The morning of April 12th Colin and I were on to Sao Luis! We left super early in the morning (before 4 am,) stopping only for a quick per-kilo lunch, and arriving in this old French-founded colonial city in the late afternoon, leaving us totally wiped-out. After looking online at the bus terminal, we picked and booked an old colonial house, Hotel Pousada Colonial, to stay in for the first couple of days. They didn’t have our room, but managed to find one for us anyways, and we were too exhausted so we took it. That evening we planned out our time in the city over a China In Box delivery.
Our first morning out in Sao Luis was quite a surprise – most of the travel books and guides we read described it as charming, and we knew it was a UNESCO heritage site. We knew that the French had taken the city from the indigenous Tupi tribe living there, and that the Dutch had invaded at some point, yet the architecture still seemed to be wholly influenced by the last conquerors, the Portuguese. Unfortunately the majority of the city was either crumbling or covered in graffiti unlike other preserved colonial cities such as Paraty – but we still managed to find a few interesting streets.
On our way into the city we stopped to buy one of the popular drinks in Brazil – Jesus! Turns out that this Jesus doesn’t taste like wine, but a sickly sweet bubblegum… with a strange aftertaste that reminded me way too much of stale curry.
The first few places (a theater and museums) we tried turned out to be closed, so I’ll write about those when we were able to find them open a few days later. One place which looked quite nice was a park, which was next door to the Se Church also known as the Metropolitan Cathedral. I would later find out during my visit to the nearby Palacio dos Leoes that the Se Church was voted as one of the city's 7 Treasures of Cultural Material Heritage for Sao Luis’ 400th birthday! (And I saw the party favors, but more about that later.)
The Se Church was built in the late 18th century by Jesuit priests. These priests were eventually expelled and the church became dedicated to the Virgin Mary. We saw a lot of flowers and hear singing as we approached the church entrance, and from the images of the Virgin Mary everyone was carrying we figured it might be a holiday in her honor, or just a celebration in the Church dedicated to her.
We listened to the singing for a while before taking a walk down to the water next to the Palacio dos Leoes. After asking around about a few other places we wanted to see, we decided to just wander around the historical center seeing what was open.
One of the museums that we came across was the Memorial do Centro Historico, which had a few things on display such as a large set of model traditional boats from the region and some pretty scary-looking Carnival puppets. I noticed a beautiful set of indigenous head-pieces with colorful feathers from the exotic birds of the region on display as well.
Since this museum was pretty small, we finished and walked around to the local market nearby. Upon walking in, I immediately noticed a very neon, and very shiny, purple or blue-colored drink hanging up all around us. It was labeled “Tiquira,” which is a typical drink of the Maranhao region. It is actually made from manioc/cassava and contains a very high content of alcohol. The name is Tupi in origin, meaning “drop,” which comes from the process used to separate a paste from the manioc flour – it “drops” down in a trickle as a syrup after being mixed with water, and is stirred and fermented over two days.
We were quite tired after all the roaming around the historical center, so Colin and I headed back to the room for a rest and some A/C. That evening the hotel helped me finalize arrangements for a tour to the Lencois Maranhenses Park through Brasil Planet. Early the next morning on April 14th we left Sao Luis for an overnight trip to explore some remarkable dunes and pools! The bus Brasil Planet took us on was really comfortable – especially because of the low season there were few people on it and we were able to spread out a little. It took 4 hours to get to Barreirinhas, the jumping off city for Lencois, so the comfort was appreciated. We were dropped off at Pousada Do Rio to unpack and get some lunch before our first tour to the dunes.
The 4WD brought us to the entry of Lencois, and since there is no driving allowed on the dunes, we had to get out and walk from there. Our plan was to trek to the “Blue Lagoon” (Lagoa Azul) and the “Fish Lagoon” (lagoa do peixe.) It was sweltering hot, and we really felt like we could imagine being lost in the desert for ages, then coming up to a mirage like our lagoons and the joy one would feel upon seeing the blue, cool waters! I couldn’t swim in any of them because my knee was still quite wounded (better safe than sorry, right?) but Colin got to have a blast floating in the waters and sliding down the sand dunes. Lucky! I used this time to practice my photography skills – and videography!
Although I couldn’t really swim, I did take off my shoes and wade around in the water a bit. Nice and refreshing! I thought the whole place would be an incredible place to just chill out, even meditate. While looking in the pools we spotted a load of fish, which seems strange since there are no connections to the sea or any rivers around the desert. It turns out that the fish have their eggs brought from the sea by birds drinking from the water that starts to accumulate during the wet season – thus, fish are abundant in this desert!
We spent the whole afternoon trekking around the sands from lagoon to lagoon, and the finale was this huge lake in the middle of the sands called the “Fish Lagoon” which was loaded with the little fish I mentioned previously. Colin went down to swim in it for a bit, and he said by the time he climbed up the sand dune it was so steep and hot that he was ready to go back in the water again!
