Ilha de Marajo Vacations and Luxury Travel Packages
This immense riverine island has a population of 250,000 spread over 13 cities and towns, the most important of which, Soure (population 20,000), can be reached by boat or plane from Belem. The boat takes three hours to Porto Camara, from which it's a half-hour bus ride to Soure. The flight from Belem to Soure, on the other hand, is a quick 30 minutes. The broader, western part of the island consists mainly of dense forests, while the eastern plains are comprised primarily of savanna, which is usually covered by Amazonian floodwater during the first six months of the year.
Water buffaloes are important on Ilha de Marajo: herds of them (the largest in Brazil) roam the island, and buffalo ranches also rent out guest rooms, which are accessible by boat from Soure or by plane from Belem. Wild animals abound too, including monkeys, sloths, capybaras, deer, turtles, and huge flocks of scarlet macaws; and the rivers teem with fish: in addition to catfish and perch, the dreaded piranhas also frequent these watercourses. The vegetation in the savannas (campos in Portuguese) consists predominantly of sage (Cyperaceae) and carana palms; wetter areas are characterized by marshlands and mangroves. Among the plant life that thrives here is the mangle tree, with its tannic acidyielding bark, and the poisonous Strychnos blaclzii liana plant.
A 24-hour boat trip around this substantial land mass includes a visit to Macap, the capital of the state of Amapa, located on the northern arm of the Amazon. The main attraction in this city of 180,000 inhabitants is Forte Sao Jose, which sits on a spit of land near the harbor and the town center. The fort was built by the Portuguese between 1764 and 1784 to protect the northernmost corner of their colonial possession. Marco Zero, the equatorial line situated five kilometers south of the city, is a well-liked locale for photographs, as it provides visitors with a unique opportunity to have their photo taken with one foot in each hemisphere. From Porto da Santana, which is 21 kilometers south of Macapa, there are boat excursions to the Amazonian islands as well as to the igarapes.
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