Brazil, a land of contrasts – Part 2

Dear Fellow Travelers,

Here we go with the next installment of my Northern Brazil adventure!

Pipa

The next day we left for Pipa, close to the town of Natal and some 450 km to the north of Olinda. After driving in the wrong direction again (and this time in broad day light) we thought it might come in handy to have a map of some sort. We had packed hastily for this trip (as we usually do) and some things had sadly been left behind. After several stops at gas stations, supermarkets, and other places where one might expect to be able to buy a map, we finally found one at a local pharmacy where, as it turned out, everybody buys their maps. At least that was the fact in Olinda (at the end of this journey, we stumbled upon the “Giua Cuatro Rodas”, an excellent guidebook, with all kinds of tips, directions and hotel options in the country, along with an excellent road map; so we’re all set for our next trip!). Now it became a lot easier to find our way and within no-time we entered the famous BR101 highway. The BR101 is undergoing many repairs these days, so long stretches are “en obras” (under construction), which means our trip took a little longer than expected and we arrived to Pipa after dark, yet again. Another thing we quickly came to realize is that even though we were visiting a neighboring country of our beautifully southern hemispheric Argentina, we had come quite close to the equator, and the sun here sets at 6.30pm sharp, something to take into account if you are planning a full-day’s drive.

Pipa turned out to be amazing. Lovely beaches circled by high cliffs, lagoons, Atlantic forest and dolphins. Pipa has cobbled streets and good surfing beaches, in addition to a lake full of manatees (in neighboring Tibau do Sul). It is an old hippy colony and was recently discovered by Brazil’s traveling youth. Even though the town can get a bit crowded at night it remains a beautiful little spot to relax and enjoy nature.

We spent our days here walking along one of the beaches, spotting dolphins from a small speedboat, and eating… The place was called Panela do Barro and we went back three times. Located in the heart of town, sitting on the cliff, overlooking Pipa’s central beach, their seafood Moqueca is a feast. The ways various African, Portuguese and indigenous ingredients, and cooking methods have merged through the centuries to create this wondrous dish I cannot describe, but man it was good! I really need to get that recipe, or better still, find me a good Brazilian restaurant in town… It can be said though; food in Brazil is GOOD!

Porto Galinhas

From Pipa we moved on to Porto Galinhas, which was not really worth visiting. Supposedly home to the best beach in Brazil, the town changed from a fishing village into the playground of Brazil’s rich and famous and later became a popular vacation spot for domestic travelers. The town has a questionable history as the “chicken port”, so called by the Portuguese during the time when the English started getting bossy and imposing their power to try and force the Portuguese to abolish slavery - just as the rest of the world had done before. On paper, Porto Galinhas was a port where poultry and other livestock arrived from Europe, but that was only to deceive the British; what actually came off the boats was slave trade business as usual, and it would go on like that for many more years. Today Porto Galinhas does not have too much to offer to the discerning traveler. We relaxed in one of the huge resorts there for a couple of days, but were happy to move on.

Praia do Forte

Praia do Forte on the other hand was a very nice surprise. We stayed in the Tivoli Eco-Resort, which is a pleasure in itself, and explored the surrounding area from there.

The Tamar Project (TAMAR being short for Tartaruga Marinha, Portuguese for Sea Turtle) is definitely worth a visit. The story of marine conservation in Brazil coincides with the creation of the TAMAR Program. Seventeen years ago the Federal Government, in tune with international demand and increasing environmental awareness in Brazilian society, began to adopt measures aimed at marine protection. In the beginning of the 1980s, the Brazilian Institute of Forestry Development (IBDF), created the TAMAR Program with the objective of protecting sea turtles in Brazil. The work started in Bahia (Praia do Forte), Espírito Santo (Comboios) and Sergipe (Pirambú), and was then extended nationwide. The project focused on the identification of different species, their main nesting sites, their reproduction period, and the main socio-economic problems related to the exploitation of sea turtles by the coastal residents. Technical staff spent two years traveling along the Brazilian coastline gathering information. In 1982 and 1986, SUDEPE (the Fishing Development Agency) passed regulations prohibiting the capture of all species of turtle.

