Looking for land around Manaus

[amazondk]

I am in the process of selling some property I have here and will use a part of the proceeds to buy some forest land.  I mentioned this on a previous thread.  I don't know if this qualifies as travel log, but I am posting it here.  The area I am looking at is actually quite close to Manaus, but the access is via a road which intersects the main highway north to Venezuela and is 21 kms of asphalt and 30 kms of dirt.  The prospects are that a lot of the dirt road will be paved in the near future.  The worst case is for a good dirt road with gravel.  This area has good cell phone reception, radio, and TV from Manaus as it is really only 20 kms or so from the city in a direct line. In additoin it has a power grid which makes things a lot easier.  The lots are mostly 25 hectares or so.  The pictures are of several locations, but he overall aspect is as depicted.  The topography is hilly with plateau, slolpe and low land forest.  The regulations on land use require 80 percent of forest land to remain intact.  This means that on a 25 hectare plot about 4 hectares could be converted to alrtenative uses, such as farming or plantations.

My idea is to have a part as for a house and yard, maybe 1 hectare, and the rest with Euterpe plantation or orther uses.  It would be nice to have a few horses as well.  The lots tend to be 200 to 250 meters by 1000 to 1500 meters . They are rectangles not square.

Here is an overview of the potential area.

Front of one of the lots

The lots are have been converted form forest to fruit plantations in the front.  But, in many cases have not been taken care of and are sort of degraded.   A bit of care would change this.

I intend on making a first class place, tropical timber frame home, pool, wood working shop, and gardens.  The important thing is the raw material.  This area has a large nature preserve behind it which means that there will always be a lot of wildlife, birds, etc.

This picture shows the slope of the land from plateau to lowland.  

[amazondk]

Going down the slope there are a lot of bacabinha, or Oenocarpus minor.

O. minor

Down at the bottom of the slope are O. bataua and M. flexuosa.

And the swimming hole  very cold clean water, just the thing for a hot day.

[amazondk]

This is a shot of the stream as it comes out of the spring.

A fish pond with native fish, the matrixa, which is great grilled.

A manicaria palm at streamside.

Baby Oenocarpus bataua

I think this sort of location will be a good place to hang out.  And, I can raise chickens, fruit, and have a few horses as well.

dk

[amazondk]

Raquel,

My palm hunting and country life partner.  We took a free range chicken home, it will be lunch tomorrow.

Jungle boots on, we at least took some coconuts and the chicken home.

[paulgila]

it already has ranch hands,too!

[Zac in NC]

Wow, Don. Looks great. Is that the property you mentioned the other day? Beautiful, and already with a decent palm collection growing wild.

Zac

[mike453]

Thanks for sharing the pictures Don, it looks like some very inviting property! I hope you are able to aquire it.

Looks like a very relaxing environment. I was wondering, since the front part of the lots have already been cleared, does this affect the amount of land you will be able to convert?

              Regards, Mike

[Dypsisdean]

Don,

Don't forget the guest quarters. Maybe a skylight, lots of windows with a view of a Manicaria and some Oenocarpus. I love fish. Never had matrixa. Does Raquel have a sister?  

[amazondk]

Thanks everyone.  Ranch hands are an important part of country life.  It is a drag to do everything alone.  These pictures are actually a composition of two properties of about the same size.  But, the topography is the same on either.  The area I am looking at is just the other side of the Taruma River which flows into the Negro River just north of Manaus.  Taruma is an area with a lot of water sport activities, marinas and the like, and on the city side starting to be developed with up scale housing areas.  Since there is not a bridge yet you have to drive north towards Venezuela 21 kms then enter what is called here a feeder road, ramal.  This road is still dirt, but being improved and supposedly will be paved, but around here I never hold my breath about improvements, you never know when they will happen.  The area I am looking at was divided up some years ago for a an agrarian land reform project.  That is why the lots are all mostly 25 to 30 hectares.  The idea was to get poor rural folks a place where they could support themselves.  But, this is not really that easy as for a person with no capital behind them to make a living on 20 percent of the 25 hecatares (allowed for conversion from native forest) or 5 hectares they don't produce much more than they need to get by.  So, a lot of the places have changed hands since, and I am sure more will in the future.  Since these places were giving by the government it takes a while to get permanent title, so you really are buying the improvements and the right to use the land until such time that you can aquire title from the government.  But, this is only a matter of time and you have full rights to the property.  There are a number of properties that are pretty much abandonded and the price is quite negotiable.   I think I can probably close a deal in the neighborhood of 8 to 10 thousand USD for 25 to 30 hectares.  I need to sell my city lot though before I can do this.  I hope this will not take to long.  The cost of the property is the easy one.  The improvements will take some cash, but time should take care of that.  I will also have to buy a pick-up, the road will tear my car up.  

