inadvertently scared up two Orinoco geese that fled from the river bank and landed in the water. They were followed by 7 or 9 chicks that landed by them. All these chicks were eaten by a school of piranhas that did not give them a chance to fly. I got that on tape, just in case you want to check it." Image, Gil lecturing to a group of visitors from a cruise ship.

Confederates - Allison Jones

From time to time I divert from plants and trees to report on descendants of the American Confederates, many of whom settled in this part of the world after the American Civil War. I've been neglect in searching out and interviewing many of these individuals. Most of the time I just bump into them by chance, or pick up on local news and events. Such was the case yesterday, when my wife, younger son and I pulled up into the shade of a tree next to the Belo Alter Hotel in Alter do Chão, where we were going to have lunch. A couple in a pickup parked there just seconds before us and we exchanged "good afternoon"as we got out of our vehicles. As I started walking towards the hotel, I noticed a decal of a Confederate flag on the rear window of the pickup. Inside the lobby of the hotel I asked the gentleman if, by chance, he was a Confederate. A big infectious smile appeared on his face as he recognized me from an encounter many years ago. When he identified himself as Allison Jones, it all came back. Well, nearly. His memory is much better than mine and he reminded me that that on that occasion I was touring with a former physician of the Ford Motor Company Hospital in Belterra. To my surprise, Allison and his wife, Eloise, have been living in Alter do Chão for the last two years. What brought them from their native Confederado community in Santa Barbara in the State of São Paulo to Alter do Chão? Well, I didn't ask, but I assume it was retirement. Attached image from left to right: Eloise Jones; my wife, Áurea; me; and Allison Jones. Next image, please.

Muiratinga, continued

Hang on folks! Don't click on that "inappropriate material" button provided by your blogger company. This isn't jungle porn. It's only part of tropical biodiversity in the world of trees. As explained in the previous post, the muiratinga trees lose their branches, much like plants, i.e., the branches disconnect themselves from the trunk of the tree taking with them the nodule that for the world takes on the image of a penis. Obviously, mankind makes of it what they want, including stories, legends, jokes and even porn. When I came to Santarem in 1979, I remember it was quite common for local folks to present me with the muiratinga oddity, in great jest of course. The local name is caruara, which comes from the Indian language. Strange enough, I haven't been able to find reference to this word anywhere on the internet or in my library. As a matter of fact, there is almost nothing on the topic. The only reference I found was a book of Indigenous stories written by Betty Mindlin, called Barbecued Husbands And Other Stories from the Amazon. The excerpt from the book is explicit enough that I need not say anything else. Only that the word muiratinga means "the white tree". At least that's the best translation I could concoct from the words muira (tree or wood) and tinga (white). A word about the image: the tree is muiratinga, from which the branch fell.

The Thief at the End of the World

I'm delighted to have received Joe Jackson's book, The Thief at the End of the World. I'm even more pleased to have received it from the author, himself. Joe spent one morning with me at Bosque Santa Lucia in October, 2005, while researching the life of Henry Wickham, the alias "thief", who made off with the rubber tree seeds. Wickham immigrated to the Amazon from England in 1871, and farmed at piquía-tuba, which is at the top of the hill on the way to the Bosque. It can't be more than 3-4 kilometers away, as the vulture flies. Knowing the place and some of the history of rubber, I savored every last word in Joe's book. Image: latex forming from a cut on a rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis) at Bosque Santa Lúcia.

Gil Serique's book

I'm remiss in not having announced the publication of Gil Serique's book on birds in the Amazon. At last a guidebook for the more common birds of the region ... and written by a local birder and photographer. As a fellow guide and owner of Bosque Santa Lúcia, I know that most visitors coming to this part of the word think they can find bird identification books locally. That's not true, at least until now. It's indeed a pleasure to see this quality product being made available for birders and also for the general public, all hungry for information on the Amazonian environment. I love the introduction to this publication, written by Alan Dean Foster (author of Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien): "Master guide and naturalist Gil Serique doesn't just live in the Amazon ... he lives the Amazon every day of his life. From its teeming, vibrant cities to the tiny villages that hug its tree-shrouded tributaries, from the line of hyperactive ants hunting for food to the jaguar silently prowling the moon-kissed shadows while raucous macaws chorus overhead, no one knows the secrets of the great river and its surrounding countryside better than Gil Serique." Visit Gil's website at www.youramazon.org

Difficult access, continued

Getting splashed on, by the way, is not a humorous event, but Áurea and I still laugh when recollecting an episode from a trip to Serra do Navio in the State of Amapá, where we had gone to research a new tour route that would include that beautiful mining town. The mayor put us up at the official guest house and showed us around for the two days. Needless to say, we felt privileged that the mayor, himself, could take time away from his busy schedule for this purpose, and that he had a nice pick-up truck in which to take us. Right away we perceived that this man was a much respected authority in the region, not just because of the office he held, but also because he is an accomplished political leader, a man who had risen from the ranks of the working class at the ICOMI manganese mine. We soon got used to the out-pouring of homage paid to him wherever we went, so we were quite astonished one day to hear a young boy walking along the side of the road call him a filho da puta. Inadvertently the mayor had driven through a mud hole and had splashed muddy water on the pants of the unlucky young man. It happens all the time, but we still find this particular incident amusing because of the kid's spontaneity towards the unintentional act, and to whom it was being directed. I should add that getting a bath of mud and water is not restricted to pedestrians. A vehicle hitting a pothole in a paved street can splatter the contents of the puddle right up into adjacent cars. A smart driver knows exactly when to roll up the windows - and fast. Source: Santarém - Riverboat Town

Henry Ford in Belterra

Another old friend we encountered at the Book Fair was Henry Ford, founder of rubber tree plantations at Fordlandia and Belterra. I didn't pay a lot of attention to details, but I think this exhibit was sponsored by the Municipality of Belterra, which borders with the Santarem Municipality. I've never seen this painting of Ford before, although it's similar to a photograph that hangs on the wall of the ICBS Library.