From April through November one can also go out to sea to spot Humpback Whales, something that I would love to do. Unfortunately, we arrived off-season this time, but I will certainly go back one day to see these wondrous creatures.

Lencois

From Praia do Forte we decided to escape Carnaval (absolutely a great party, but a little too much with two small kids) and head for Lencois, some 450 km inland. Until 1996 this was the wild, wild, west where some 80,000 people tried their luck at discovering diamonds. Lawlessness ruled and the area was notoriously unsafe and environmentally irresponsible. Come the mid 90’s the Federal Government decided enough was enough and diamond mining in Lencois was made illegal. The area almost immediately shifted to tourism for its income, and today Lencois, and the few towns surrounding it, are the heart of the Chapada Diamantina National Park. This is a beautiful area of natural springs, waterfalls, weird rock formations, quaint little towns and large underground cave-systems that can all be visited from Lencois.

We found all ranges of accommodation in the village, but relatively few people seem to know about it, or make the decision to go there, so the whole place is very calm and tranquil. Lencois is also a place where all races seem to be living together in perfect balance (from what we saw at least) and it is throughout a very safe and pleasant place to be. We walked through the outskirts of town after dark with our two small children without ever having the feeling that we should start being careful. We have been around the block a bit in this continent, so our antennae are attuned, but here we felt perfectly at ease. Talks with locals confirmed this feeling; Lencois is one of the safest places to travel. Combine this with a great surrounding area for hiking and sight-seeing and you have one fantastic destination to add to your list of Brazil must-sees.

Happy trails,

Bart

Ps I just had a look at our webpage and came across this aptly named package to Northern Brazil visiting Salvador, Lencois and Praia do Forte - Salvador and the Beauty of Bahia

Brazil, a Land of Contrasts - Part 1

Greetings fellow travelers!

After my last brief trip to Brazil, I decided I had to go back and explore some more. So, last month I did just that - this time around I had a whole month, plus a car full of kids! Here is Part 1 of my latest Brazil adventure.

Brazil (http://www.cat-travel.com/brazil/information) is a truly developing country. There is a constant buzz about it that cannot be denied. You only need to drive along one of its main highways, such as the BR101, to realize that. Trucks, trucks and more trucks, and they’re all over the place! As we tried to get from Recife to Olinda it was still ok, but when driving north to the beautiful coastal town of Pipa it was a mad house. Unbelievable amounts of trucks, carrying anything from sugar cane to cars, entire bridges and other unidentifiable loads transported from A to B in huge bulk. I mean, they are going places, you know? This is a country on the move. No wonder they got the first two letters in BRIC…

I am not sure to what extent this busyness has to do with Lula, the current president that has done so much for Brazil’s working classes, and who has truly made a first attempt to bring the country up from a feudal landowners’ state to an industrialized nation. I have not been here long, or often enough to make that distinction, and that was one of the reasons we decided to make this trip: to get to know Brazil better, even if only a part of it.

As we do every year, Karin and I took the kids during their school vacation for a one-month inspection trip, and this time we decided to go and explore a part of the North of Brazil. So, at the end of January we flew to Recife and picked up the car we had booked for the trip. We had agreed not to stay in Recife, but drive on to Olinda all in one go. Of course we did not count on one of our connecting GOL flights being late, forcing us to take a later flight on our last stretch of the journey, arriving in Recife close to midnight. The car rental pace was still open, but by that time it was pitch dark outside. Still we had a place booked for us in Olinda and it was only a 30 minute drive away, so we decided to wing it. We immediately set off in the wrong direction, ending up on the Litoral Sul towards Salvador, where we weren’t supposed to be going until well over a week later. There are not that many signs on Brazilian roads (well actually there are lots and lots of them, but most do not seem to have anything to do with traffic), but after a while we figured out we were heading in the wrong direction and eventually found a way to turn around without causing an accident. Then, somehow, we got into the right flow of traffic and it seemed everybody was headed to Olinda. From that moment on we got a better feel of where we were as we crisscrossed the canals and rivers that thread through that part of Recife. The town was founded by the Dutch Prince Maurice (The Dutch settled in this part of Brazil for some 22 years between Portuguese occupations) and he must have been homesick for Amsterdam when he had this part of town designed. All of a sudden we were in Olinda, we drove straight through town, made one more u-turn, drove right past our hotel, hit the brakes hard, avoiding a couple of buses racing by, put the car in reverse and finally made it to our destination.

