Our final day spent with our tour guide Gil was touring the Tapajos National Forest
The Tapajos is a Brazilian national forest in the state of Pará, Brazil
Little one got to enjoy ice cream for breakfast
She turned 3 in the Amazon, 2 in Utah and 1 in Acadia National Park (Maine)
We are turning her birthdays into traveling traditions
Hiking through the rainforest
A giant seed pod A discovered
We watched these beetles roll this giant seed with good success
Rainforest beauty
Stretching rubber from a tree
Our view at lunch time
On our way back into town we stopped at Beloterra
(Random lunch truck that was parked on the side of the road)
"Belterra was founded as a rubber plantation, after the economic failure of Fordlândia, which had been founded in 1934 by Henry Ford. The intention of the US-Department of Commerce in the 1920s was to produce rubber in Brazil and to import it to USA. The advantage of the Belterra plantation over the plantation of Fordlândia 100 km (62 mi) to the south is the flat topography, which enables the use of machinery. In its peak time in the late 1930s some 50 km2 (19 sq mi) were cultivated with Hevea Brasiliensis (rubber tree)." Wikipedia
We had contiplated a trip to Fordlandia but its a day boat ride there and another to get back. Our guide offered to let us stop in on Beloterra for an hour or so. It was amazing walking the streets. The design, layout and feeling of the city took Rob and I back to a small city in South Carolina or Georgia. There were no fences around the homes, cute and tidy gardens lined the streets, sidewalks abounded and the roads we wide and straight.
We were glad we took the time to stop in on this second rubber city founded by the Ford company