Third week Brasil

Still in Mariana

In The vicinity of Mariana I visited an old gold mine where 3000 people worked for 200 years and I was told that alone from this mine they officially gained 250 tons of gold! Unofficially it is supposed to be much more.

If you think that to gain 4 grams of gold you need one ton of rocks, it is amazing that gold is not even more expensive and that people go to all this trouble. Isn't it crazy? We descended 120 meters into the earth with a little train pulled by a steel cord. Inside the mine, which is huge and was opened with dynamite, there is a lake about 270 meters deep which was slowly formed from the water of a river above dropping thrugh the ground.

On Sunday I took the bus back to Belo Horizonte, left my luggage at the bus station and went downtown. On Sunday there is a huge market downtown, more for the local people but also for turists and the market is next to a beautiful large park in the center of the city.

In the park there is a large lake and some fantastic trees and flowers. Some trees have a diameter of at least 5-6 meters. Can you see how tiny the 2 people sitting on the bench left to the tree seem to be near the tree?

Some trees have branches that look like trees themselves

How do you like these paintings? they are from the best painter that I know.

Do you know the artist?

After strolling around for a few hours I went to my hotel, close to the lake Lagoa Santa which is the only hotel 10 minutes driving distance from the airport. 

Finally in Paradise

After flying from Belo Horizonte to Salvador, from Salvador to Fortaleza, from Fortaleza to Sao Luiz do Maranhao, spending one night in Sao Luiz, taking the bus 4 hours to Barreirinhas, and next day taking a motorboat, the voadeira (flying boat) I arrived in Atins, a little fisher village close to the fantastic sand dunes of the Lencois ( read lensois) Maranhenses.

The boat trip along the Preguica river was beautiful. The average temperature in this region is about 36 degrees centigrades, but it goes up to 40 and on cool days it can get as low as 32. the river has bathtub temperature.

As the motor boat is for tourists who want to get to know the tiver, we had several stops along the way. The first stop was in Vassouras, a fantastic place where you can see jungle on one side of the river and some gorgeous sand dunes on the other side, which are also surrounded by jungle, where these cute little monkeys live.

The colors of the sand are amazing, from white to cream in all shades and extremely fine. I wonder how on earth they got there.

At some spots there is even vegetation growing on the dunes.

And at the rainy season, water agglomerates between the dunes and forms lakes. I was told the earth underneath saturated with water, that's why the lakes form. As it hasn't rained much this year the lakes were quite shallow. At the end of the winter, in June, some get up to 4 meters deep. It must be wonderful to swim in them.

These dunes belong to the so called little lencois.

We stopped next at a little village where there is a lighthouse and if you climb up the 160 steps to the top you have a nice view of the surrounding area. At the place where the boats stop someone had the great idea of mounting a little open air bar where he makes caipirinha from cashew fruits with cachaca, delicious!

Then the boatman had the idea to take us to the place where the Preguica river flows into the sea. He speeded up his boat over the waves so that we got soaked wet. As I had all my money in the inner pockets of my pants it was soaked wet too, so that I had to take the 100 dollar bills carefully apart and spread them out to dry when I arrived at the hotel.

The place I am staying is so lovely. It is called Rancho do Buna, a hotel which consists of 14 chalets, an open air dining room, a little swimming pool, 3 dogs, 4 cats, many ducks and chicken with little chicks , a large family of Peacocks with many little ones ( one of them is always looking in the mirror, he.knows how beautiful he is and really enjoys it!) , some geese and thousands, no, millions of mosquitoes. Especially intelligent mosquitoes. When I go into the bathroom there are some 50 of them sitting there, just waiting for me to take off my clothes! I have never had to use so much insect repellent in my life.

Here the view from my window:

And this is the peacck who loves to look in the mirror.

The manager of the hotel, Monica, is a lovely woman. She has been here for 7 years and told me it has never happened so fat that a hen went into a chalet. Well, this one visited me 5 times, we really made friends. When my window was open she just jumped on it and in. Don't worry, this is not my pillow, I had a beautiful double bed with a moskitoe net around so she could not walk on my pillow, but she is very well educated, she never made anything dirty. She even visited the bathroom sometimes.