Olinda

Olinda happens to be the old capital of Brazil, and today it is a world heritage site. The town is a maze of cobbled streets, hills crowned with brilliant white churches, pastel-colored houses, Baroque fountains and graceful squares. It is a nice picturesque place with many beautiful old churches and beautifully maintained colonial houses. Walking through the old town I got the feeling of being warped back in time to the days when sugar cane ruled the world economy.

The beaches close to town aren’t the most attractive, but if you have the time go and see the ones to the north, they are much better.

On our first morning we took the car out for a spin around town to get a feel for the place. We hadn’t quite covered 300 meters when a guy almost threw himself in front of the car, standing up straight, with a commanding hand held high in the air. We kind of took him to be a cop, but he was wearing shorts and a green t-shirt, so that was odd. Against my instincts I brought the car to a halt, and the “cop” took out what I thought to be his notebook. It was in fact a map of the city, and the guy turned out to be a guide. So our second lesson was that Brazilians can be quite direct and persuasive, and one should not always automatically respond to that. Saying “nao, obrigado” (no thanks) and walking or driving on will usually do the trick. Unless you are dealing with a real cop of course, in which case it is better to stop and be cooperative. FYI, in Olinda lots of people offer themselves as city guides. Those wearing yellow t-shirts with the words "Guia Mirim" written on the back and laminated ID cards are official guides.

A third thing that comes in handy is some basic understanding of the Portuguese language as many people speak nothing but it. We only encountered extremely friendly people when asking for directions, but most of their well-meant tips and explanations, sadly passed us by, as our Spanish was not of much use either. It was fun to be in that situation again though, where you never really know for sure if you got the gist of a conversation or not. It reminded me of the time in 1997 when we were driving across the Peruvian Andes, speaking only very little Spanish and asking local peasants who only spoke the native Aymara language for directions; that combined with them being used to traveling on foot, and having a profoundly different sense of time, made us agree to ask the same set of directions over and over again until we had met at least three people all pointing in the same direction… We got lost so many times on that trip that the fact, in itself, has stopped worrying me.

Happy trails!

Bart

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A short trip to Brazil…

Hi there!

Long time no news. It has been a busy year, what with launching our brand new budget adventure travel website South America Adventure Travel just last week. I’ve not really had the time to write much, let alone travel…

But, last week I finally got a chance to escape and went to Brazil for 6 days to join my long time friends from Germany, Gerd and Christel. They had been to Galapagos the week before (on the Nemo II, an excellent Catamaran for those who like to travel in style without losing the sporty element of being out on the open seas). They arrived at Sao Paulo Guarulhos Airport about 3.5 hours before me and took a day-room in the Caesar Park Hotel just 5 minutes from the Airport, to relax a bit after the night-long journey from Guayaquil.

As soon as I arrived, I picked up the car that we had reserved with Budget and went to pick them up. After a healthy breakfast (Caesar’s Burger Special with lots of black coffee) we got in the car and drove toward Paraty, some 4 hours north on the coastal road between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. It has rained severely in almost all of Brazil for the past weeks, so we were happy to arrive in Paraty and hide ourselves in the beautiful Pousada Arte Urquijo (http://www.urquijo.com.br/english/iindex.htm) for a day or 2…

Paraty is a town with an amazing history: everything from sugar cane, coffee and tobacco to precious stones and gold, to the famous Cachaça (which the Portuguese transported to Africa to serve as a currency in the slave trade) have passed through this town over the past centuries, bringing some serious wealth and development. All this was in the past however, and for the last century the main commercial routes from Minas Gerais (where most of the country’s riches came from) to the coast ended up running through Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, leaving Paraty behind in a slowly declining colonial state.

Ironically it was these last “100 years of solitude” that put Paraty back in the spotlights about 30 years ago, when a Brazilian TV broadcasting company decided to shoot a now famous “Telenovela” (soap opera) in the, by then, almost completely forgotten town. Many Brazilians love and vigorously watch these soaps, and that was how Paraty returned to their mental map. Since it had remained virtually unchanged for so long (as our guide told us: Paraty is “preserved by poverty”), it had an excellent colonial charm and soon enough the first new explorers began to arrive from Rio and Sao Paulo to find the perfect weekend hide-out. Shortly thereafter the first investors came; old colonial structures were purchased and converted into comfortable second homes for the well-to-do of these, the two largest of Brazilian cities. The word Paraty apparently sounds like “Paradise” in French (when expressed in that beautiful language) and today most of the foreigners investing in the region come from this European country. But the editor of the famous Harry Potter books has also found a second home here, and brought with her her insatiable craving for literature, resulting in Paraty now hosting Brazil’s annual book fair and the town having some seriously well-stocked book stores!

Luckily, the place has not lost its original looks; as a matter of fact it is becoming more and more beautiful as time goes by. Paraty wants to become a part of UNESCO World Heritage and much is being done to preserve and restore the town to its original state.

Just across our lovely Pousada, Richard and Yara Roberts run their “Academy of Cooking & other Pleasures” and we were lucky enough to secure an evening with them learning how to prepare typical dishes from the Minas Gerais province. We started with a black bean soup, which was followed by a Linguiça risotto with crispy collard greens and a green salad with pumpkin seeds and Canastra cheese, and then rounded it all off with a stunning “Doce de Leite” parfait with candied banana. Yara is a famous cook and she met Richard (a former CEO of several large international companies) in Paris. Their love of the gourmet life somehow led them to Paraty where Yara purchased a house some 25 years ago - the very same place that formed the backdrop of a great evening of preparing and enjoying a wonderful meal (accompanied of course by several caipirinhas, an excellent Argentine wine and some of the best Cachaça I have tasted in years). Yara and Richard are great hosts and we had an excellent conversation that led us straight through the evening. It was not before well past midnight that we made our way back to our hotel… Yummy!

If you have a chance you should really try and book an evening with Richard and Yara; you will be mesmerized! Also, the best Cachaça in Brazil apparently comes from a place called Salinas, so make sure to look or ask for a bottle coming from there when you order; it is not exported, so you can only get it in Brazil…

From Paraty we made our way to Angra dos Reis, where we parked the car and took a private boat transfer to the Pousada Estrela da Ilha (http://www.estreladailha.com/en/index.htm) at our next destination: Ilha Grande. Wikipedia says:

Ilha Grande is an island located off the coast of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, and part of the municipality of Angra dos Reis. The island is largely undeveloped and noted for its scenic beauty, which includes tropical beaches, luxuriant vegetation and a rugged landscape.

Ilha Grande is one of the most pristine remnants of Brazil's Atlantic rainforest, one of the richest ecosystems in the world and a hotspot for biodiversity and conservation. It holds some of the largest remaining populations of many endangered species, including the red-ruffed fruit crow (Pyroderus scutatus), the brown howler monkey (Alouatta fusca), the maned sloth (Bradypus torquatus) the red-browed Amazon parrot (Amazona rhodocorytha), and the broad-snouted cayman (Caiman latirostris). The seas around the island, which are also protected, feature a unique convergence of tropical, subtropical, and temperate-zone marine life, and may be the only waters in the world where it is possible to see corals and tropical fish along with Magellanic penguins and Southern right whales.

