Nature’s wonders in Northeast Brazil

The highlight of a 6-week, customized tour of Brazil that my husband, Maurice, and I took, January-March 2011, was the four days we spent in the Lençois Maranhenses region, Feb. 1-4 (July ’12, pg. 29).

On our second day, we had no private guide but were part of a group of 12 travelers from various hotels taking a full-day river cruise in an aluminum boat 24 miles down the Preguiças River out to the Atlantic Ocean. The riverbank was lined with many varieties of palms and mangrove trees. The lower, muddy flats, alive with small crabs, provided feeding areas for blue herons, cranes and the gorgeous scarlet ibis.

When we stopped at Vassouras, small Prego monkeys, conditioned to the sounds of motorboats, raced out to be fed mango chunks. A tame rabbit and a coati (an odd couple!) frolicked about the grounds like two playful pups. Colorful parrots and an owl resting in the palm-thatched rafters of an open-air cantina provided quite a wild menagerie to photograph.

Our next stop was the Mandacarú lighthouse, built in 1906 by the Brazilian Navy and replaced in 1940. We climbed the 160 steps to get a full panoramic view of the smaller dunes, the national park and the Atlantic. Mango, almond and cashew trees grow there. One has to be very lazy to starve in Brazil.

While waiting for our afternoon meal of shrimp to be cooked, we had the opportunity to swim where the warm Atlantic and cooler Preguiças River waters swirl together at the merging point of a sandy spit.

It was there that we saw a variety of bathing suits, ranging from the matronly one-piece (like mine) to teeny triangles of fabric connected by strings strategically placed on upper and lower spots of svelte tanned female bodies. The suits’ skimpiness has earned them the nickname “dental floss bikinis,” and a previous president created quite a furor when he wanted to pass a law banning them from the beaches.

Day three, in Barreirinhas, was a free day, and in the morning we walked through the street markets. In one shop, a husband-and-wife team repaired aluminum kettles by hammering them back into a decent shape and replacing the handles and lid knobs.

Many of the market salespeople had wheelbarrows full of produce — compact, mobile shops.

Fish of all sizes and colors were on display. To prove they are fresh, the fish are slit so the innards and gills show. One buyer went so far as to pick up each one and sniff that area for any “off” odor.

Most unique — a crab salesman had a gunnysack of large crustaceans which he had caught by reaching up to his armpit into their riverside holes, managing to escape being severely pinched. He tied them into groups of six for sale, with their claws immobilized.

With our lunch of delicious fresh fish, rice and potatoes, we discovered a local beverage, Guarana, a sweet but refreshing pink soda flavored with guarana extract, clove and cinnamon.

We went back to the pousada, where we actually took time to be “tourists” and lounge around the pool. We investigated the many craft shops with articles made from the buriti palm tree ­— anything from macramé water bottle holders to crocheted tablecloths.

Even though that time of year is deemed the rainy season, these four days were dry — a bonus for our sightseeing.

JACKIE BLACK
Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada