The Stakes
Into the Amazon
Operation Roosevelt
The Indians
The MinersOne truly regrettable decision
At the end of July 2004, we decided to leave Rio and travel to the Amazon to get a closer look at the story. There was one problem, however -- we were low on cash. So to conserve money, we decided to bus it. Throughout all the months working on this project, this was the only decision we truly regretted.
Forty-odd hours on a bus in Brazil may not seem like a lot until you find out that Brazilians like to travel like their beef -- in a freezer. As we approached the lower reaches of the Amazon, the condensation on the inside of the bus windows literally turned to frost. Went to the Amazon, caught a cold. Imagine that.
The only relief from this insanity was a rest stop about every four hours. The bus doors would open, and warm air would come rushing in. Wed stretch our legs and thaw out over shots of strong and sickly sweet Brazilian coffee. Then a few minutes later we were back in the meat freezer.
Late into the second night of travel, the bus stopped at a particularly dark and isolated spot. I stepped off the bus into what seemed like a plague of insects. I looked up into the light on the front of the a building and saw a swarm of enormous bugs. I could feel them crunching under my feet as I walked to the bathroom. At last, I knew we had arrived.
By sunup, we were driving along BR-364, the main highway that cuts through the state of Rondônia. The road was hacked out of the jungle in the late 1960s as part of Brazils western expansion, and it effectively opened up the southwest Amazon to settlement. As people arrived, the jungle disappeared. The process was accelerated in the early 1980s when the road was paved, for the first time allowing easy passage during the rainy season.
Where just a few decades ago there was virgin rain forest, ranch land now stretches as far as the eye can see.
A little more than halfway along this 930-mile stretch lies the town of Cacoal. In 1972, it was a jungle settlement of five homes. Today, its home to more than 50,000 people and is one of a number of unremarkable towns that line BR-364 from its starting point in Cuiabá, in the state of Mato Grosso, to its ending point in Porto Velho, the capital of Rondônia.
Thats about the only thing that can be said for Cacoal. And just so you dont think Im being harsh, Ill tell you what teenagers and young adults do for fun in the town: Everyone owns a scooter or a motorbike, and every evening they drive in endless circles around the island in the middle of the towns main street. Weekends mean only that more people make circles. Locals call it the bobódromo, which loosely translates as the idiot track. The only thing sillier than these young people driving in circles each night is the adults who sit in restaurants watching them. For about a week, Mariana and I counted ourselves among them.
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