The entire island is a protected area, with most of its territory included in Ilha Grande State Park, and the rest subject to stringent development restrictions. Small-scale ecotourism, however, is encouraged, and the island, which is road-less and off-limits to cars, features over 150 km of hiking trails connecting the handful of coastal villages and hamlets where lodging is available, to each other and to the many beaches, mountain peaks, waterfalls, and pristine forests.

That about says enough I would say, except that it is a lot more fun exploring the island when the sun is out… Instead we had almost constant rain, which sadly forced us to stay indoors most of the time. However, we had one beautiful morning when we actually glimpsed some blue skies through scattered clouds, and took a beautiful walk along the Saco do Céu Bay, along the beaches of Caxadaco and Lopes Mendes. After that we took a boat across the bay and had a marvelous lunch (yes this trip was about eating and drinking mostly…) at the restaurant “Reis Magos”, apparently one of the best places out there for excellent sea food. Afterward the owners took us back to the Pousada in a small fishing boat, and even though the weather turned terrible immediately after our little outing, our day was made already and we spent the rest of the afternoon dozing in our hammocks, overlooking the bay, perfecting the art of doing nothing…

Next day we headed back to the coast to pick up the car and make our way to Rio de Janeiro. I have been there several times, but the place does not cease to amaze me. Not sure what to write about this trip, as this time I did not really go out much (yes it was still raining…), other than that the view from the pool bar on the roof of the Porto Bay International Rio Hotel we stayed at is excellent! I will give you a short recap (again Wikipedia helps out) in case you’ve never been (in which case you have to make sure to go very soon):

Rio de Janeiro ("River of January") is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America. The city was the capital of Brazil for nearly two centuries, from 1763 to 1822 during the Portuguese colonial era, and from 1822 to 1960 as an independent nation. It is also the former capital of the Portuguese Empire. Commonly known as just Rio, the city is also nicknamed A Cidade Maravilhosa or "The Marvelous City."

Rio de Janeiro is famous for its natural settings, its carnival celebrations, samba, Bossa Nova and hotel-lined tourist beaches, such as Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon, along with its slums. Some of the most famous landmarks in addition to the beaches include the giant statue of Christ, known as Christ the Redeemer ('Cristo Redentor') atop Corcovado mountain, named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World; Sugarloaf mountain (Pão de Açúcar) with its cable car; the Sambódromo, a giant permanent parade stand used during Carnival and Maracanã stadium, one of the world's largest football stadiums. Rio de Janeiro will host the 2016 Summer Olympics, and will be the first South American city to host the event.

The city also boasts the largest and second largest urban forests in the world: Floresta da Tijuca, or "Tijuca Forest." and (almost connected to the first) the forest in Parque Estadual da Pedra Branca, or White Stone State Park.

This trip, apart from relaxing at the hotel and having too many Caipirinhas at the bar, we had another great culinary experience; Azul Marinho (check out reviews in Fodor’s Guide to Brazil). Located at the base of one of many hotels at Arpoador (which divides the neighborhoods of Copacabana and Ipanema), this little restaurant’s kitchen has blown the minds of many. We had a feast of individual stone grilled sea food dishes, including sea bass in rock salt, lobster, giant prawns, and the like, enjoying a street capoeira show before, and a beautiful sunset towards the end of the meal. Kristofer, our half Moroccan, half French waiter, deserves special praise as he made us feel like royalty during the entire evening. If you make it to Rio one of these days and manage to go for a bite at Azul Marinho, please send him my very best regards!

And that was already the last evening with my friends in Brazil. The next morning I got up at 6AM, had a light breakfast, checked out, got the car and drove straight back to Sao Paulo. A friend met me at Guarulhos airport and we had a spectacular lunch in Café Journal (www.cafejournal.com.br/), making it pretty much the best stop-over in a long time. After that I flew back home, back to Karin and the kids, back to my real life, the life I had missed dearly, but still with a taste of Brazil in my mouth…

I just checked out our web page for some info and came across this little gem: Tropical Treasures of Rio, Paraty and Ilha Grande. Seems there is more to do, more to see, more to enjoy…

Happy trails,

Bart

http://www.cat-travel/

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