By the time we trekked our way back to the park entrance, it was sunset. Perfect opportunity to sit down on the sand and admire nature’s beauty before heading back to the hotel for the most comfortable night’s sleep ever. (The bed at this Pousada was amazingly plush!) I was so exhausted that I fell straight asleep and we ended up skipping dinner completely.
The next morning we were picked up again by the 4WD and taken to the Barreirinhas Port where we got into a speed boat and headed down the river Preguiças (sloths). Our guide may a few stops along the way to show us some of the local flowers and vegetation. My favorite part was when he pulled what looked like a long green vegetable off of one of the nearby trees along the river. He cut it slightly with his knife, then had me grab the end of it and pull it apart… and out popped a gorgeous flower! It was so large and springy that it went “boing” as I pulled it and it took a second to register that it was an amazing flower and not, as I expected, a green vegetable.
While on the boat, Colin’s sunglasses ended up flying off! We didn’t realize they were gone for a little while, so we knew we’d probably never see them again. This sucked, but we quickly decided to buy him another pair later. Our first stop was at Vassouras to see the Small “Lençóis” and the local fauna in the Tent of the Monkeys (Tenda dos Macacos). We got some refreshing drinks, watched the local people making baskets and other crafts out of plants, and spotted a baby goat. Colin had fun feeding bananas to the capuchin monkeys which crowded around all of us as we tried to have our snacks. They were so clever! (I have to admit, they do scare me a bit because they are just… SO smart… and creepy.)
Next we stopped at Mandacaru, a small fishing village, which had a tall lighthouse (Farol da Preguiça). We arrived around 2 PM but it wasn’t open yet, so we spent our time getting some ice-cream. One of the people in our group for the day suggested we try a flavor called graviola, and we happily ordered the ice-cream. It was sweet and tasted pretty good, reminding Colin a little bit of kiwi. Graviola is supposedly also known as soursop, a fruit I encountered when I was in Asia. I think it is related to durian, another South-east Asia fruit, but I’m not quite sure. Anyone know if and how they are related?
Since there were quite a few steps up to the lighthouse, I knew I wouldn’t be able to make it up there with my knee. Colin bounded up to the top and took a ton of photos of the view over the Lençóis Maranhenses, the Preguiça River the surrounding forest. While Colin and some of the others from the boat climbed to the top, I decided to walk around the side of the lighthouse and see if I could see anything interesting. Big mistake! I felt something sharp on my arm and dropped our backpack I was carrying. I saw the culprit stuck on the bag – a massive wasp! My arm started aching more and more, and Colin came down to see what was going on. We got some ice and anti-sting cream on it and while it hurt it slowly started to come down. First my knee and now my arm! Never safe in the outdoors of Brazil…
Hungry for lunch, we next headed off to the beach of Caburé and sat down to order some chicken, beans, rice and tons of ice-cold water. Typical Brazilian meal ahead! After lunch we walked to the water for another swim for Colin (and more ice-cold water for me) before it was time to get back on the boat and return to our hotel for the bags and to await the bus back to Sao Luis.
The morning of the 16th, Colin and I headed out to renew our visas for Brazil. We were both pretty nervous about the process, knowing how fickle visa attendants could be from our experience in Recife, as well as knowing the Brazilian flair for ‘you came at the wrong hour and its’ closed’ or ‘that place moved/we don’t do that here anymore’ as unfortunate results of our quests. Despite the sign on the door saying they only serve foreigners from 8 am until 12 pm, the attendant was luckily there and willing to help us. Moreover, the process went pretty smoothly. He took our passports after we went into his little office and filled out some computer forms, then sent us to go pay for the renewal at the Big Ben pharmacy down the road. With that sorted, we went straight back to him and (thankfully, he hadn’t gone to lunch!) he processed our extension and re-stamped our passports with no issue. The whole thing didn’t take more than an hour either! On the way back our taxi driver played some fantastic reggae songs we had never heard of before – turns out that Sao Luis is Brazil’s reggae capital! We had spotted a few of the reggae bars (such as Roots Bar) around town, but hadn’t heard any of the music yet. The taxi driver had a few extra copies of some of the music we liked and passed them on to us as a free little gift. Nice!
The rest of the afternoon was a well-needed rest in the hotel room, taking advantage of the room-service some more, and planning how to spend our last day in Sao Luis. The morning of the 17th we chose to head off to Alcantara, leaving from the port around 7:30 am. No one seemed to know exactly when the boat would leave Sao Luis for Alcantara, but we got lucky and there was one leaving just a few minutes after we arrived at the port. There seems to be a window in the early morning of an hour or so (7 am to 8 am) and the boat will leave anytime around then. Because it was raining, the ride was really choppy, and I ended up feeling quite seasick. The boat was completely covered up, really wet, mucky, and gross to sit in packed uncomfortably together in the heat with tons of locals. (We didn’t see any other travelers on the journey.) Thankfully, I remembered a technique to help with seasickness – think about biting into a lemon! (It helps way more if you actually bite a lemon, but who remembers to bring a lemon?)
