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Politically divided between the states of Para and Amapa, the eastern Amazon is essentially a vast area of forest and savanna plains centred around the final seven hundred miles or so of the giant river's course. Belem , an Atlantic port near the mouth of the estuary, is the elegant capital of Para and a worthwhile place to spend some time. It overlooks the river and the vast Ilha de Marajo , a marshy island in the estuary given over mainly to cattle farming, but with a couple of good beaches. Para has always been a relatively productive region. In the late eighteenth century it was an important source of rice (allowing Portugal to be "self-sufficient" in the commodity), and it also exported cacao and, later, rubber. Very little of the wealth, however, ever reached beyond a small elite, and falling prices of local commodities on the world markets have periodically produced severe hardship. Today, the state is booming once again, largely thanks to vast mineral extraction projects in the south. The landscape of southern Para, below Maraba and the Tocantins-Araguaia rivers, is essentially a scrubby savanna known locally as caatinga : traditionally the home of the Ge -speaking Indians, it forms the major part of the central Brazilian plateau or shield. Over the last twenty years some of the most controversial developments in the Amazon have been taking place here: particularly the vast Grande Carajas industrial scheme, based around a huge deposit of iron and other ores, and the associated hydroelectric operation at Tucurui , whose dam has flooded an enormous area of forest and Indian land. Not far away are the once infamous Serra Pelada gold mines. Amapa , in the northeastern corner of the Brazilian Amazon, is a fascinating place in its own right. A poor and little-visited area, it nevertheless offers the possibility of an adventurous overland route to French Guyana and on into Surinam, Guyana and Venezuela. It's possible to do much of this journey by ocean-going boat. Connections in the region are pretty straightforward, in that you have very few choices. The main throughway is still the Amazon, with stops at Santarem - a sleepy town entirely dominated by the river - and Obidos , far less enticing. As far as roads go there are good highways south from Belem towards Brasilia (the BR-010) and east into the state of Maranhao (the BR-316). In the north there's just one road from Macapa , the capital of Amapa, up towards the border with French Guyana. The BR-010 crosses the powerful Rio Tocantins near Estreito (in Maranhao) close to the start of the Transamazonica . If you're coming from the south, connections with westbound buses and other traffic are best made at Araguaina (in Tocantins) where there's a small Rodoviaria and several hotels. The first stop on the Transamazonica within Para is Maraba , some 460km (12hr) by bus from Belem. Continuing from here, the Transamazonica reaches Altamira on the navigable Rio Xingu, a small new city over 300km west of Maraba where there's another massive hydroelectric dam scheme. With a population that's grown from 15,000 in 1970 to over 100,000 today, it's at the centre of an area of rapidly vanishing jungle. Beyond Altamira, the Transamazonica becomes impassable.
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