Today we are in Santarem, another big city along the Amazon. This time my excursion was into the Tapajos National Forest and not seeing city sights or exploring the river. The bus ride to the forest took about an hour and it was interesting to see the villages and fields along the way. The bus wasn’t air conditioned but the windows opened so it was pleasant. The funny thing is that the cruise companies don’t want air conditioning to be used and want fresh air instead so that less folks get sick from being in an enclosed space with many people.
Brazil is a leading exporter of soybeans and we saw many soybean fields along the way. Each field had a random number of Brazil nut trees at random locations in the field because the Brazil nut tree is protected.
Tapajos National Forest is a protected primary forest area and has a great variety of plants and trees. We went on a short hike and saw Brazil nut trees, rubber trees and many different types of iron wood trees. We got to taste a fresh Brazil nut and it was delicious. The Brazil nut tree takes 60 years to grow enough to produce the nuts.
The guide went over some of the medicinal uses of the plants & trees. One tree is used to produce the fibers that are used in US bills. It’s one way that reduces the ability to counterfeit US bills. He also lit some tree sap on fire to show that the fire would quickly extinguish itself because of the moisture in the soil. Not sure I believed him that the forest wouldn’t burn.
The tour company did a really good job of organizing visitors. We had 3-4 buses of about 30 people each and we all parked in the same area but started on the trial at different times and starting locations so I didn’t feel surrounded by people even tho there were many around.
