MARANHAO 2

In the interlude between our stays in São Luis we went to a national park, Lençois Maranhenses, (‘Lençois’ means ‘bedsheets’), where we stayed in the small town of Barreirinhas on the well-named Preguiços (slothful) river! The park is a vast area of sand dunes (which incidentally form a wide belt along long stretches of Brazil’s north coast from Maranhao to Fortaleza and beyond). Here the area of dunes is over 50 km wide, representing no doubt a build-up over many millions of years, and the very white sand is said to look like sheets draped across the landscape. The current runs westwards along this coast so the sand must come from erosion further south east. This area has become particularly famous because lakes form in the sand during the wet season. Last year there was very little rain, so the water in many places has not been replenished, however we took a trip to a pair of lakes – an hour’s drive along a sand track (sand, not sandy!) in a 4WD vehicle. The dunes are in constant motion and are invading the lakes, burying trees in their path. The following day we took a boat trip to the river mouth, seeing (semi-tame) golden monkeys at a little settlement; and scarlet ibis – feeding on the familiar red crabs – on the river banks. Back in Sao Luis we took the ferry across the estuary to Alcantara, once the residence of rich merchants and cotton barons but now seriously deteriorated, despite being declared a national heritage. A few of the fine eighteenth century buildings are preserved, and two of the three churches – the Carmelite church (which had a convent attached, now in ruins) and the smaller slaves’ church at the other end of the village. The main square with the ruined Matriz church was invaded by a carnival show with huge banks of speakers, which contrasted oddly with the well-preserved whipping post for slaves – conveniently located outside the church. I hope the image shocks you as it did me. We stayed in a pousada (Bela Vista – recommended) run by Danilo and his mother. She is very creative and decorated most of the pousada with fabric stuck to the walls instead of wallpaper and a variety of recycled materials. The food was delicious! There were some great characters, including Luizinho, who owns a valuable piece of land near the village centre which a drunk Brazilian was trying to persuade him to sell. Magdalena made friends with the organizer of a Carnival party for OAPS to which we were invited! Desde São Luis fuimos a un parque nacional, Lençois Maranhenses, (‘Lençois’ son sábanas); alojamos en la pequeña ciudad de Barreirinhas, a orlas del Río Preguiços (perezoso)! El parque es un área inmensa de dunas, que se extienden más de 50 km hacia el interior y se parecen a sábanas blancas tendidas sobre el paisaje. La zona se ha hecho famosa por los lagos que se forman entre las dunas en la época de lluvias, pero el año pasado no llovió, así que muchos han desaparecido. Fuimos a un par de lagos, una hora en 4x4 por la arena… Las dunas se mueven en forma constante – están invadiendo los lagos, enterrando árboles enteros. El día siguiente fuimos en barco a la desembocadura del río. Vimos monos (medio domesticados) en un pequeño asentamiento; y en el borde del río unos ibis colorados, que comen los cangrejos rojos. En Sao Luis tomamos una lancha para cruzar el estuario a la ciudad de Alcantara, una vez habitada por ricos mercantes y barones del algodón, pero ahora muy deteriorada, a pesar de haber sido declarada como patrimonio nacional. Algunas de las hermosas casas del siglo XVIII están preservadas, y dos de las tres iglesias – la del Carmo (que tenía un convento) y la de los esclavos (más pequeña) en la otra punta del pueblo. La plaza principal, con la iglesia Matriz en ruinas, había sido invadida por una fiesta para el carnaval con bancas de altoparlantes. Hicieron un contraste chocante con el pelourinho (donde castigaban a los esclavos) frente a la iglesia. Alojamos en una posada (Bela Vista – recomendado), que pertenece a Danilo y su madre. Ella es muy creativa y ha decorado la posada con telas pegadas en las paredes en vez de papel, y una variedad de materiales reciclados. La comida era deliciosa! Conocimos – entre otros personajes locales – a Luizinho, dueño de un terreno valioso cerca del centro, que un tipo borracho quería comprarle. Magdalena se hizo amiga de una señora que estaba organizando una Fiesta de Carnaval para la tercera edad, y nos invitó!