Mike, most of the places of this size have about 2 or 3 hectares cleared.  In many cases much of this is already growing back in secondary vegetation, called capoeira here.  The place with the little house probabably has no more than 2 hectares converted.  I would go a little further back from the road to make a clearing for the house and gardens.  And, the springs and streams are further to the back, many times on the rear property line.  I plan on making a natural spring fed pool with a leisure area, BBQ, etc to relax.  

Dean, of course I would make a guest house or two.  In fact I am thinking the best course would be to make the guest house first, so I could use it while we build the main place.  Actually Raquel has 7 sisters, but they are sort of scattered around all over the region.  Ranch hands are not in short supply around here anyway.  

I posted this satellite image a short time ago.  It shows the Manaus area.   The area I am looking at is from the yellow circle to the river.  There is no real direct access to the Negro River.  These pictures are about half way from the yellow circle down the road.  I had these plans to build a nice house on the city lot, 800 m2, that is in a gated type area.  But, there are a lot of restrictions on what you can do.  And, at this point it seems like I can have a lot more fun on 25 hectars anyway.  I could get a lot more land further away from the city, but then access would be more of a problem.  This way in 30 to 40 minutes you can be at the Mall, supermarket, or whatever.

Zac, all the places have a lot of native palms in the forest, I suppose about 30 or 40 varieties could be found.  One thing for sure if properly cared for most palms will do pretty well in our climate.  At least you don't have to worry about cold.

[amazondk]

Dean here is a picture of the matrixa.  It is grows up to 2 to 3 pounds and is a great sport fish.  It lives in clear water rivers and streams.  The fish is great roasted on the BBQ grill.  The method used here is to leave the scales on and put lime juice and salt inside the fist.  The scales keep the fish from burning.  I think it is one of the best fish to eat.

dk

[SubTropicRay]

Don,

I love it when the topic of fishing pops up.  My mouth is salivating after the mention of BBQ Matrixa.  I too would love to try it.

Ray

[amazondk]

Ray,

When you come to visit we can grill some up.  They are great fish to catch as well.  They jump all over the place.  

dk

[bgl]

Don,

This is very exciting and fascinating, and I look forward to regular updates on your progress with this property! Good luck! BTW, do the Manicaria typically grow in full sun or part shade? Any big ones there?

Bo-Göran

[amazondk]

Bo,

Your work in Hawaii has helped give me inspiration to something a little more bold over here.  Regarding the Manicaria the only one I saw right there is the one in the picture.  But, I did not look around too much either.  I have seen them in full sun, but I believe that they were left over from when the owner of the area cleared the land.  So, my guess is that around here they grow in filtered sun light in areas with a lot of other palms such as the Oenocarpus bataua and M. flexuosa.  They are found in sandy soil low land areas which are quite drain well, but are normally moist.  The fronds are one of the best thatching material of the local palms.  I think that the variety we have around here are smaller than the one over east in the state of Para.

dk

[bgl]

Don,

Thanks! Having inspiration is the beginning of all great things!

I have a few small Manicaria and they're pretty slow, so it's always exciting to see a photo of a big specimen!

Bo-Göran

[JakeK]

Dk,

Sounds like a great plan. Keep us informed of the progress. $8-10K sounds like a steal as well.

Everytime you post pictures of the Amazon, I almost want to pick up a second job bartending just to earn the money I need for my trip sooner.

[Zac in NC]

Don- I need to make a trip to Manaus one of these days and see all this. I dream of seeing the Amazon, and there you are living in it.

Zac

[Walter John]

(amazondk @ Jan. 03 2007,20:42)

QUOTE

Dean here is a picture of the matrixa.  It is grows up to 2 to 3 pounds and is a great sport fish.  It lives in clear water rivers and streams.  The fish is great roasted on the BBQ grill.  The method used here is to leave the scales on and put lime juice and salt inside the fist.  The scales keep the fish from burning.  I think it is one of the best fish to eat.

dk

Looks like one shouldn't place one's hand in the water. That looks like a piranha cousin to me.

"Honey, do you need another hand getting the fish ?"  :laugh:

[amazondk]

Wal,

Actually the matrixa is not related to the piranha, and you can stick your hand in it's mouth with no problem.  Piranhas really are not much of a problem.  We go swimming all the time in water with piranhas  It is kind of hard to get away from them as they are everywhere.  You do have to excersize care when taking piranhas out of the water into the boat.  They can take a nice 5 cm bite out of you really fast.  There are 23 varieties of piranhas here and only one the red bellied one could be a problem.  They are known as the caju (cashew) piranha around here.  One thing of interest is the piranha soup is supposed to be very good for ones sexual performance, "caldo de piranha", they call it the natural Viagra in these parts.

dk