Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
PREHISTORIC FINDS
Thirty kilometres east of Santarém, and more easily accessible by river than by road, is a
nineteenth-century sugar plantation called
Taperinha
. In an excavation there in 1991,
American archeologist Anna Roosevelt unearthed
decorated pottery
almost 10,000 years
old. This suggested that the Amazon basin was settled before the Andes, and that the
Americas had been settled much earlier than previously thought. Later excavations in
Monte
Alegre
confirmed that the middle Amazon played an important role in the prehistory of the
Americas, with cave and rock paintings dotting the surrounding hills also being dated at
around 10,000 years old.
About two thousand years ago, tribal culture in the region entered a particularly dynamic
phase, producing some superbly decorated ceramics comparable in their sophistication with
Andean pottery; there are beautiful pieces in the Centro Cultural João Fona in Santarém
(see p.353) and even more in the Museu Goeldi in Belém (see p.339).
T
93 9122 6889.
Set on two floors, this open-fronted
restaurant decked out in natural materials is a pleasant
spot for a meal; seating is either within the main building
or in the shaded sandy area with wooden benches and
hammocks. Dishes are for two, with mains starting from
R$40.
Daily 11am-6pm & 7-11pm.
DRINKING AND NIGHTLIFE
★
Espaço Alter do Chão
Rua Lauro Sodré 74
T
93
9122 9643,
W
espacoalter.com.br.
Known locally as
Borô
,
after the owner's name, this laidback cultural centre gets
packed over the weekends when
carimbó
and reggae
bands take centre stage; virtually all the square flocks here
once the other bars have closed down, and the sandy
dancefloor remains packed until the early hours.
Tues-Sun
11am-3pm & 8-10pm, Fri & Sat until 4am.
Mae Natureza
Praça 7 de Setembro s/n
T
93 3527
1264,
W
maenaturezaecoturismo.com.br.
This travel
agency morphs into a happening bar at night, in particular
on Fri and Sat evenings when live bands play
carimbó
, MPB
and other Brazilian musical flavours, livening up the entire
square. Tables spill onto the street, with drinking and
dancing until closure.
Daily 6pm-2am.
SHOPPING
★
Arariba
Rua Dom Macedo Costa
T
93 3527 1251,
W
araribah.com.br.
This excellent shop encourages tribal
arts and crafts production, with beautiful pieces of
indigenous art from ninety ethnic tribes available for
purchase. It's the perfect spot to buy wonderful Amazonian
souvenirs, including ceramics, hammocks, masks, musical
instruments and books. Highly recommended.
Daily
9am-8.30pm.
The Floresta Nacional do Tapajós (FLONA)
An essential day-trip if you can manage it is to one of the Amazon's few national parks
within easy reach of Alter do Chão and Santarém, the
Floresta Nacional do Tapajós
(FLONA)
. Some 5450 square kilometres of preserved upland forest riddled with trails,
it includes around 50km of Tapajós river frontage, where there are a number of small
communities living within the reserve's boundaries. The forest is magnificent, with
primary rainforest towering over the secondary scrubland which the area around has
been reduced to by waves of colonization over the last fifty years (soy growers being
merely the latest of a succession of new arrivals).
ARRIVAL AND TOURS
FLORESTA NACIONAL DO TAPAJÓS
FLONA
Tours
The easiest way of visiting the Floresta is as part of a
package organized by a tour operator in Santarém or Alter
do Chão.
By bus
You can also catch a bus to Jamaraquá from where you
can hire a local guide to take you around the park (R$50/day)
- contact the head of the community Conceição who can help
organize this (
T
93 9124 5750). Buses run from Santarém's Av
Rui Barbosa by the Banco do Brasil (daily at 11am; 2hr 30min;
R$8). The return bus leaves at 4am so you'll have to spend the
night at the town's basic
pousada
(R$40).
