Brazil – Spirit of Brazil
Olinda is a beautiful historic town, one of the oldest in Brazil, founded 1535 in the state of Pernambuco. The large metropolitan capitol city of Recife looms just south, contrasting modern high rises at the horizon with the quaint colorful buildings and handsome churches of historic Olinda.
Today let’s stroll up and down the sometimes steeply inclined cobblestone streets of Olinda, taking in the beauty of the town as well as some of its history; for example how slavery has left its mark quite literally on the cobblestones…
Olinda’s great historical trauma was the looting and burning it suffered under the Dutch in the 17th century. Guides will repeatedly make reference to that short-lived time of occupation. For example, the religious statue to the right was hollowed out so that the Portuguese could smuggle gold unnoticed past the Dutch invaders.
When later in our tour I would get glimpses of what 400 years of slavery had wrought, it put the Portuguese trauma of Olinda’s handful of years under Dutch occupation in some perspective.
On the highest point of Olinda stands the Church of Grace, and at the left corner of the photo sits “the Problem of Olinda”, an unsightly modernistic viewing platform. I’m sure it provides pretty views of Olinda for tourists (we didn’t bother), but it does mar the view from every other vantage perspective that includes its presence:
Another view of the Church of Grace:
Church of Carmo, with the multicolored Atlantic ocean behind it (beautiful waters, but dangerous: this area suffers from one of the highest incidents of shark attacks in the world):
Church of St. Benedict:
A train for tourists:
As we stroll past the quaint colorful houses of Olinda, let’s listen to my favorite Brazilian song:
A Luz de Tieta – Caetano Veloso
This song was written for the movie 1996 “Tieta do Agreste”, starring Sonia Braga, based on Jorge Amado’s popular novel “Tieta”. Ed and I got a sense of how popular this song is in Brazil when we heard it performed during an open air concert in Salvador; everybody in the large crowd joyously sang along to the catchy chorus:
“Eta!
Eta, eta, eta
É a lua, é o sol é a luz de Tieta
Eta, eta!…”
And if you would like to sing the chorus in English, it translates (and fits the melody) thusly:
“Eta!
Eta, eta, eta
It’s the moon, it’s the sun, it’s the light of Tieta
Eta, eta!…”
(Although I prefer to sing the less directly translated but more pleasing:
“See the moon, see the sun, see the sun of Tieta, eta, eta”)
This hill up to Igresia da Misericordia (Church of Mercy) is ascended by the faithful on their bare knees every May 1st.
Have mercy indeed.
Salvador, in the state of Bahia, is a Brazilian city full of highs and lows. Quite literally, at first blush, due to its topography. The historic center sits on a high plateau separated by a steep cliff from a lower section of town at the shore. Which makes parts of Salvador look like a city on top of a city, like something dreamed up by Escher or Christopher Nolan (see top photo).
For our Brazilian musical selection, it is long past due that I share one of the most famous upbeat selections Brazil has gifted the world. You may not know the title “Mas Que Nada”, but you have surely heard this track’s lively chorus. Possibly no piece of music has been used more often as a shorthand to illustrate Brazilian high spirits.
This is the little 4 seater airplane we hired (with some birthday present “mad money”) to take us on a thirty minute flyover across the whole Lençóis region. The pilot and his trainee sat upfront and Ed and I sat behind.
Around ten years ago Ed and I saw an extraordinary Brazilian movie called “The House of Sand”. It is set in a landscape of endless, blindingly white sand dunes. So unusual and otherworldly the film seemed to be taking place on another planet.
Ever since seeing “The House of Sand” I have wanted to explore this fantastical landscape in person. And this August we did it. It required flying into São Luís, the capitol of Maranhão, then taking a 4.5 hour bus to Barreirinhas, the largest town near the Lençóis Maranhenses, from where most tour excursions originate. But even once in Barreirinhas, most routes into the “Bedsheets” require a long, bumpy trek over sandy roads. On the map below, only the black dotted line represents an asphalted road. The red dotted lines are deeply sandy paths over which four wheel drives slosh and jump and jostle their way for at least an hour before you reach the white dunes. It’s like riding a bucking kangaroo.
Above and beside, these great lily pads are called Victoria Regina. Something tells me it wasn’t a Portuguese gentlemen who coined the name.
Two weeks ago Ed and I flew into Corumba, near Bolivia in Brazil’s southwestern state of Mato Grosso du Sul, the main southern access point to the vast Pantanal region. The Pantanal might be best described, to Americans at least, as Brazil’s version of the Everglades. An immense system of rivers and wetlands, with water levels that rise and inundate the land in the rainy season and fall again in the dry season, releasing some ground from a watery blanket. The Pantanal waters are separate from those that form the Amazonian system.
Harpy eagle.
To the right, that’s Ed and me and our head protection (it’s easy to bump your head making your way through and past the tight corners, low ceilings and odd protrusions of a cave system). Below is the entrance to the Santana cave. It looks rather modest for what would wind up being an elaborate, impressive 12 km cave system. Turns out this entrance was blasted open by dynamite a hundred years ago. Originally the opening was much smaller, just enough for the water to pour out and make a strange grumbling sound, which is why it initially was called the Snoring Cave.
Above and beside you can see some of the walkways we took to get through the cave system. Ed says “I love about Brazil that you can do things here that would be considered totally unsafe for tourists in America”.
There are animals that live exclusively in the caves, like this spider.
Ed is looking at a rock formation which is called the horse’s head for obvious reasons.
Today’s tour through Rio will conclude on Corcovado. And I promise you I will be sharing pictures of Cristo Redentor that are unlike the typical postcard pictures or Google Images you will find of the iconic location. Our visit there turned out to be less than typical, and that will be reflected in my photos.
The second part of this post will take us to the waters of the Urubu River, an Amazon tributary where we spent an “Adventure Weekend” after leaving Manuas (These pictures are from our Brazil trip 4 years ago).
Four years ago Ed and I spent a fantastic August touring Brazil. This month we do it again. Which means Notes from a Composer is going to go all out on a Brazil themed 
