Our Journey to Brazil Part 3

The state of Maranhao is the poorest state on the legal Amazon (I learn that from a research that IMAZON made two years ago). You can really notice that when you are travelling on the bus. The houses are made of clay blocks with wood between them, they are very small and usually they are almost empty, without almost any furniture (you can see that because the door and the windows are usually open during the day).

Some of the houses have some animals, cows or dunks, but they looked very skinny. I could see all the family in front of the house doing nothing, even though it was Monday morning (that was the day we came back from Barreirinhas). From that you can deduce that the parents have no job and the children are not going to the school. I couldn’t see any school close to these houses; just some bars were the men were drinking bear and some very small markets.

Every community has a church, and usually the stores and the houses have written on the wall some message for Jesus or God.

We arrive to Barreirinhas at 1pm. The city is really, really small. Everything is very close. I was expecting to see a small city but a nice city because this city has a lot of tourist all the year because of the Lençois Maranhenses. But, the city was very poor and ugly. The streets have no asphalt and the houses look like if no one take care of them. Is a shame because the place were the city is located is actually beautiful, but it looks like no one cares about the village.

We stay in Regina’s house, she is very polite and the house was good. The problem was that we were too many in the house because she was not expecting us and because all her family was there. She receive us because the one who suppose to do it couldn’t due to work issues. He works with tourists and it results that July is a month full of tourist on that area. But, because we were too many in Regina’s house a friend of her invite part of the group to his house.

He was Alexandre, he was very nice but his house wasn’t at all. We really experience how is to live under the line of poverty (of course with some exceptions). The house was almost abandoned, it was full of trash everywhere and there were a lot of spiders all over the place. The bathroom was not working, there was no electricity and no place to cook. We didn’t had any chair to have sit, and there were no door between the bathroom and the bedroom so when we were on the bed we could see the one that was taking a shower. There was no security neither because all the bedrooms of the house were connected by a backyard with no roof.

We did wrong because we didn’t knew, but, sleep in a Pousada (like a hostel) is very cheep. You can fin Pousadas for R$10 the night with breakfast. The food is cheap there too, there are some bars were you can eat like a pancake with cheese and ham, or meet, with salad and rice for R$3,5.

Don’t worry about walking there, is very small so you can go by walk everywhere.

At night we went to a party organize by the city hall. Almost all the city was there. For those who are not from the city it was a sad image of it. There were a lot of drunken people sleeping on the floor a few meters away from the bar were they were drinking. Is really sad to see what alcohol can do in people that had no control over them selves. Even though it was sad, I think it was good for us because it remember us why we have this alcohol rule in IICD and why we have to fight against this uncontrolled way of drinking alcohol. This people were not able to go to work next day. Of course, maybe they didn’t have a job and that’s why there were drinking, but they would not get a job if they are in that conditions.

I could see that Barreirinhas is very open mind in sexuality things, as most of the Brazil is, because we could see a lot of gays and travesties walking around without hiding their sexual choice.

Next day we talk with Alexander about a project that he was preparing. He works with a group of volunteers dedicated to rescue situations and first aid. The hospital on the area is very bad according to him so this group is really need it. Now he was planning to work with his volunteers in a waste plan for the village. The idea is to encourage the recycling and selective collection of waste material to improve the sanitary conditions of the village and to give a job option for those who live from the trash.

It sounds like a good plan and he asked us to write him if we see some ideas that can help him, and he promised too to write us if he see some ideas that could work in our project.

After that we went to the Lençois Maranhenses National Park. This place is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Is a place full of dunes and lagoons of rain water. It looks like a dissert with thousands of oasis.

From Barreirinhas to the entrance of the park you have a trail of 30 minutes that is an adventure. You go in this bus very fast on the sand and the bus is moving like crazy because is very difficult to drive in the sand. Then, in the middle of the trail there are some lagoons that you have to cross and the water is very high so some times your feet get wet. Is a little scary and our driver was one of the craziest ones so we did all the effort to go for the more difficult places and as fast as possible. We had a lot of fun!

Then we arrive to the park, you really think that you are in paradise. You start seeing the dunes, and ones you climb the first one the lagoons appears. These lagoons are made of rain water, so they are very clean. The water is transparent and blue and warm. They have three meters of deep so you can always see the bottom if you out your head under the water. In those lagoons that are not to close from the entrance you can drink their water.

The first lagoon was the Preguiça Lagoon and then you can swim for a while, then you have the Lagoa Azul where you can swim a little more and then you can start walking around the dunes and the lagoons. Is really nice to walk between the dunes and take pictures. Even though the park is open all the year, the best time to go is on the rainy season (March to June) or just after, July. During December, January and February there are no lagoons, so the park looks different and you can’t take a bath. That doesn’t mean that the view is not good, is just different.

On the way back while you wait for the ship that helps you to cross the river with the buss you can enjoy some local food. There is a group of local people that sells Tapioca (like a pancake) with cheese and ham or with condensate milk and coconut. It cost R$2 and you can have a coffee too for free.

Is good to talk a little with this people while you wait. They are really nice and they are willing to talk with the tourists. It was good to see how the locals developed some small projects to generate an income from it. This was a good idea and everybody was buying.

This people are really poor so is not just that you enjoy a good food, you really feel that you are helping them. The guide told me that the locals use to go to the see to fish. In order to do that they have to walk between 6 and 8 hours crossing the dunes until they find the see.

The next day we take a bus to Sao Luis again because is the only way to go to Fortaleza.

On the way to Canoa Quebrada I could see a lot of windmills; actually I saw some of them in Fortaleza. They belong to a German company that is investing here because is one of the best places in Brazil to generate energy from wind force. This company then sells the energy generated to the state.

