Museu do Seringueiro

Me, Igor, Silvio and Eric in a 'seringueiro' hut.

On Sunday Eric suggested to visit the Museu do Seringal Vila Paraíso, a 25 min. boat ride from Ponta Negra and Silvio and Igor joined us. The museum is a re-creation of a rubber plantation from the early 1900s. The reconstructed buildings - the luxurious mansion of the rubber baron, a little store, a church, a rubber tappers shack and a tent like smoke house where the latex where processed - were based on detailed descriptions and maps that were written and drawn by a Portugese author who lived on the plantation while it was operating.

We were the only visitors and our guide Judith who was very enthusiastic as well about the process of rubber production as about the social conditions of this industry gave us a very good insight on what life had been like for the seringueiros (the rubber tappers) and the seringalista (the rubber baron).

At first we visited the luxurious house of the rubber baron - decorated with finest European furniture and materials . Judith pointed out the crystal beer bottles imported from Germany and the crates of French champagne. She also explained to us that the clothes, of European origin, of course, were sent back to Europe for cleaning. A costly and timely procedure - but affordable for the rubber barons who lit their Cuban cigars with dollar bills, as she told us. Even though they lived deep in the Amazon forest, the rubber barons enjoyed a luxurious and decadent lifestyle, letting them forget the hot and humid climate.

The life of the seringueiros, the rubber tappers, on the contrary was very cruel. Even though they were free in theory, they lived as slaves. They had to exchange the rubber they produced for food and tools in the little shop owned by the seringalista. They scarcely would accumulate enough money to travel back to their families and if they did so they were likely to be assaulted and killed on the way.

The work day of the seringueiros began at 2:00am when, wearing a kind of hat with a oil lantern, they started cutting the trees and hanging a little tin under each cut. They would tap up to 150 trees each day. After cutting all the trees they would collect the liquid rubber milk from the little tins and fill it in one big bucket. They had to collect the rubber milk before sun came up as the heat would make the milk go solid. After collecting the rubber milk the seringueiro would light a smoking fire in the so called smoke house and pour the liquid rubber milk over the smoke on a wooden stick. The smoke would make the rubber solid and also cause the typical dark grey colour.

Judith showed us the whole process and pointed out the many difficulties and dangers involved. She was so passionate about it, especially about the living conditions of the seringueiros and answered all our questions.

We really enjoyed the visit, especially as the museum is not a typical dusty place full of boring artefacts but a place where you can touch, feel and smell the history of rubber, which actually was the base of the founding of the city of Manaus!

After visiting the rubber museum we stopped for a swim at Playa da Lua, the Moon beach, and later visited the Hotel Tropicana, where the guys had a swim in the pool and I watched the beautiful sundown over the Amazon river.

We rounded up the day with some Acai and Guarana and a German Apfelstrudel in the posh Fran's Cafe. A perfect day!