MARANHAO

Well, we flew from Brasilia to São Luis de Maranhão… It is the capital of the state of Maranhão, founded by the French (1612) and quickly taken (back) by the Portuguese. It is famed for the old colonial centre, where the cobbled streets are lined with houses decorated with blue Portuguese tiles, and has been declared a Unesco world heritage site. However it is badly in need of a facelift and there are dark rumours that money provided by Unesco never reached the right places. In the build-up to carnival the bands are practicing and some of the streets are already decorated. Various museums and culture centres show carnival costumes, and also those associated with a festival which occurs in June, Bumba-meu-boi, associated with a local legend in which a pregnant girl persuades her husband to cut out the tongue of the local landowner’s best bull to satisfy her craving. He gets caught, but a miracle restores the bull and it all ends happily... In the evening we went out to eat in the street. The little square where the nearest bars were boasted two sources of music – a rather tired blond guitarist at one end and a very noisy Brazilian at the other. We picked a table half way between the two, outside the Yellow Parrot. A sleepy girl took our order of beer and soup – the beer arrived quickly, Magda’s favourite sweet stout called Malzbier. The musicians played on, the noisy one being joined by three friends – an Argentinean, and Italian and a Colombian (sorry if it sounds like a prep-school joke!), who started on a Round Latin America musical tour. After 20 minutes we enquired after the soup and were assured that it was coming. At that point a shoe-shine boy materialised out of the dark, he spotted that I was wearing leather shoes, and I was captured. He had a curious high voice and chatted merrily away as he polished my shoes, not to a major general’s inspection shine but quite decently! When he had finished and gone, and still no soup, we paid for the beers and went down the street to a kiosk selling “tapioca” – not the nursery pudding we all remember but mandioca (cassava) root ground to a coarse flour which is fried to form a sort of slightly rubbery pancake. This is folded in half and one of a variety of fillings ladled in (ours was seafood, and very good too) and eaten out of a napkin. Fast-forward four days to Friday, the first night of Carnival, when we returned from an excursion, and the scene had changed! The tables were all full and the girl from the Yellow Parrot was awake and looking rather flurried. The end of the square opens diagonally to another open space where a stage had been set up. The open area in front of it had become the showplace for the masque bands. As each formed up and moved into the space, its music group took possession of the stage and played the band’s song – or series of songs, as each band had about 15 minutes to show off its costumes. In reality the musicians were there not much more than to provide background music. The main sound was the batucada (drumming routine) of the band itself, which resounded furiously between the high walls. The costumes were pretty much what one might expect, lots of feathers and bright colours, although one band was in black and white and silver. This visual spectacle was complemented by the curious fauna among the crowd. Moving among the spectators were the free-lance masqueraders, mainly clowns wearing the traditional baggy harlequin suit and varying masks – ghoulish, pretty or amusing. We did not see much “clowning” – they were just there for the fun of dressing up. Blond-dyed hair was very popular (not to the exclusion of other colours).

BRASILIA

Brazil’s capital since 1960, the city was built out of nothing on the central plateau near the geographical centre of the country in the late 1950s. As early as the 1823, a proposal was made to build an inland capital to harness Brazil’s economic potential. In 1883 it was predicted by an Italian priest, Giovanni Bosco, and such a capital was written into the 1891 constitution. The modern city however really owes its existence to four men. First and foremost president Juscelino Kubitschek (JK) who – partly for political motives – decided to bring the dream true at last; secondly urban planner Luis Costa; thirdly landscape architect Burle Marx; and fourth and most famously architect Oscar Niemeyer. Imagine a city planned to look like a huge aeroplane flying eastwards! The fuselage – or “Monumental Axis” – contains all the civic and parliamentary buildings, congress,

law courts, ministries etc., mostly designed by Niemeyer,

standing north and south of a grassy space several kilometres long.