The next day we take a bus to Sao Luis again because is the only way to go to Fortaleza.

The 22nd of July we arrive to Fortaleza. This is actually a very nice, it looks old but well maintained so you really enjoy to walk around the city. We didn’t had too much time there so we just visit some places like the Cathedral, the Kraft Market and the English Bridge.

Next day we had to take a bus from Fortaleza to Canoa Quebrada at 8:30am.

Canoa Quebrada is a city full of foreign people. It was a hippie colony some years ago and now part of that spirit is still on the air. Of course, according to the people of the NGO people came here just looking for drugs and sex.

The first day we went to visit and NGO call Recicriança (is like Recychildren), they are focused on environmental education and they monitored the Protected Area of Canoa Quebrada.

They usually give curses related with environmental issues to students of public schools. The students came even from other states in order to have these different classes. Due to the torusim they started to give sexual education to the children. Fortaleza is known as the world capital of prostitution, and Canoa Quebrada is not far from that reality. It happens that a lot of tourists came to Canoa looking for sex or for some girl to take with them to live in their countries as slaves and sexual partners. So, in order to prevent that and show to the children other options, the NGO started to give sexual education an one of the tools they have is female and male dolls with there sexual parts included, so male toy has penis and female toy has breast and a baby inside.

This dolls are sell too so they are use as a way to generate an income to the families. The toys are made by the mothers of the children that go to Recicriança.

In the NGO 14 people works, some of them were children that spent their youth in there. Every day almost 100 children go to Recicriança to have some courses or just to play or some work with recycled paper.

The NGO gets money from a company that is owned by the head master of Recicriança. This person has a company in Sao Paulo that sell truck parts and he donate a big proportion of his profit to this NGO. They got some money to from companies like Kelloks.

Their work related with monitoring the protected area of Canoa Quebrada is focused on measuring the size of the “falecias” (cliffs in front of the sea). This falecias are being eroded by the sea, the wind and the tourists, so since they started to measure them 11 ago until now, the cliffs had retired 13 matters; that means that 13 meters of land had disappear, that’s more than one meter each year.

Even though this looks like a big problem the government hasn’t done anything. The other thing that they do is organize walks around a trail between the dunes until the see. This trail is very educative because you can see the different ecosystems of the area and learn about how to protect them.

Part of the trail consists too in visit the windmills located in Canoa Quebrada. These mills belong to a Portuguese company that is investing on the state of Ceará on clean energy. Even though the energy is clean the noise of the windmills is not too nice and they have a big impact on the view. It depends on the place they are located they can look nice or horrible.

They work too collecting information about animals and plants living on the area so they can have more information in order to ask the government to protect the area and give resources to make researches and inform the people.

They have too a small library with some material related with environmental issues but with math and sciences too because they have a place were children can come and do their homework in a comfortable place.

The second day we visited another NGO called Crianças de Luz that at the beginning was a part of Recicriança but after some years they decided to grow so they separate from Recicriança.

They have an official kinder garden (children between 3 and 5 years old) and extra courses for children from 7 to 10 years old. All this courses are for free and here the children receive a free lunch that helps a lot to the economic situation of the poor families.

Now the city government has gave to them another building were they are planning to start a youth club. They have a lot of help from the city government and from many companies in Japan (the headmaster is Japanese) and form another big NGO in Sao Paulo.

Actually recently they got money from a Japanese company that allow them to construct a water pump (that it cost R$4000 including and electric engine to pump the water), a vegetable garden and to hire a nutritionist to improve the lunch they give to the children.

We went on the vacations time but even though we could participate in some singing and dancing classes. These classes were given by some volunteers that they were coming from the NGO in Sao Paulo. It was really fun, I even sing a little with them, some African’s songs.

At the end of the day we took a bus to Aracati that it cost R$2 and it takes 20 minutes, and from there we took a bus to Recife

We arrived to Recife the 25^th of July. We took a metro form the bus station to downtown Recife (it cost R$1,4 each ticket) and then the owner of the house were we were going to stay picked us by car. They are friends from my grandmother: Olga Salas and Roberto. They live in Olinda.

Olinda is a city very close to Recife. Olinda was one of the most important cities of the Portuguese empire and it was funded by the Portuguese. Recife was funded by Holland and it was the capital of the Dutch empire on Brazil.

Recife was the first planned city of latinamerica and when the Dutch constructed they decided to burn Olinda, in order to destroy the economic power of the Portuguese empire.

We stayed in Olinda, a very nice city constructed in small mountains in front of the sea. The city is very old and well maintained so is really good to walk around the old part of Olinda. We were very close to the historic part so we went by walk to know the main church of Olinda, the highest point, and other historic constructions.

At the end of the day we took a bus to Aracati, and from there we took a bus to Recife.

Recife was the first planned city of latinamerica and when the Dutch constructed they decided to burn Olinda, in order to destroy the economic power of the Portuguese empire.

Before going we enjoy a nice meal full of fruits, natural juices, and different kinds of breads. It was really nice, after days of eating just very cheap food to eat some home made food.

Roberto was vey nice, he was all the time speaking in English and giving us story classes about Brazil the Portuguese and the Dutch.

The second day we went to downtown Recife to know a little the historic buildings and then we went to a museum that has the biggest private gun collection in the world. It was very interesting and we could see too some paintings of Brazil made for a Dutch painter and some all maps from the colonial times.

After that we make a tour on Catamaran thru the rivers of Recife and we enjoy of a different view of the historic buildings constructed by the Dutch. On interesting thing is that the Dutch choose Recife to start their empire because the geography of Recife is very similar to the geography of Holland.

All the expenses were paid by the couple that was hosting us; it was very nice of them. We really feel at a 5 stars hotel, Olga and Roberto were very good with us… THANK YOU!!