Advertisement
Published: January 28th 2010
On the way
Through the forest for about 300 KmSituated on an island in the middle of the river Urubu, an affluent of the Amazon the Pousada Aldeia dos Lagos was our attempt to do some “eco-tourism”. As a matter of fact we didn't want to end up in one of these lodges especially equipped for tourists and which, while they certainly show you some aseptic version of the forest nevertheless cut you off from the real thing.
Like all the other destinations/hotels/places we went, this one was discovered on internet.
Although we always do an extended research, one never knows what it will be, so we have a kind of 'que sera sera' approach. We were going to be more than satisfied with this trip.
On the Tuesday (3 November) early morning Midson, our driver, picked us up at the infamous Hotel Anna Cassia in Manaus for a 330 Km trip through the forest which was going to take about 5 hours. Luckily the car was comfortable and equipped with aircon.
On the way out we crossed Manaus' suburbs and quickly ended up on a paved road in the forest. Here and there we saw a house and from time to time we crossed a village. In one
of these places we stopped for a rest and a cake. The place where we stopped was very busy and full of locals traveling by car, truck or bike. Further north there must be some unspoiled forest places, but it appeared that in general this vast area is inhabited. During several kilometers however we crossed a section of the forest where no one lives. We were told this huge section belongs to a Swiss national; the company is exploiting the timber in total disrespect of the official rules, according to some locals. Seeing this was a wake up call for us and we started understanding what it means when scientists speak about the 'savannazation' of the Amazon forest. Our driver explained that a few years ago he worked on a farm in the Amazon. They burn forest to have pasture land, but after 8 years the new land doesn't produce anymore so they have to burn more and more... Some herbs grow in the old pasture land and this is how this forest will, in a few decades turn into a huge savanna.
On arrival at the island we had to wait for the local 'ferry', a barge to
pick us to the other side of the river.
Lunch was waiting for us at the pousada (or inn) and the friendliness of our hosts would never relinquish. The pousada is composed of a central building, with a large open but covered space which serves as dining room and bar. There are some rooms upstairs for the personnel.
In the garden you find two similar buildings each containing 6 rooms. A nice path bordered with flowers and palm trees links it all. Further you have the forest where another path brings you down to the river side. We were going to use that path for any activity or trip as the river was going to be our main communication channel for the next 5 days.
A quiet man, a bit shy, was sitting at another table, it was Arnaldo our guide and barqueiro.
With him and sometimes with his young son, we were going to explore the region.
We explored the river Urubu, side rivers, forests, lakes and had a trip through the forest to reach the river Amazon and a village on its riverbank.
We fished piranha, watched gray and pink dolphins and saw lots animals, mainly birds.
The pousada was a 1996 development project sponsored by the government of Austria and the WWF. It belongs to a local community and is now run by them. They are successful and they deserve it. Today they are supported by the European Union. With the funds they get, they buy as much land as they can, mainly farms or forest which is then all kept untouched for preservation purposes. They also successfully run a preservation project for the pirarucu, a fish that is the emblem of the Amazon and is an endangered species.
All this doesn't go unnoticed. The mayor of the little city of Silves situated on the same island and who owns his own hotel does all he can to make their life difficult. The only unpaved road on the island for example is the one leading to the pousada. He also tried but without success to create a fisherman organisation as a way to get control over the lake where the pirarucu is breeding. We think that what keeps that corrupt mayor relatively quiet are the type of powerful sponsors supporting the pousada.
The last night we had a conversation with Vincente, one of the
current leaders. He told us fascinating stories and I can't resist telling you what follows.
About 15 years ago, there was no fish any more in the river Urubu which as the pictures will tell you is a huge river. So instead of fishing, the locals started hunting all they could. As a consequence, fire arms were widespread and any disagreement was easily settled. The number of homicides were abnormally high.
Under the leadership of the Catholic Church meetings were organised to try to figure out what happened. They quickly understood that the main culprit was extensive fishing. The communities owning the pousada took then part in a project whereby all locals where briefed on the river's ecosystem and motivated in respecting a new agreement whereby no fisherman would fish more than 125Kg per week. This is of course a lot, but is nothing for the bigger industrial ships which are now kept out of the river. This agreement was eventually supported by the ministry of environment and is now a law. Today the fish is back in the river, homicides are inexistent or very rare.
It should be noted that a law in Brazil is easily ignored. So volunteers
from the communities such as Vincent are empowered by the authorities to stop any big fishing ship and explain the current fishing limits. This can be a dangerous mission and is courageously fulfilled.
Needless to say that we left the pousada with mixed feeling. On one hand we were upset to see what corruption can signify for local people, but we also had warm feelings when thinking about what our new friends could achieve.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.097s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0593s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