The back-curved wings, north and south, contain residential areas organized into “super-blocks” with shopping areas and services. Where they meet are zones for banks, hotels, commerce and culture (the cathedral,

the national theatre, etc.), and there is also an embassies zone. Round the east end is a huge artificial lake crossed by an award-winning bridge,

as well as parkland containing the official residences of the president and vice president.

There is also a public park covering 400 ha. where we went for a walk in the morning. As the city was designed for 500,000 inhabitants and now holds 2 million, satellite cities have sprung up to the north-east, served by metro. We also visited a museum devoted to the indigenous peoples and ended the evening pigging out on prawns! _____________________________________________________ Capital de Brasil desde 1960, la ciudad fue construida en el altiplano central cerca del centro geográfico del país en la década de los 1950. Ya en 1823 hubo una propuesta de construir un capital en el interior para aprovechar el potencial económico del país. En 1883 su existencia fue predicha por un cura italiano, Juan Bosco, y un capital en el interior fue prescrito en la constitución de 1891. Sin embargo la ciudad actual debe su existencia a cuatro hombres: primero, presidente Juscelino Kubitschek (JK) quien – por motivos en parte políticos – decidió finalmente de realizar el sueño; segundo, urbanista Luis Costa; tercero, paisajista Burle Marx; y finalmente el famoso arquitecto Oscar Niemeyer. Imaginen una ciudad con un diseño que se parece a un enorme avión que vuela hacia el oriente! El cuerpo – “Eje Monumental” – contiene los edificios cívicos y parlamentarios, el congreso, tribunales, ministerios etc., en su mayoría diseñados por Niemeyer, al norte y al sur de una zona de pasto largo de varios kilómetros. Las alas norte y sur contienen zonas residenciales organizadas en “super-cuadras”, con tiendas y otros servicios. En el cruce hay zonas bancarias, hoteleras, de comercio y de cultura, además de una para las embajadas. En la punta oriente hay una lago artificial enorme, cruzado por un puente premiado, además de parques con los palacios del presidente y vicepresidente. Hay también un parque enorme (400 ha.) para uso de los ciudadanos, donde fuimos a caminar en la mañana. Ya que la ciudad fue diseñada para 500 mil habitantes, y ahora tiene 2 millones, existen ciudades satélites en las afueras, servidas por el metro. También conocimos un museo dedicado a los pueblos indígenas, y terminamos el día comiendo abundancia de camarones!

ARRAIAL – BRASILIA

Here we are in the eccentric capital of Brazil, in the hospitable flat of Marina. But getting here was an adventure… The first drama was on Monday when I tried to draw some money, only to find that the bank computer had decided that my brand new card was damaged. It was therefore cancelled, and the replacement is waiting for me in Chile (the story is actually a bit longer, as my original card was swallowed by a machine in Sao Paulo airport, but I will not bore you with details!) That problem more or less solved through the kindness of friends, we said our farewells and yesterday morning (Thursday) set off to catch our bus from Arraial to Brasilia, a journey of some 22 and a half hours. The bus was due to leave from Porto Seguro at 10.00, the other side of the river which is crossed by a balsa (ferry) so we left at 8.30 to allow plenty of time. At the bus stop we met a friend, Marco, who announced that the balsa was on strike! However, as he was also headed for P. Seguro, we boarded a bus regardless. On the way, the strike was confirmed by shouts from drivers going the other way and we started to worry. Arrived at the river, the gates were closed and the balsas were all anchored. Magda however remembered that the hotel on the point has its own launch and managed to talk her way in, so we crossed and arrived as planned. The journey took us virtually due west with a loop north via Vitoria da Conquista and Bom Jesus de Lapa, right across the state of Bahia. We headed inland though green, more or less hilly country, towards a dramatic distant mountain.

This is cattle country, all lanky Brahmin cattle.