I was forever grateful to get off the hour long journey and back onto steady ground. Colin and I stopped off in the information center, then grabbed a taxi to take us into the city center. Alcantara, like Sao Luis, was founded by the French in the 16th century. Much like what happened with Sao Luis and the fort that is now our hotel, the city was under control of different leaders – and actually served as the base from which the Portuguese plotted and executed their plan to steal Sao Luis away from the French.
The taxi driver dropped us off at the Praca da Matriz, and we headed into the Museu Casa Historica de Alcantara first. Our guide who walked us around this old house, built in the 1600’s, which had been converted into a museum, spoke limited English but we were able to figure out some of the place’s past. There was a collection of photos on the wall showing different parts of Alcantara, and the rest of the house was bathrooms, bedrooms, and an interesting dining area with tons of special glasses for drinking cachaca. We even got to observe where the slaves slept (and the bar-covered doors that kept them inside) and where the drinking water for the house was brought up via the well. Most of the contents of the museum were old objects for the homes of the past – lanterns, cleaning and washing vases, weapons for protection, etc.
Nearby we found another old house museum, which was similar to the first one we went into. Because of the lack of English-speaking guides or plaques, the information we got about the place was pretty limited. Here is an example of what the old bedrooms used to look like! The most fascinating part about Alcantara wasn’t actually in any of the museums, but was outside in the Praca da Matriz, where an old pelourinho, or slave whipping post, still stands next to the ruins of a church.
After we got back to Sao Luis, Colin was pretty run-down from the boat journey back (he slept most of the way back!) so he decided to relax back in the hotel room, while I spent some of the remainder of the day hitting a few of the places which were closed the first time we ventured out in Sao Luis. The first one I hopped a cab to was the Teatro Arthur Azevedo, a small neoclassical theater built in the early 1800’s. While the theater’s name has been changed a few times over the years, its current name honors Brazilian playwright Arthur Azevedo, who is known for strengthening the "comedy of customs" genre. The granite entrance hall and numerous crystal mirrors and chandeliers I saw gave the place a definite old-world feel.
During my afternoon journey I found out that quite a few museums, such as the Museu Histórico e Artístico and Casa do Maranhao I wanted to visit, were closed for renovation. I did pop into the Sacred Art Museum near the theater instead, which allowed me another view of some religious art pieces which enabled criminals of the past to hide precious objects inside them. I never get tired of seeing the sneaky things people used to do!
One of the places that was open was the Centro de Cultura Popular Domingos Vieira Filho, which had some exhibits on the festival which takes place in Sao Luis in June: Bumba Meu Boi or “Hit My Bull.” This folk festival mixes elements of indigenous, African, and Portuguese-influence, with multiple groups performing similar to the samba schools in Rio’s Carnival. These groups tell the tale of a planation owner whose bull dies while under the care of his slave, being brought back to life with the help of forest spirits. The collection of quite strange-sounding characters whose costumes were on display at the museum.
Here is an excerpt from the festival’s Wiki on the characters: “Versions of the tale vary regionally, but the most important central characters include the Bull (a player in an elaborate costume), Catirina (an ugly pregnant girl, usually played by a man in drag), a cowboy who is in charge of the Bull and who causes the Bull to die, the priest, the rich and powerful owner of the Bull, and the music (which magically drums the Bull back to life).” (‘Bumba Meu Boi’ Wiki, 2013)
There were a ton of costumes and examples of dress here on other religions and local festivals as well, including costumes for the local variant of Candomble, “tambor de mina,” which has ninety percent female members. Men usually only participating by playing the drums, a significant part of the religious ceremonies.
The final place I visited on my venture out was right near our hotel: The Palacio dos Leoes or “Palace of the Lions.” This is another place where you have to get the timing exactly right to visit – it was only open from 2 pm to 5 pm that day. A student guide took me around the part of the palace it was possible to visit (a few rooms along the left wing upstairs,) which is still being used by the current political administration. An administrative structure in some form has been in the palace’s location since the 1700’s, and the current structure built in the late 1800’s. The rooms I saw (but no pictures allowed!) were all quite lavish. A huge grand piano, vases, rugs, furniture, and paintings from Europe decorated the meeting and dining spaces. There was even a display of beautiful outfits through the ages, and large piles of leftover “party-favors” (perfumes and other objects with the city’s logo) from the celebration of Sao Luis’ 400th birthday party. While I was here I took a photo of a cool comic book they had stored in the last room that I thought Colin might like about the history of Brazil. Unfortunately, the comic is totally in Portuguese!
Francesca
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