Palms in Manaus, AM Brazil

[amazondk]

Here are a few shots of some palms in Manaus and immediate vicinity.  I went out and took a few today.  I will get some more to add tomorrow, and later.  

The main terminal at Eduardo Gomes International Airport, the ponds are full of turtles and local fish like the tambaqui.

Estrada da Cidade Nova, a main street close to my house.  There was a time when the city was into planting Oil Palms, they have switched now to Royals - will be shown in a later image.

[cfkingfish]

Don, are those Euterpe sp. planted there at the front of the airport?

[amazondk]

This is an area locally known as an Invasão or Invasion.  Land is invaded by groups of people to take over the property.  Sometimes the landowners get them off, other times the city ends up paying the landowners and turning the areas officially into neighborhoods.  This is a big problem as it is sort of a mafia with involvement of the ring leaders and politicians many times.  The area used to be rich in M. flexuosa and other wet land palms such as the Oenocarpus bataua.  There is a housing deficit as in much of Brazil, but this is not a solution.  You can see the city is already paving the streets and putting in basic infrastructure.

On the other side of town down by Ponta Negra Beach life is much different.  Although by South Florida standards real estate is not expensive, the entry level apartments run for around 200,000 USD.

[amazondk]

Christian,

Yes I believe they are.

dk

[amazondk]

Another Ponta Negra shot

Some palms on a country place just outside of town.

[happ]

ESTUPENDO, Don  

[amazondk]

The entrance to the Horto Florestal - Forestry Garden, of the city.  They cultivate plants for the city and give free ones to the local residents.

Bactris gasipaes and Bananas.  Bobby, maybe you could try this on Long Island.

[bgl]

Don,

VERY interesting! Looking forward to more pics. Seems like there's an incredible difference in neighborhoods. That "invasion" area looks pretty scary!!

Bo-Göran

[Zac in NC]

Thanks for all the pictures Don.

Zac

[amazondk]

After looking over these shots I guess you could say I live in sort of a palmy place.

dk

[cfkingfish]

Don-

The Invasion area reminds me of pictures of what Cidade de Deus looked like back in the 1960s.

[amazondk]

Bo,

Yes there are great contrasts.  The invasions can be sort of scary, but for the most part not. The most dangerous time is when they are first started.   In reality most of Manaus went throught the phase of Invasion to urbanization.   There are very few parts of the city that were actually planned.  The place where our house is used to be one, but for the most part is pretty safe.    I could take you places though where you might really get worried.  Brazil is a land of contrasts and that is not confined to Manaus.

dk

[amazondk]

Christian,

I think you are pretty close with that idea.  Actually that picture is phase two.  In the first phase it is just plastic tarps and sticks to keep the rain off.  Then the folks hook up wires to the power lines, which are called "gatos" to get free power.  These things run all over the place.  Then the city comes in and turns it into an urbanized neighborhood, putting in power and the like.  But, water distribution and sewage collection normally remains a problems.  Large areas of the city depend on wells and septic tanks.  I have city power, but they have yet to come in and put in a meter, so for the time being it is free electric.  At least it makes running A/C affordable.   My neighborhood, Parque das Laranjeiras is a mix, most of it is one of the most exclusive areas in town, but over where our house is at is the tail end of the area.  But, at least being in the worst part of one of the best parts there is a lot of room for upward movement.  

dk

[Really full garden]

Don thanks for the pictures.It looks like Guatemala.Here we have almost no middle class.You are either very rich or extremely poor.

                                                                                    Scott

[amazondk]

Scott,

I always wanted to go to Guatemala, but only managed to stop at the airport many years ago on a trip from LAX to RIO.  Actually there is a relatively strong middle class here.  I would say what would be considered poor by Brazilian standards is about 30 percent of the population or so.  But, middle class by Brazilian standards is not what people in the States or other developed countries would not consider middle class.  I believe that the largest economic sector in Manaus would be lower middle class.  I will put some Middle Class neighborhoods in the thread as I go along.  Another factor here in Manaus is that you can have nice houses in the middle of not very nice neighborhoods.  Things are all mixed up.  Since building a house is not that expensive many people opt to get a lot cheap and build the house as they go.  People are more concerned about their personal standard of living than what the neighborhood looks like.  

dk

[Jeff Searle]

Thanks for sharing your pictures. :cool:

[Really full garden]

Don we also have invasions here as well.It is now a tactic used by the narcotraficantes in the northern province of Peten.They manipulate poor people to invade national parks and then build airstrips etc.Vast areas of the jungle are set ablaze.It is sad

                                                   Scott

[amazondk]

Scott,

That really is sad.  We don't have much problems with rural land in Amazonas.  But, in many parts of Brazil there are real problems.  There is an entity MST, movimento sem terra, which specializes in this pushing land reform.  But, they commonly attack productive land in rich areas of the country.  An off shoot of this group even invaded the congress building a few months ago.  There are more conflicts with drug trafficking along our borders with Colombia and Peru than is brought out in the press.  There is a major military presence in Manaus and a lot of the activity is centered on the Colomcian border.  There is now a very sofisticated RADAR and satellite observation center, SIVAM installed in Manaus.  This center has 3D radar built by Martin Lockheed from the States and supposedly can see anything flying above tree tops.    I was involved in the transportation of this equipment into Manaus by ocean and air.  The system is also used to monitor usage of the forest, ecological impacts, etc.  There is actually a very sophisticed mechanism in place now to determine what is happening over the entire Brazilian amazon basin.  But, in spite of this it is still very difficult to control such a vast border area in uninhabited areas.  If the USA has a hard time controlling it's borders, what can you expect here?

dk

[Daryl]

Don, it looks like a nice tropical palmy place...lucky you!

Daryl.

[paulgila]

don

thanks so much for the great pics! half the fun of this forum is to see palms in places i'll probably never have the chance to go to ::

[Really full garden]

Don during our civil war which lasted some thirty years the jungle of the Peten was a no mans land and was left alone.Many of the long time residents survived there by collecting Xate.Xate is a species of Chamaedorea

and the leaves are exported for the floral trade.The xate only can survive with the forset canopy intact so these people realised the importance of keeping the forest whole and protecting their source of income.It has been in the last ten years that we have seen such drastic changes.Guatemala is turning into a mini Colombia.

                                             Scott

[amazondk]

The Buriti, M. flexuosa is at the store of a friend of mine.  He makes wicker style and synthetic fiber garden and veranda furniture.  He also has a place out of town about 15 kms, 200 hectares, where he has a very large amount of royal palms planted.  I have been talking to him about diversifying somewhat.

[amazondk]

Scott, that is very disturbing news.  From what I have heard Guatemala is a beautiful country.  It is a shame that people have to mess things up so much.

dk

[amazondk]

Royal palms are all over the place now, both private plantings and the city.  This is a major street corner in one of the better districts of the city.

This picture is going down Rua Paraiba, one of the busiest streets in the city.  I could not really pull the car over to get a good shot of these Astroacryum aculeatum, tucumã, trees.  They are in a grove on vacant land that undoubtedly will turn into an apartment building at some time.  You can also see that the wall has been painted with political advertising by the current state governor for this years elections.  His name is all over town now.  I always like to look at the trees when I drive by.

[amazondk]

This shot is going down Rua Paraiba at near lunch time.  The amount of cars on the streets of Manaus has grown greatly in the last 5 years and the city has not kept up with the growth, so traffic is starting at times a pain.  Nothing to compare with many places though.  There is an ambitious construction program going on now making underpasses at major intesections which should help somewhat.  Manaus is basically a triangle with downtown at the point.  

My palm hunting companion took this picture while we were stopped in the traffic above.  There is a nice clump of Euterpe olearcae there.

[amazondk]

This shot is from the top floor of the parking building at Amazonas Shopping Center.  It is looking towards downtown, although you can not see downtown.  The area around the mall is turning into a commercial and office area with many of the more high end stores located there.  In addition there are more and more apartment buildings.  There are still some palms remaining from the stream bed in the foreground, M. flexuosa mainly.

This picture is looking the other direction from the same spot as above.  That would be Northeast I believe.

Later to come I will post some pictures of downtown, the river port, and the meeting of the waters.

dk

[Exotic Life]

Very nice pics and place too !

[SubTropicRay]

Don,

Manaus is a place I'd like to visit sooner than later.  These pictures further confirm this.

Ray

[amazondk]

Ray,

When you decide to come let me know, I will take you out to see some forest.   I am going to be travelling in the area quite a bit this year, but if I have advance notice I should be able to coordinate things.

dk