Just Getting Started- Miami to Santarem

January 16th 23:48
Miami to Santarem

Today I was in a holding pattern, waiting and standing still while much was going on around me. It has been a long day of being by myself while being amongst masses of people. Spending long periods of time in an airport is not exactly a fun time. It was a lonely day where I have been alone stuck in a place where I know no one and cannot communicate with anyone (very well anyway). This is not necessarily a unique experience to the airport world. This can also happen in Chicago or else where whether the barrier is language or politics or education

I left Chicago around 1:30pm Thursday and was glad that I actually got out considering all the cold weather and snow we had been. I flew out of Miami to Manaus at 5:00am. The flight was scheduled to take off at 5:45am with this late departure I began to see I was going to need a lot of patience. I got into Manaus and through security and Brazilian customs around 1:30pm. I took my time being last off the flight and to get my luggage. I had plenty of time because my next flight to Santarem was at 4:00am the next morning.

With all the time that I had the opportunity to spend in the airport over the past few days, I did find some good things in the experience. It very well have been my saving grace from going mad. Airports are a wonderful place to people watch. One can see extreme happiness when one reunites with loved ones and sadness with departure. Airports are also symbol of globalization and the movement of people. Much of my time in Brazil will be looking at how globalization if affecting peoples around the world and for that an airport may have been the perfect place for me to start my journey.

I thought I would start out the blog with some information about the Brazilian Rainforest. This is the area that I will be spending my first week in. Santarém is a city in the state of Para in Brazil. The Tapajos joins the Amazon River there, and it is a popular location for tourism. It was once home to the Tapajos Indians, a tribe of Native Americans after which the river was named, and the leaders of a large, agricultural chiefdom that flourished before the arrival of Europeans. Santarem is also the name of the original city in Portugal that gave the name Santarem to this Brazilian city. The city is the home to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Santarem.

Santarem is an important regional market center in Lower Amazonia located midway between the larger cities of Belem and Manaus. The economy is based on agriculture, cattle and mining. The city has seen many 'cycles' of development dominated by one or a few economic activities, including (in the last century) rubber tapping, coffee production and gold mining. Most recently, there has been a huge growth in the area of soy plantations.

Santarem is bordered by the Amazon and the Tapajos rivers. Both run along many kilometers in the front of the city, side by side, without mixing. The Amazon's milky colored water carries sediment from the Andes in the East, while the Tapajos’s water is somewhat warmer and has a deep-blue tone. This phenomenon is called "The meeting of the waters" by the locals.
Another popular place for tourism is the village of Alter do Chaos, which is located by the Tapajos River, about 30 km from Santarem. It can be reached by car (about half an hour) or by boat (one or more hours, depending on the boat).