S/V Mojombo: Jacare, Brazil

We spent a month in a friendly little marina at Jacare in northeastern Brazil. Jacare is located on the Paraiba River close to and midway between the city of Joao Pessoa and the port of Cabedelo. It is a quiet little provincial backwater and proved an ideal place for catching up on a bit of school work, undertaking a few minor repairs, and fitting in a bit of sightseeing, not to mention some relaxing, meditative reading.

Bolero

Jacare is locally famous for its little tourist strip consisting of three waterfront restaurants and a host of bars, eateries and craft stalls. The big drawcard is a nightly performance of Bolero, interpreted for solo saxophone, but with some electronic accompaniment. But the real point of difference is the mode of delivery! The saxophonist enters a gondola and delivers his performance standing, silhouetted against the setting sun, while being sculled back and forth in front of the three restaurants. It’s an impressive gig!

Bolero: it’s a nightly Jacare fixture

People from all over Brazil, and further afield, come to see it.

Life of Brian

Highlight of our stay was meeting local personality Brian Stevens. Originally a Pom, he arrived as a yachtie 35 years ago, and has since put down some fairly deep roots into the local community, both as a family and a business man.

Brian, always the convivial host, invited several of us yachtie types to spend some time with him, his wife and some other friends at his weekend country retreat – several hectares of land with a simple yet elegant house built in the local tradition, and equipped with a splendid pool.

Brian; a most convivial host.

The house; simple elegance.

The pool; fantastic.

The lunches; mmm mmmm.

Exploring Further Afield

At Brian’s suggestion a group of 15 of us yachtee types hired a mini-bus and went on a two-day trip westward into the country’s interior. Brian did a wonderful job as our tour guide and interpreter.

First stop was the historic hill top town of Areia, featuring a very coherent suite of colonial buildings; including one once used as a slave market providing labour for the surrounding sugar cane fields. After a sumptuous lunch we headed for Lajada Pai Mateus Park.

The park is reserved for its distinctive granite landscapes, its indigenous people’s heritage, especially rock paintings and its richness of fossil remains, particularly of Pleistocene megafauna (see Nina’s contribution). Arriving in the park we walked up a ridge and watched the sun setting against a most surreal, spectacular granite boulder field.

Our accommodation for the night was at a ‘ranch stay’, a rather elegant resort/bungalow style affair featuring more sumptuous dining including a smashing 6 or 7 course breakfast. The morning saw us do some further exploring of the park before returning to Jacare via tours of two cachaca (pronounced cashasa) factories (see Zeke’s contribution).

Our touring mobile.

Downtown Areia

The slave market.

Around Areia it was quite lush and green.

Further out towards Pai Mateus the country is more sparsely populated, much drier and harsher.

Some of the housing along the way is pretty imaginative stuff!

A picturesque adobe hut in the park.

The granite boulder field (with legs for scale).

Group shot - most of us anyway.

Sunset.

Inca Ruin!!!?? Nope it’s a natural feature.

Some of the locals!

The park had only recently received a good fall of rain – just three weeks ago they said it was completely brown.

People along the way.

Tripping to Joao Pessoa

Back in Jacare, one day we went off in exploration of the nearby city of Joao Pessoa. To get there we took the local passenger train service. The short journey proved an interesting glimpse into yet other aspects of the Brazilian way of life.

The track is in poor condition, the old diesel locos look well past their best and everything shudders, shakes and rattles. The service is infrequent and while there is a published time-table, it doesn't serve as even a rough guide. But it wasn't always this bad the locals tell us.

One of the major limiting factors is that the line is single track. There are two locomotives and two sets of passenger cars. At about half way along the run between the city and Cabedelo is a siding, located in a rather isolated position. The up and down trains use to pass each other at this point. Unfortunately, it seems, the train that had to wait in the siding was frequently boarded by knife wielding bandits. They would clean out the purses of as many of the passengers as they could before taking flight from the approaching police.

The rail authority, quite recently apparently, has responded decisively to this state of affairs by electing to run a single train up and down the line with no passing at the siding. It has of course rendered the timetable completely useless. There is no money to print another. But it has curbed the robbers!