Thirty years ago, Arraial was a tiny fishing village, huddled round the triangular square running away from the little church perched on the cliff edge. The only access was by a very intermittent ferry across the Burnagem river from Porto Seguro, and then along 3 km of sandy track between the beach and the mangroves, before climbing the hill into the village.
Then in the 80’s it was discovered by the hippy crowd. Our 1992 Lonely Planet of Brazil contains a graphic description of the scene at that time, “… marijuana clouds the main street, white horses gallop wildly through the town, wasted minstrels sing songs and ancient village women wear Nina Hagen T-shirts.” Well, I haven’t seen a white horse, and I wouldn’t know a Nina Hagen T-shirt if I did see one, but the rest is still fairly applicable, although I suspect it was all a bit more chaotic then. There are plenty of people still here who arrived in that epoch. Some have grown up and settled down, others, tattooed, dread-locked and wrinkled, still hang around the main square selling handicrafts (or not). There are a host of newer arrivals, some as hip as the 80’s crowd, others decidedly street-wise and C21st – this is the place where cool vibes and marijuana meet kite surfing and consumerism!
The sun, sand and surf are unchanged, making it a tropical paradise from the tourist brochures – although for various reasons (which include the year-round humidity and mosquitoes) we have decided not to stay here long-term. We are renting a little house, one block back from the road (now paved) linking the ferry and the village. It is in a sandy plot full of trees, hibiscuses and banana plants. We hear bird-song all day and owls at night. On Friday night, when the owls stop, we hear the music from an island in the river 2 km, where the tourists in P Seguro party from 0200 to 0600!!!
The human fauna is rich and strange! Here is a small selection from my forthcoming book (?!), with some small changes made to avoid possible embarrassment:
One of our neighbours is a man in his late 60’s, Alfonso, who lives with his 30-something wife, Alicia, and their 4 small children. Also living in an independent flat in the garden is an Irishwoman in her 70’s, Kath, who speaks fluent Portuguese. She and Alicia get on famously – one of them buys a bottle of wine and they go to Kath’s flat or down to the beach together to tipple. Kath has just been on the waggon for a week because she dropped a heavy weight on her toe and is on anti-biotics. Well it turns out that Kath was married for 25 years to none other than Alfonso! What is more, she originally came out to Brazil as a missionary, and threw it in to marry him… She got (inherited?) a bit of money of her own with which she bought this place and they all live there together as one happy family – she is surrogate grandmother to the children.
Ricardo is staying in a friend’s pousada (B&B). He is a psychologist in his mid-thirties and has come here for a period of quiet to get over being widowed for the second time. And in both cases the defunct was named Jorge! The latest partnership was for 9 years, and they had a business, a flat and a car together. When Jorge died he had a tremendous legal battle with the family to claim his rights as “spouse” to all their joint property, which he won – Good for him!!
Further down the road live a couple of Argentineans – they have been here for over 20 years. He is still living in the 70’s, had quite long (bedraggled) hair but last week took it all off and now sports a shaven scalp. This shows off his earring better when he drives round on his moped with his helmet worn fashionably on the wrist. You go round for a drink in the evening and he is sure to be smoking a joint… I found him trying to change a wheel on his car the other day and having a lot of trouble undoing the nuts – he was turning the spanner the wrong way! She is a bit more together but very naïve, and quite unversed in technology, while the children are permanently wired to the internet. They make a living creating handicraft fairies of modelling clay, with wings cut out of coke bottles – not quite as bad as it sounds…
I am taking classes to keep up my Russian with a guy from Odessa who got out in 1989 and has not been back. He is an artist as well as an excellent musician. Lives at the moment in Sicily but came here to escape the northern winter. He is in love with a Cuban model in Rome, but she doesn’t want to know. He paints on the theme of the “Sacred Feminine” in a curious style with elongated figures and geometrical designs – not quite my taste, but he assures us that he is a great artist, it’s just that nobody understands: “Nobody understood Caravaggio or Picasso either.” He has managed to find free accommodation and plays guitar one night a week in a restaurant in order to eat. In Italy he played the piano…
As well as picking up my ranslations again I have got a part time job managing bookings in a pousada which will cove our expenses and keeps me out of trouble, plus solving the problem of internet access...
sábado, 19 de enero de 2008
miércoles, 9 de enero de 2008
(POST) CHRISTMAS BLOG
We finally completed our Round-the-world ticket when we returned to Chile for two busy weeks on 30th Nov. We left Arraial at the beginning of the week to see a bit more of Brazil on the way.
