|
PARNAIBA'S DELTA AND... BEYOND
 |
 |
After a week, it's time for us to leave Jericoacoara. We say goodbye to Didi and Daniele & Daniela, a nice Italian couple we've spent the last three days with. By the way: he's the guy with the black T-shirt and he's a singer who happened to sing at "Festival di Sanremo" (the most important song contest in Italy) in 1979...
We are going to travel westbound to the state of Maranhão. The journey is rather long: more than 200 miles,... oh well: I'm aware that such a distance wouldn't be a big deal according to our usual standards, but we must not forget that the concept of the word "road" is kind of debatable in Brazil. One minute you are in a comfortable highway, then you get across a bridge and the road becomes an unpaved path!
We'll spend the night in the delta of the third largest river of South America: the Parnaíba. The last part of the trip is by boat, and we get there in the late afternoon.
|
 |
 |
 |
We are somewhere in the delta, on a small island, apparently nameless. A couple of times I've asked our guide what the name of the place is, but all I've gotten is a smile and an evasive answer sounding like: «We are almost there!»...
Once "there" we find a very simple accomodation in a nameless village with no roads, no water-pipes, no sewer system and no... clothes-pegs! Everywhere clothes are not dried on ordinary wires but directly on... "barbed-wires"!!! And when I ask a guy why is that, he stares at me like I've just asked the silliest question on earth: «Because of the wind, of course!»... Oh, yes, the wind, what else, stupid of me! But then the guy proudly adds: «We've got a great satellite-dish, though!».
|
 |
Dinner-time is at sevenish, which is pretty soon for our Italian standards, but we are happy because there's going to be an after-dinner surprise: the night-safari in the delta! But before the dinner's ready we have the chance of a quick visit to the scattered houses of the island, just in time to "taste" the atmosphere of peace and simple dignity that we can feel all around us.
|
 |
 |
The night-safari in the delta is a thrilling experience: we are all invited to wear long-sleeve shirts and use a lot of anti-mosquito spray, which we do. Then Vincenzo and I join a group of six European tourists, a steerman and handsome Renato who leads the group. Renato tells us about the life in the delta, what people do, which animals and plants live there... We spot a piton and several crocodiles. Renato stands at the prow of our little boat with a torch; he searches the banks of the Parnaíba in order to spot the two flame-red ghosty eyes of crocodiles. After a few unseccessful tries, Renato manages to catch a baby-crocodile, and there he goes with an interesting live biology class!
On our way back, I'm so proud when Renato tells me: «You! Let's see what you've learnt: get this torch and find a crocodile!» I promptly replace Renato at the prow position, but, no matter I carefully try to search the banks, I can't find anything... How disappointing! Then Renato suggests me to take a look at a specific place, over there on my left hand side... Shit, I can't see anything anyway... I think that there must be something over there. Renato presses me: «Can't you see anything?» I'd feel like answering "yes-I-can-see-a-crocodile", but I'd be lying of course, so I shamefully admit my failure and I give up my searching. Just then Renato goes: «Look! There is a (huge) cow over there!» And actually there is a stupid cow chewing its dinner away at almost midnight! Everyone is laughing... What are they laughing for? They too had not spotted the cow, so what?
|
Live frogs
in here!!! |
 |
Next day we leave this peaceful place heading north towards Rio Preguiças. We're going to spend the night in Caburé, a tiny village with three pousadas a couple of huts and absolutely nothing else! No shops, no roads: nothing means nothing! We drive along a huge beach, some parts of which are dotted with terrible mangroves roots... Our driver is driving so fast and he tells me in Portuguese that many cars hit the dangerous points of the mangrove-wood (which is as hard as a stone) and get stuck over there due to the break-down of something at the car bottom level. Then he proudly adds that such an event has never occurred to him. I decide not to translate these words to Vincenzo, Arnaud and Valentine (the French couple travelling with us: great guys!)...
|
 |
Well, I do not know how, we manage to get to Caburé safely. I love this place so far from everything: we are the only tourists and this makes me feel very happy since I do not have to share the beauty of this corner of the world with anyone else. Vincenzo doesn't feel the same: there is not electric power here, and this is a terrible lack for someone who can't live without technology! Vincenzo's cell-phone display is terribly blank!
|
 |
Caburé is a very narrow strip of land between the river Rio Preguiças and the ocean. I'd like to spend a couple of days here, but Vincenzo keeps staring at his cell-phone with such a sad look in his eyes, so we leave next morning, heading to Barreirinhas. This is a small town, with regular roads, shops, hotels and cell-phone signal!
|
 |
On our way to Barreirinhas by boat, we stop at the Mandacarú light-house. We go upstairs all the way up its two-hundred-something steps and, once at the top, we enjoy a gorgeous 360-degree panorama!
|
 |
 |
On the boat again going upstream for no more than two miles: we arrive at an unusual place. Its queer atmosphere is very "Brazilian": a cow skull on a pole welcomes the visitors. We are at Vassouras, a sort of post station on the river between the Pequenos Lençois and the forest. It's really strange: sandy dunes on the east bank, a thick tropical wood on the west one.
|
 |
We have the time to take a look beyond the dune top... we climb up the sandy cliffs, and once on the top we are speechless: a huge, endless sea of sand waves. It really seems that we've broken the time and space gates: a few seconds ago we were in Brazil, now we are... where are we? Sahara desert? Mars? There is little guy down there (in the very middle of the picture) walking slowly, and it makes the scene even more incredible...
|
 |
|
We go back to reality. There is a bar which sells beer, coke and cookies. Monkeys and parrots are everywhere among the tables and benches, and tourists play wit them. Do you need to go to the toilet? It's over there: an effective facility for "him" (ele) and "her" (ela)!
|
|
|