We passed through sleepy villages,

stopping in the most unlikely places while disregarding some larger towns. The land flattened out when we reached the plateau, and at dusk we arrived at Vitoria da Conquista for supper – a huge sprawling city. It was dark when we left and in the city outskirts the driver suddenly braked violently. At the same time a loud blast on a hooter announced the presence of a train, which passed the level crossing right under our noses. Another few feet and we would have been mincemeat... Despite that, we soon fell asleep – although with the air-conditioning we were too cold to sleep well. Dawn found us rolling across a huge flat plain in Brazil’s central plateau, sown principally with soya and other types of beans. By now we were heading south towards the state border between Bahia and Goiás, where we stopped for a cup of sweet coffee. Immediately after the border, the road dipped into more broken, less cultivated land, with a lot of standing water (they have had a lot of rain recently in much of Brazil). I saw ducks and geese, grebes and even a cormorant. Suddenly smoke started coming out from just below our window, and the bus ground to a halt. A shredded tyre! So we spent the next hour watching the unfortunate driver changing the wheel – passengers are not allowed to help! At last we were rolling again and finally reached Brasilia, rather late, under threatening clouds.

The city is amazing and I will write more after we have seen it tomorrow! We arrived safely – if rather late – at Marina’s flat to a delicious lunch…

_______________________________________________ Aquí estamos en el capital excéntrico de Brasil, donde nuestra amiga Marina. Sin embargo llegar fue toda una aventura… El primer dramón ocurrió el lunes, cuando traté de sacar dinero del banco, y encontré que el computador de mi banco había decidido que mi tarjeta nueva estaba dañada. Fue eliminada del sistema, y el remplazo está esperándonos en Chile (en realidad es más complejo, porque una máquina en el aeropuerto de Sao Paulo tragó la tarjeta original!) Una vez solucionado ese problema, gracias a unos amigos, nos despedimos y ayer (jueves) fuimos a tomar el bus de Arraial a Brasilia, un viaje de unas 22 horas y media. El bus debía salir de Porto Seguro a las 10.00, del terminal al otro lado del río que se cruza en balsa, así que salimos a las 08.30 por si acaso. En el paradero nos encontramos con un amigo, Marco, quien nos anunció que la balsa estaba en paro! Sin embargo, él también tenía que llegar a P. Seguro, así que subimos a un bus con los dedos cruzados. En el camino, otros chóferes confirmaron el paro, y cuando llegamos al río los portones estaban cerrados y las balsas ancladas. Pero Magda se acordó que el hotel en la punta tiene lancha propia y logró hacernos pasar a los tres. Todo bien hasta ahí… Desde P. Seguro, viajamos casi directamente hacia el oeste, con un desvío hacia el norte vía Vitoria da Conquista y Bom Jesus de Lapa, cruzando todo el estado de Bahia. El paisaje estaba verde con montañas bajas. Es una zona ganadera, con vacas de la raza Bramita. Pasamos por pueblos dormidos, parando a veces, no necesariamente en los más grandes... Al pasar las montañas llegamos al altiplano, y el terreno se volvió más plano; al atardecer llegamos a Vitoria da Conquista para comer – una ciudad grande y extendida. Cuando salimos ya era de noche, y en las afueras de la ciudad el chofer frenó en forma abrupta. Al mismo tiempo un tremendo bocinazo anunció la presencia de un tren, que pasó por un paso nivel a pocos metros – unos segundos más y no estaríamos aquí... A pesar de eso no tardamos en dormirnos, aunque con el aire condicionado hacía mucho frío y no dormimos bien. Al alba estábamos cruzando una planicie enorme del altiplano central del Brasil, centenares de hectáreas con siembras de porotes de varios tipos. Ya íbamos rumbo al sur hacia el límite estatal entre Bahia y Goiás, donde paramos para tomar una taza de café azucarado. A continuación, el camino descendió por paisaje más irregular y menos trabajado, con mucha agua – ha llovido mucho últimamente. De repente salió humo debajo del vidrio a nuestro lado, y el bus paró. Un neumático reventado! Así que pasamos una hora mirando al pobre chofer que cambiaba la rueda – los pasajeros están prohibidos de ayudar! Finalmente pudimos retomar el viaje y llegamos – atrasados – a Brasilia, bajo unas nubes amenazadoras. La ciudad es impresionante, y voy a escribir más después de conocerla mañana! Llegamos bien para un almuerzo delicioso donde la Marina …