The first leg took us overnight to Victoria on the coast 600 km south of Arraial. We arrived in time for breakfast – the inevitable coffee and pão de queijo, a delicious cheesy puff the size of a golf ball. It is common in most places in Brazil, although different areas have their own recipes.
Victoria is a busy city and port for the industrial zones of Espiritu Santo and eastern Minas Gerais – one of the earliest railways in the country linked it to Belo Horizonte. The city has been quite heavily developed and the centre is stretched along the back of the port and the noisy waterfront road. However it contains a number of interesting and attractive buildings. We enjoyed the Carlos Gomes theatre from the beginning of the twentieth century (supposedly a scale model of La Scala) and there are a number of old churches dotted around the centre.
The most interesting sight was the Convento de Penha, also a place of pilgrimage, perched up on a rock on the south side of the river mouth. It stands guard over the original C16th foundation of the city, Vila Velha, which now has been swamped by modern development, but a little church in the main square (locked!) and a few old houses remain. The convent above was founded very early by the monk guilty of converting Brazil to christianity, one Padre Anchieta. Associated legends include a vision of the heavenly hosts which frightened off an Dutch raiding force – there is a C19th century painting in the church. We climbed up the steep 500 metre path on foot although there is now a road and taxis tout their services at the bottom. Serious pilgrims do it on their knees! The top offers a magnificent view north across the port to the city and beyond it to the green hills. North and south runs the eternal beach of the Brazilian coast, built up for a few km each way, then reverting to sand and vegetation. The highest part of convent, which is still functioning, is a church dating back to the C16th, but several times restored and now mainly baroque in character. There are pews, pulpits, a reredos and other furniture of beautifully carved black jacaranda wood and the whole is light and airy – not least because the open doors look out over the void so that you are constantly aware of being raised above the hurly-burly of daily life.
The next night bus took us on to São Paulo. This vast city is an inevitable magnet as you pass through the centre of Brazil. It was also where our flight for Chile departed from! The highlight of the visit was seeing the University of São Paulo where Magda studied. It is a huge green area with modern buildings which used to be on the edge of the city – however the tide of growth has flowed on and left it an island of vegetation among the development. There is a free bus service to take students and staff (and visitors) around the campus. We visited the Physical Education Faculty and Magda found a secretary whom she remembered from her student days who gave us a cup of coffee!
The São Paulo Art Museum (MASP) contained an exhibition of Brazilian painting which we enjoyed, seeing European trends transformed through a Brazilian lens. There was also an exhibition of photographs of the city from the 40’s down to the present. At the end of December thieves broke in and stole a Picasso (which we didn’t see) and the “Coffee labourer” by Candido Portinari, a C20th Brazilian artist, which we did. I couldn’t imagine paying what it was said to be worth…
We visited the Cathedral in the centre – gothic revival from around 1900 – and went to some of the Cebos (second hand bookshops) in the area of the Praca da Sé. In the Praca the old Treasury building has an area devoted to artistic activities and we saw an excellent performance of modern dance.
Another evening we went to a recital of songs by Oscar Lacerda, who was present, celebrating his 80th birthday. A tiresome man behind us kept clapping before the last bar had been played, and finally applauded twice in the same song when it was far from finished. He retired in confusion under a storm of furious looks. We also went to see a film, ‘La Vie en Rose’ (the life of Edith Piaf).
Our last night we went to the Bar Brahma – close to our hostel – a long-established Sao Paulo favourite, where they had live jazz: a trio circulating among the tables consisting of alto trumpet, tuba and percussion (washboard, bell and claxon)!
Our two weeks in Chile were fairly hectic. We took in Temuco, seeing friends and a bit of Admin. I skipped up to Talca from there for a day’s interpreting and back. Then we spent Saturday in Valdivia with Blanca (Magda’s sister) and family. We went to see the site where they plan to build a house beside Lago Ranco – real Chilean lake district…
Back in Santiago for the second week, arriving on Sunday, as I was working on Monday and Tuesday – interpreting for a seminar on plants! We went to Gorgias’ Christmas concert in the classical Santa Ana church – wind quintet and small choir. We also had a day in Valparaiso, taking us to the Pacific coast as a symbolic completion of our circumnavigation.
That’s enough to complete the year; will come up shortly with some comments on Arraial and the strange human fauna which it contains! A final comment for all those not up to date: much as we are enjoying Brazil we have decided for a variety of reasons, some practical, some cultural, that we will not stay here beyond our present 6-month tourist visa, so we will be moving on in March, heading towards Chile.
