Wandering Up Brazil's East Coast

Since leaving Rio 10 days ago, we have made several stops along the east coast of Brazil. It’s not real touristy; some of the places lack an infrastructure; but all are gearing up for the World Cup next year and the Olympics in 2016. Picture 1 is a map with our stops circled.

Our first stop after Rio was in Armacao Dos Buzios, which is a resort area near Rio, where Cariocas (Rio inhabitants) go to their beach homes. We wandered the town in search of a haircut for Rick. We always enjoy rising to this challenge when abroad and it’s always fun trying to communicate what he wants done. Fortunately, cutting his hair is not much of challenge, so I just point to the clippers, pass my hand over his head like I’m holding them and make a buzzing sound. 15 minutes later we left, paying the equivalent of $10, which included a very generous 30% tip!

We then wondered up the coast to Vitoria and Vila Vehla, which are 2 adjacent cities of about a million people. We visited the Convent da Penha, which was built in 1558, sits way above the city and provides an amazing view of the city below (picture 2).  The Chapel contains a very famous picture of the Virgin Mary (The Lady of the Rock) and the faithful climb the hill on their knees on Easter Sunday to worship it.  We then visited an Artisan cooperative where pottery is made to serve their famous Capixaba dishes. These “stews” were originally made by slaves, who took whatever food their owners didn’t finish, combined it in a ceramic pot and slowly cooked it. Today these are largely fish and seafood stews. The ceramic pots (panelas) are made by hand by a group of women at the cooperative and then fired in an open flame, as shown in Picture 3. After firing, they’re dipped in a liquid made by soaking mangrove tree bark in the water from a nearby polluted-looking stream, which waterproofs the pot for cooking the stew. Given the weight of the huge pot and the questionable final soaking, there will not be one in the Hubers’ luggage!

Our next stop was Salvador de Bahia, the original capital of Brazil, which was discovered in 1501 by Amerigo Vespucci. This area is the heart of Afro-Brazil culture and it was interesting to learn that there are many more Candomble (voodoo) houses, then there are Catholic churches—and there are 365 churches! It is not uncommon for families to practice both voodoo and Catholicism. Our guide told us that the people prefer to be called Negros because “Black” is the color of an object and should not be used to describe a person. He further explained that the African culture has been kept alive here, whereas it has disappeared in America. There are “houses” (Benin House, Mozambique House, Nigeria House, etc.) where individuals may go to check their ancestry. Picture 4 shows the original slave market, along with some of the other brightly-colored houses that make up Old Town. Like the Spaniards in other parts of South America, the Portuguese established large churches here, decorated with much gold leaf, as shown in Picture 5. This was a fascinating visit and we learned much of the history of this part of the world.

In the new part of town, we saw the brand-new football stadium that’s being built for the World Cup next year. Interestingly, all new stadiums only seat 55,000, rather than the 80,000 that used to be allowed. We were told the Federation that makes up rules for football hopes this will reduce injuries from riots! Of course, the exception is the monster stadium in Rio, where the finals will be held. It originally held 180,000 seats, but is being rebuilt to only hold 83,000, in the interest of safety.

Moving on, we next visited Recife, which is struggling to become a tourist town, but hasn’t quite made it! What’s most interesting here is that in this area of the coast, you are closer to Africa than to the western edge of Brazil. (Brazil is a really big country, the size of the contiguous 48 states.) Locals often call Recife the “Venice of Brazil” because of its canals and bridges, but we’re not buying it!  It does have some lovely architecture (and a new football stadium) that is being fixed up for he World Cup. Picture 6 shows one of these “spruced up” parts of town.

Brazil is known for it’s cachaca—a rum-like drink made from distilled sugar cane liquid. We were told that regular rum is distilled from molasses, but that doesn’t explain white rum…. Anyway, we tried cachaca mixed with limejuice and A LOT of sugar and it’s quite tasty!

Our final stop along the coast was Natal, where we had a great time sailing over the dunes in a dune buggy.  We went up great, tall dunes, slid down the dunes sideways and then drove along the beach, often in the water. We even managed a ferry ride in our dune buggy, as we crossed the bay. The remaining pictures show some of the great views we experienced.

We’re now enjoying 2 relaxing days at sea, with lectures on the Amazon. This morning we crossed the equator at 7:42. Our ship desalinates water for use on board and today is our last day adding water. Once we enter the Amazon we are on water conservation restrictions--not taking water on or discharging waste. It will be interesting to see what happens for the next 10 days--we could be a smelly lot! Tomorrow morning we arrive in Macapa, at the mouth of the Amazon, where we pick up our pilot to take us into the Amazon.  We will go in as far as Manaus, which will take 4 days. This, of course, was the reason for choosing this trip. Hope we’ll have lots to tell about as we get into the jungle!