Americaville
The interesting and bizarre town of Belterra 100km from Santarem. The last thing you’d expect in the middle of the Amazon is this typical small American town, completely different to any Brazilian town. In the 1930’s Henry Ford came to the Amazon for the Siringuela trees, which provided the rubber he needed for all his cars’ tyres. Pretty much single-handedly, his team built up this town, American style, but when an Englishman smuggled some Siringuela seeds to Asia, where somehow everything is always made at a fraction of the price, they packed up and abandoned the town.
Following three centuries under the rule of Portugal, Brazil became an independent nation in 1822. By far the largest and most populous country in South America, Brazil overcame more than half a century of military intervention in the governance of t... ... read more 