The first leg took us overnight to Victoria on the coast 600 km south of Arraial. We arrived in time for breakfast – the inevitable coffee and pão de queijo, a delicious cheesy puff the size of a golf ball. It is common in most places in Brazil, although different areas have their own recipes.
Victoria is a busy city and port for the industrial zones of Espiritu Santo and eastern Minas Gerais – one of the earliest railways in the country linked it to Belo Horizonte. The city has been quite heavily developed and the centre is stretched along the back of the port and the noisy waterfront road. However it contains a number of interesting and attractive buildings. We enjoyed the Carlos Gomes theatre from the beginning of the twentieth century (supposedly a scale model of La Scala) and there are a number of old churches dotted around the centre.
The most interesting sight was the Convento de Penha, also a place of pilgrimage, perched up on a rock on the south side of the river mouth. It stands guard over the original C16th foundation of the city, Vila Velha, which now has been swamped by modern development, but a little church in the main square (locked!) and a few old houses remain. The convent above was founded very early by the monk guilty of converting Brazil to christianity, one Padre Anchieta. Associated legends include a vision of the heavenly hosts which frightened off an Dutch raiding force – there is a C19th century painting in the church. We climbed up the steep 500 metre path on foot although there is now a road and taxis tout their services at the bottom. Serious pilgrims do it on their knees! The top offers a magnificent view north across the port to the city and beyond it to the green hills. North and south runs the eternal beach of the Brazilian coast, built up for a few km each way, then reverting to sand and vegetation. The highest part of convent, which is still functioning, is a church dating back to the C16th, but several times restored and now mainly baroque in character. There are pews, pulpits, a reredos and other furniture of beautifully carved black jacaranda wood and the whole is light and airy – not least because the open doors look out over the void so that you are constantly aware of being raised above the hurly-burly of daily life.
The next night bus took us on to São Paulo. This vast city is an inevitable magnet as you pass through the centre of Brazil. It was also where our flight for Chile departed from! The highlight of the visit was seeing the University of São Paulo where Magda studied. It is a huge green area with modern buildings which used to be on the edge of the city – however the tide of growth has flowed on and left it an island of vegetation among the development. There is a free bus service to take students and staff (and visitors) around the campus. We visited the Physical Education Faculty and Magda found a secretary whom she remembered from her student days who gave us a cup of coffee!
The São Paulo Art Museum (MASP) contained an exhibition of Brazilian painting which we enjoyed, seeing European trends transformed through a Brazilian lens. There was also an exhibition of photographs of the city from the 40’s down to the present. At the end of December thieves broke in and stole a Picasso (which we didn’t see) and the “Coffee labourer” by Candido Portinari, a C20th Brazilian artist, which we did. I couldn’t imagine paying what it was said to be worth…
We visited the Cathedral in the centre – gothic revival from around 1900 – and went to some of the Cebos (second hand bookshops) in the area of the Praca da Sé. In the Praca the old Treasury building has an area devoted to artistic activities and we saw an excellent performance of modern dance.
Another evening we went to a recital of songs by Oscar Lacerda, who was present, celebrating his 80th birthday. A tiresome man behind us kept clapping before the last bar had been played, and finally applauded twice in the same song when it was far from finished. He retired in confusion under a storm of furious looks. We also went to see a film, ‘La Vie en Rose’ (the life of Edith Piaf).
Our last night we went to the Bar Brahma – close to our hostel – a long-established Sao Paulo favourite, where they had live jazz: a trio circulating among the tables consisting of alto trumpet, tuba and percussion (washboard, bell and claxon)!
Our two weeks in Chile were fairly hectic. We took in Temuco, seeing friends and a bit of Admin. I skipped up to Talca from there for a day’s interpreting and back. Then we spent Saturday in Valdivia with Blanca (Magda’s sister) and family. We went to see the site where they plan to build a house beside Lago Ranco – real Chilean lake district…
Back in Santiago for the second week, arriving on Sunday, as I was working on Monday and Tuesday – interpreting for a seminar on plants! We went to Gorgias’ Christmas concert in the classical Santa Ana church – wind quintet and small choir. We also had a day in Valparaiso, taking us to the Pacific coast as a symbolic completion of our circumnavigation.
That’s enough to complete the year; will come up shortly with some comments on Arraial and the strange human fauna which it contains! A final comment for all those not up to date: much as we are enjoying Brazil we have decided for a variety of reasons, some practical, some cultural, that we will not stay here beyond our present 6-month tourist visa, so we will be moving on in March, heading towards Chile.
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