If it weren't for those mosquitoes, it would be paradise ! All the animals live in peace with each other, the cats sleep near the dogs, the hen with her little ones walk around everywhere and the cats and dogs don't hurt them. And they are everywhere. While I am having breakfast the hen and ducks with their little ones come by, it is so cute

On my first day I was the only guest in the hotel. The hotel manager, Monica, is so nice and we have been chatting a lot. As the cook was not there that night, she recommended I go to a little restaurant in the village for dinner. She told me to take a flashlight for the way back, explained me how to get to the main road of the village and from there to the restaurant.

When I started walking there was still light. I went the way she told me and searched for the main road but could not find it. It was slowly getting dark, so After 15 minutes I stopped at a house to ask. They showed it to me. The main road, like all the other streets in this village consists of 30 cm deep sand! No street lights. Some kids led me to the restaurant. It is a little private house of a family. I came in into the livingroom, where there were a few chairs and a TV and the family members watching the novela of 7 o'clock. In Brasil everybody watches the novelas, movies with a few thousand "chapters" showing everyday about 20 minutes of each novela and stopping at the most dramatic point ( I wonder who invents so many dramas for thousands of chapters) and the novelas are one of the main conversation topics, especially ofBrasilian women. I remember when I was in Brasil 22 years ago in a little village where not everybody had a TV yet, there was a TV on the main square and the village gathered there at 5 in the afternoon to watch the novelas and discuss them.

Well, the woman in the house asked me what I would like to eat, watched the end of the chapter of the actual novela and went to the kitchen to cook. After about 40 minutes I was called to the back yard, where there were 2 tables and chairs and was served a delicious fish with rice and beans and salad and coconut water. I would have never found the way back to the hotel if the chldren wouldn't have brought me there. It was so dark, you couldn't see anything without the flashlight.

Yesterday morning Monica suggested I make a walk in the igarape, an arm of the river Preguica which passes near the hotel. If you go early in the morning the river has very little water . You go out at one side of the hotel, supposedly walk for 30 minutes in the river, where the water hardly goes up to your knees and arrive at the other side of the hotel. When the river is full, you can take an inlet of a big tire and let the river carry you to the other side.

Well, I think I went a little too late. The river already started to rise and was slowly getting deeper. When it reached up to my chest, after an hour, and I hadn't reached the hotel yet, I decided to try to get out and find a way on the land. What I found was a dead horse and some jungle. I was wondering how I would ever make it back when I saw a boat and some people farther away. I asked them if there was a way to my hotel and one of the man said: yes, just go left. I didn't see any way left. He then was so kind to go with me. The way was inside the river... But I made it back. Only my wallet in the bottom of my backpack got soaked wet, and most of me, naturally.

Sunday, 10.3

On Friday I made my first excursion to the gorgeous white and cream colored sand dunes in the national park of Lencois Maranhenses which covers an area of 155.000 hectars. The dunes are made of finest sand and in the rainy season, which is now, lagoons originate between the dunes. The landscape is undescribably beautiful. On my forst trip with 2 french couples we only made a short hike to a lagoon which was 10 minutes away from the jeep, as they did not feel like walking much, which was a pity.

This part of the dunes was quite close to the sea.

Yesterday, with a younger man and his daughter we went much farther and hiked for more than 2,5 hours. It is one of the most fascinating landscapes I have ever seen.

That's how the dunes look after a rain.

And here before the rain

Have you ever seen desert cows? Well, here are some Brasilian desert cows.

The dunes here are much more beautiful than in the Sinai desert or the Sahara. All you can hear is the silence and the wind. It is a unique experience. it is much more beautiful than any photos can show. Unfortunately it was cloudy, so we did not get to see the sunset on the dunes. I can imagine how gorgeous it must be with a clear sky, the sun setting , the dunes throwing their shadows and the reddish sun coloring the lakes.

After the excursions we went to Antonios restaurant where I ate the most delicious grilled shrimps I ever had. Antonios restaurant is just in the middle of nowhere! 7 km from Atins, you can get there only with a four wheel drive as you have to go through deep sand. I asked him why on eRth he made this wonderful restaurant so far and he said, because that is where he lives! A little Oasis in the desert, by the sea. As he has no electricity there, he also has no refrigerator. He buys ice in Atins to make Caipirinha for his guests, and the food is always made fresh, from the fish and shrimps he caught that day and it tastes geavenly. When a few guests come ( we were the only ones) he starts cooking and you have to wait about an hour for your food, as he also cooks rice and beans in coconut sauce to serve with the shrimps but believe me, it is worth waiting! While you wait, you can study the large map of Lencois which is drawn on the wall or play with 2 baby goats under the table.

Today I have to leave Atins and I am already missing it!