Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
socks, and a polarized hat, and a million other little purchases to help you convince your-
self that you actually want to go on the trip.
While Adam spent his last few evenings researching deforestation patterns and Brazilian
environmental policy, I screwed around on the Internet, disconsolately hoping for
something to spur my curiosity. Somehow, I stumbled across an advertisement for some
real estate near Santarém:
For Sale: 1,907 acres (766 hectares) of prime forest land adjacent to the Tapajós Na-
tional Forest in the Amazon region of Brazil.
Rainforest for sale? I called at once. Soon I was talking to a gravelly voice on the other
end of the line. His name was Rick, and he lived in Michigan, where he ran a business im-
porting high-quality Amazonian wood.
“I own two thousand acres of what I consider the finest rainforest in the world,” he said.
“I made a lot of money in the exotic lumber business. So I bought it because…well, 'cause
I could do it, I guess. It would be a soy farm or a cattle ranch by now, otherwise.”
Since then, though, the economy had crashed, and business was bad. His company had
shed most of its employees, and he couldn't afford to keep his rainforest anymore. And
even though he had made his fortune in wood, he wanted to find a buyer for his forest who
wouldn't just cut it down. Much of the land around it had already been converted to soy
fields.
“I planned on making so much money in the business that I'd give my piece of forest
to the state, or a college, or a nonprofit,” he said. But for the past few years it had been a
struggle just to hang on to it.
I told him I was going to Santarém in a couple of days.
Man, he said, I wish I were going with you. I was thinking about going, but I guess it's
too late now. Have fun. You're going to love it down there.
A breezy city of a quarter million people, Santarém occupies a broad corner of riverbank
just where the Amazon meets the mighty tributary of the Tapajós. Rick was
right—Santarém is
nice.
I was instantly glad that Adam and I had decided not to go nosing
into lawless pockets of the countryside in search of illegal logging. We might have over-
corrected with tourist-friendly Santarém, but that was okay. I needed to relax, needed a
vacation from the cold weather that had been creeping down onto New York, and from
everything else.
