L'Enfer Vert

20 September 2008,

Heather souffre en Guyane Française. Read More...

Tchao Brasil !

09 September 2008,

Le périple, quasi équivalent à une traversée atlantique, jusqu'en Guyane.Read More...

Brazilian Africa

21 August 2008,

A visit to the city Salvador da Bahia in the bay Baia de Todos Os Santos of Brazil.Read More...

L'Afrique au Brésil

21 August 2008,

Une visite de Salvador da Bahia et de la Baia de Todos Os Santos.Read More...

What is this vegetable? And do I have to cook it?

10 August 2008,

5 August 2008 – 10 August 2008

As we worked our way back up the coast of Brazil, the next stop on our itinerary was the Camamu estuary known for its abundant seafood, tranquil anchorages, and enormous marketplace. Although the main block of the main sail had broken in the Abrolhos islands, rendering it useless, we sailed northwards from there to the Camamu estuary easily enough with just our head sail.

Canoes-in-the-mud

Canoes resting on mangrove mudflats at low tide

Entering the estuary at night, as is custom on Moana, we anchored outside Sapinho. This settlement, like many others, runs restaurants mainly for weekend pleasure boaters. We decided to try one the next day.

Crab-catato

Catato de siri (crabmeat stew)

The local specialty is crabmeat stewed with tomatoes, onion, cilantro, and coconut milk accompanied, of course, with beans, rice, manioc meal, and a salad of tomatoes and onions. With so many crab traps in the estuary, a bountiful bowl of delicious crab and all its accoutrements costs only €8 for two people. The estuary is also known for its small oysters clinging to mangrove roots, plentiful local fish, and even cheap lobsters. Although we solicited for lobsters with the local fishermen, though, none were caught for us during our short stay. Marc was much disappointed.

Rio-Marau

Rio Maraú

We motored up the Maraú river, a tributary to the estuary, to visit its namesake town. Mangrove riverbanks occasionally give way to sandy beaches with palm trees and perhaps a small, white fisherman’s house. There’s even an island for sale if you’re interested: Ilha Tatus.

Ruby-red-church

Ruby Red

The church dominating the hillside of the town of Maraú is ruby red, the jolliest we’ve seen yet in Brazil.

Butcher

Traveling butcher

This butcher makes his rounds to Maraú on Fridays, hanging his cow legs and ribs from the rafters of the town marketplace. Everything in this remote town is quite relaxed. Inquiring at a home/restaurant to find out the day’s menu, we spoke to the proprietress as a friend gave her a pedicure on her front porch and diners ate happily at plastic tables set in the street.

Manioc-coconut-treat

Local sweet

We bought a sweet made of manioc and coconut shavings, rolled up in a leaf one meter wide and baked. Goes wonderfully with a caipirinha.

Heather-on-ferry2

Heather on the ferry

The town of Camamú is widely known for its Saturday market, and so we caught the 6am (and only) ferry from the estuary mouth to deep within the estuary to see it for ourselves. We couldn’t have motored Moana to the town both because of shallow sand shoals and because the settlers placed huge boulders in the river at the entrance to town to thwart English and Dutch invaders during the 17th century. Upon entering into the small bay outside the town, our ferry and the other local boats slalomed from side to side in the river to avoid the unseen stones.

Camamu-bay

Camamú bay

And here is the white-washed village of Camamú. The dugout canoeist is paddling with the outrageously long-handled paddles traditional in the estuary.

Traditional-boat-building

Traditional boat building

Massive, long pieces of wood are still used by traditional boat builders in the bay to fashion fishing vessels. The elongated bowsprit on these boats, though, indicates that these boats will be tourist schooners.

Barca-escolar2

Escuna escolar (School schooner)

This yellow and black boat is the local “school bus” bringing remote children to town.

The-conqueror

Faded glory

Walking the steep, cobbled road to Camamu’s summit, we passed beautiful old houses with elaborate, but now crumbling, facades. Young boys push wheelbarrows through the streets, offering to haul shoppers’ cartloads of foodstuffs up the hill to their homes. On our way to Camamu’s summit, we watched a scraggly boy breathlessly push a full wheelbarrow of dry goods as his matronly customer chastised him for who know’s what.

Vista

Another view from the summit

Key-limes

Marketplace

And the reason we came to Camamu: a marketplace full of fresh produce, 20% of which we’ve no clue what tastes like or how to prepare. Even with the help of the meticulous Eat Smart: Brazil guidebook, Heather was still occasionally at a loss when confronted by the profusion of obscure fruit varieties.

Produce2

More produce

Produce-market

Abundance (Produce market)

The marketplace spilled out of the massive hall and onto the street where fruits and vegetables were arranged on mats and live animals were bartered over. In the background, men stand on the top of a VW bus to unload branches of bananas.

Chicken-vendor

I like the one with the bigger beak

A vendor scooping through his wheelbarrow of chickens to find one that satisfies the customers.

Pissed-off-chicken

Market days sure are long days

Suckling-pigs

Suckling pigs

If only we had a barbecue spit…

Malagueta-pepper-sauce

Malagueta pepper sauce

A local sniffing a hot sauce made with malagueta peppers, a condiment especially popular in northern Brazil.

Big-fish2

Big Fish

We also stopped in the fish market to check out the plethora of marine and estuarine fish, rays, oysters, mussels, and crabmeat on sale. Buying fish in Brazil is difficult for gringãos since the fish names change regionally and don’t correspond to any European/American fish. Nonetheless, we were happy with the fish we had scaled, gutted, and filleted for us that night (well Heather was, anyways. Marc just ate his fish like a good boy as usual).

Corn-and-cake-vender

Corn and cake vendor

And then it was time to grab a snack before heading back to the boat. This street vendor was selling several cakes, guava filled doughnuts, fried chicken dumplings, and even roasted corn on the cob.

Market-ferry

Market Ferry

The ferry captain waits for each of his morning passengers to arrive around noon before making his way back to the estuary mouth. Thus, as people shop throughout the morning, they can drop off their packages on the boat and continue. Bags of rice and vegetables are piled so high in the ferry that the captain can hardly see forward.

After resting for one more day on the boat, we made a night passage to Salvador in what turned out to be excellent winds. We therefore arrived at Centro Nautico de Bahia marina in the wee hours of the morning, mooring by flashlight with the help of a security guard true to Moana’s grand tradition of night arrivals.

Fruits et légumes

10 August 2008,

Tomates, crabes? A Camamu, on trouve tout! (Sauf de la langouste...)Read More...

Whales!

04 August 2008,

Whales and the underwater world of the Abrolhos archipelagoRead More...

Les Baleines!

04 August 2008,

Les baleines, et le monde sous-marin des AbrolhosRead More...

Brigitte Bardot

29 July 2008,

Le début de la grande remontée vers les Antilles, avec escales à Buzios et Caravelas.Read More...

Paris, on avait pas parié dessus...

14 July 2008,

La visite intégrale de Paris, en trois heures et demie!Read More...

Cruising the islands of Baia da Ilha Grande

23 June 2008,

Our explorations of the magnificent Baia da Ilha Grande (Bay of the Great Island): its anchorages, its reefs, its hiking trails, and its locals.Read More...