City and the Jungle

This heat does not let up and the forecast stays the same every day. Rain in the morning till 10 am, Sunny skies during the day with a high around 93 with 98% humidity. The sun goes down and the temperature drops to 83 and then it starts to rain all over again after midnight. We have been lucky so far that none of excursions have been cancelled due to weather. That was the case yesterday when we were given a tour of Santarem. We will be here until May 6th so our hosts thought we should get to know the city. We took a city bus to the downtown district. The city buses are interesting because there is a cashier with a cash drawer who collects fares on the rear of the bus. It is a great concept because you do not need to worry about having exact fares. Also, it is another way the City of Santarem can employ more people.

Our first stop was the Santarem Cathedral which is the largest Catholic Church in the city. In addition to showing us the art and historical items in the church, our guide led us to the mausoleums of 2 past bishops of Santarem that were located inside the church. After the church we did some shopping and walked the River walk. At the river walk there were many people fishing for food and we saw someone catch a Piranha. You should see the teeth on these guys. They can snap your finger off in an instant. From there we walked back to the compound and had dinner and made a visit to the IESPES University across the street.

This morning we got picked up by a man named Steven Alexander who owns his own Bosque (i.e. a 120 acre tree and wildlife preserve). He is a Dual citizen in the US. He lived in the US for about 34 years before moving to Brazil over 20 years ago. It took us about 40 minutes to get there through some roads that were barely wide enough for an ATV. Considering the mudbogs from the rain we somehow made it to our destination. At the Bosque, Steven gave us details about the trees, plants, animals and the rainforest ecosystem. It was amazing how much knowledge he had about everything. He led us through the intricate trails that cross the property. We even heard the hallowing monkey family's make load incredible calls that would last up to 8 minutes. These monkeys's calls sounded like a jet engine was cranking. As it is the rainy season, many of the swamps were filled. These swamps looked exactly like the swamps from the Empire Strikes Back. So after my Jedi training with Yoda, we headed back to our host's house and returned back to the compound. That's today's update. Hope all is well back home.