Environmental education

One of the biggest events taking place here in Santarém this year is the Feira do Livro (Book Fair). Literally thousands of people circulate through the giant tent-like building that covers the street that divides Praça São Sebastião (Saint Sebastian Square). Áurea and I visited dozens and dozens of shops there this past Friday and to our surprise we ran into a booklet on environmental education at Bosque Santa Lúcia, as shown in the attached image. The book, translated into Portuguese, was written by and paid for by Alice Stein, an old friend from Buffalo, New York. It was printed by Instituto Cultural Boanerges Sena, otherwise known as ICBS. I'm down to the last few copies of the booklet, but evidently ICBS still has some copies for sale.

Marco Lacerda's book

I recently received Brazilian Fruits & Cultivated Exotics (for consuming in natura) from friend and coauthor, Marco Lacerda. It's a must for anyone interested in tropical fruits. There are 640 pages of high quality photographs accompanied with describing text for each fruit. This English translation will be of great interest for the non-Portuguese speaking world. Congratulations to Marco Lacerda and his colleagues for this beautiful publication.

Eimar Franco's book

Eimar Franco's book, O Tapajós Que Eu Vi (Memórias) was published by Instituto Cultural Boanerges Sena (better known as CBS) in Santarém in 1998. Hélcio Amaral, then Secretary of Culture for the Municipality of Santarém, presented me a copy of the book in November of that year. I've always considered it to be the best book ever written on life on the Tapajós River. I didn't know Eimar personally back then, but I was especially interested in his historical annotations of Fordlândia, which was established right across the river from where Eimar and his family lived at Urucurituba. Henry Ford came by a million hectares of land from the State of Pará for the development of his first rubber tree plantation in the Amazon in this region in 1928, but found it necessary to purchase another piece of land for the building of a port for his ships. That land, called Boa Vista, belonged to Eimar Franco's grandfather and it was at this location where Ford built not only his deep water pier, but the whole village of Fordlândia. Eimar was actually present at the legalization of the purchase, which took place at the family home in Urucurituba. He was only 7 years old at that time! His description of the transaction is indeed memorable.

Santarém - Riverboat Town, continued

The weather was quite appropriate for the presentation of my book, Santarém - Riverboat Town (refer to the previous post) this past Saturday. A riverboat or canoe would have been a better mode of transportation for getting around than a vehicle. Everything was flooded from the abundant rains in the region, even places on BR-163, the Santarém-Cuiabá Highway. Entire streets in the city were washed away, walls toppled and houses flooded. At Bosque Santa Lúcia, water came up over the footbridge and access to area became impossible for smaller vehicles. Even today, low areas on the dirt road going into Poço Branco and beyond are under water and there are still a lot of big clouds rolling in with the easterly trade winds. It's that time of year when we get all the rain we want and then some. Photographer from Belém, Lais Paiva Amoedo, captured the mood of two of the largest rivers in the world, the Amazon and Tapajós Rivers, at the book signing ceremony as they passed by and under the Santarém Tourism Center on the city waterfront. I mean to tell you that there's a lot of water out there and water levels will continue to raise for a few more weeks. It's quite possible that the city waterfront will be completely flooded this year.

Santarém - Riverboat Town

My book, Santarém - Riverboat Town, was officially presented to the community on March 22, 2008. Breakfast and the book signing ceremony were held at the Santarém Tourism Center, located on the waterfront of the city. Despite heavy rains with flooding, some 40 invited guests showed up for the event. More information on how and where to purchase the book at http://www.amazonriver.com/book.html

The local chapter of Partners of the Americas was responsible for the presentation. Our State of Pará is partner with the State of Missouri in the United States. The Missouri Chapter published the book.

Image: my son, Arthur Daniel (lower left) and friends at the event. Daniel designed the cover of the book, as well as the banner in the background.

Valdely Kinupp, botanist

It was great having Val Kinupp, Ph.D with me at Bosque Santa Lúcia towards the end of February. He is truly a genius at identifying flora and he knows everything about the use of plants, for whatever reason. Val was representing Harri Lorenzi at the Instituto Plantarum on his collection/fact finding expedition into this part of the Amazon. He is not only a botanical consultant for Lorenzi, he also collaborates as a professional photographer for the many books published by Plantarum. In the attached image, Val photographing ubaia (Eugenia patrisii). I learned a lot from his visit to the Bosque. Given that I need to learn more, I hope he'll come back!

Joe Jackson's new book

When I took this picture of the root system of a paricá tree at Bosque Santa Lúcia, I couldn't help remembering the cover of Joe Jackson's new book, Thief at the End of the World. Joe visited the Bosque with me on 19 October 2005, while researching the life of Henry Wickham, the person attributed to smuggling the rubber tree seeds out of the Amazon. The book will be available on 28 February. I know a number of people here in Santarém very anxious to read the book, including myself.