Water buffalo
Outnumbering people.
MárciaPenna — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Fogosolar — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Palácio do Planalto from Brasilia, Brasil — CC BY 2.0 · Nao Iizuka from Tokyo, Japan — CC BY 2.0
Marajó, at the mouth of the Amazon in Pará, is the second-largest island in South America: 40,100 km², about the size of Switzerland, almost entirely flat, with savanna plains and big cattle ranches in the east and rainforest in the west. Between about 400 BC and 1600 AD it was home to the Marajoara culture, an advanced society that may have numbered more than 100,000 people and is famous for its pottery. Today the island is known for its water buffalo, about 450,000 of them, more than its human population, and for the pororoca, a tidal bore that sends waves up to 4 metres high up the rivers and draws surfers. The whole archipelago is a protected area of almost 60,000 km². Boats from Belém reach Porto de Camará in about three hours (from about R$25 for ships to R$38 for faster boats), and buses and vans meet arrivals for Salvaterra and Soure.
Outnumbering people.
An ancient culture.
A river tidal bore.
Mouth of the Amazon, Pará
By boat from Belém to Porto de Camará, about three hours, then by bus or van to Salvaterra or Soure.