After spending two days on the boat traveling down the river, we finally made it Trombetas, another port city in which MRN (Mineração Rio do Norte) uses strip mining methods to mine bauxite which is in turn used to create aluminum. Throughout my time here, I have been able to see the entire process from the mining of the bauxite, the distribution of the alumina, and finally to the creation of the aluminum. Brazil has about 6 billion tons of bauxite and exports the majority of the aluminum they produce, though the Brazilian consumption is expanding with their rapid economic development. After seeing the mining process, we met with the Quilombolas (escaped African slaves who created communities along the river). They basically partake in low impact activities on the land, but they are living in an area that has recently been deemed a conservation area, so they are no longer allowed to keep animals on the land and are restricted in the amount of fishing and hunting they can do. In addition, MRN has the rights to the minerals in their land, as people are able to own surface area but anything below the surface is federally owned and then leased out to large corporations. It has been interesting to see the development of this contention between federal conservation practices, corporations, and local communities that have been living on the land for quite some time. All of these interests have very opposing needs and trying to find a balance has proven to be difficult throughout the entire Amazon region, mostly, in my opinion, because the government does not do much in terms of understanding social conflicts, resource needs, and ecological concerns.
The head of the Quilombolas community took all of us around and showed us how to find Brazil nuts and open them with machetes, which they can sell for a reasonable profit in nearby towns.

In addition, sunrises over the Amazon are the most beautiful in the world