Forte São Diogo

Forte São Diogo

Forte São Diogo, at Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

The Forte São Diogo, is the third fortress on the entrance of All Saint´s Bay, just some meters from Forte Santa Maria. 

The two strongholds are separated by the Porto da Barra beach (see next post). 

The fortress is still kept by the Brazillian Army, and has a nice view from atop, for those willing to climb it. 

Built between 1626 and 1635, after the dutch invasion of Salvador (1624-1625), it granted the defense of Salvador in 1638, when a new atempt of foreign invasion was expelled. 

Also, a permanent art exposition of the argentinian artist Hector Julio Paride Bernabó, also known as Carybé, is held inside the fortification and can be visited under payment of 20 reais (about 6 US dollars). 

Carybé fell in love with Salvador, and made good friendship with Jorge Amado, Bahia´s most famos writer. Both are dead, but the Jorge Amado´s house in Pelourinho works as a museum which tells the history of the writer (see future post). Carybé died in Salvador, where some of its artwork can be found, as in this small museum inside Forte São Diogo.

Goiás Velho by night

Goiás Velho by night

Goiás Velho by night

The twilight makes the buildings at Goiás Velho even more beautiful.

Goiás Velho by night

At this time, people go out for dinner and to take their beers or caipirinhas in one of the many bars.

Goiás Velho by night

How to get there: the best option is to rent a car either in Brasilia, either in Goiânia. It is quite easy renting cars on Brazillian airports, and most of the companies provide online reservations. From Goiânia it is 2 and a half hours drive, from Brasilia it is 4 or 4 and a half hours drive. 

Goiás Velho by night

Brasilia airport is best connected to both domestic and international flights, but driving from Goiânia to Goiás Velho should be less tiresome. 

From Brasilia, one can either go through the Pirenópolis path or through Goiânia. This last option should take more time, but roads are better and two-laned in almost both ways. 

If you stay on the main roads, you´ll go southwest to Goiânia and them north to Goiás Velho. Googlemaps may show a shortcut through small cities, which will avoid getting to Goiânia, but be aware roads can be bad at those cities, with holes and critical places, leading to considerable speed reducing. Eventually, it can be better to pass though Goiânia and then go up to Goiás Velho.

The first option, going through Pirenópolis - another historic city (see previous post, see lateral bar) - may be better if you have more time and wants to know both cities. But the road is small, and getting behind trucks will reduce your speed; besides, one should drive with more caution. 

Goiás Velho by night

If you go from Goiânia, the road is almost double-laned each way, and the asfalt is quite new in almost of the road. 

There are regular buses linking Goiânia to Goiás Velho, which can be taken at Goiânia bus depot (rodoviária de Goiânia). The distance is estimated to be done in 3 hours. 

Goiás Velho by night

The Cora Coralina Museum at Goiás Velho - Goias Oldtown

The Cora Coralina Museum at Goiás Velho - Goias Oldtown

Cora Coralina´s Museum

The most interesting cultural atraction at Goiás Velho is the Cora Coralina Museum.

She was one of the first women in Brazil to write poetry, and due to prejudice she started publishing with this pseudonym, in some newspapers.

Cora Coralina´s Museum

Born in Goiás Velho, she moved from the city with her family, and since then she lived in many cities at the São Paulo State. After many years, she got back to Goiás Velho, where her family had this beautiful house by one of the Rio Vermelho´s (Red river) bridge.

The bridge over the Vermelho River, and Cora Coralina´s Museum to the right

There she kept her gardens, wrote a lot of poems, and cooked local candies.  

Goiás Velho

Her reconaissance come in her late years, when she started to publish more.

Her bravery against the prejudice and facing life as well, for sure can put her as one of the first brazillian feminists, in a time this term even didn´t exist, or at least was unspoken in Brazil. 

After her death, her house was transformed into a museum dedicated to her. In the basement, a water source is a curious attraction. 

The museum was once afected by a flood, but it is now completely restored. 

The museum guide claims she was a good cooker too, and she didn´t liked to be interrupted while cooking, as she considered this a serious job. 

Even for those who don´t speak portuguese, the museum shows her clothes, her kitchen, her bedroom, and also a room with her prizes, all of them mixed with her most famous phrases. So it offers an opportunity of time travel, since one can see how life was in the early 20th century in this corner of Brazil. 

Goiás Velho

Entrance to the museum is 8 reais (about 2,5 dollars), and visited are always with a guide. It is not allowed to take pictures from inside. They sell her books only in portuguese, and I don´t think they have them translated to other languages. But many souvenirs can also be bought there as a remembrance of this lovely place.  

Goiás Velho

Goiás Velho - Goias Oldtown

Goiás Velho - Goias Oldtown

Goiás Velho - GO - Brasil

In the Brazillian Highlands, four hours drive away from Brasilia, or two and half hours drive away from Goiânia, the capital of the Goiás State, there´s this charming historic city called Goiás Velho.

It means the Old Goiás, because it was the state´s capital during the colonial period, untill the construction of Goiânia. 

Goiás Velho - GO - Brasil

Goiás Velho - GO - Brasil

The first settlers came in search for gold, and Goiás provided enough to be a capital city. Back them, the province, then State, was formed by what is today not only the State of Goiás, but also the Federal District and the Tocantis State. A really big piece of land in the heart of South America. 

Goiás Velho - GO - Brasil

As the gold rush ended, politicians decided to build the capital at Goiânia, in 1933, to a southern region of Goiás State. 

Goiás Velho wasn´t favored by history in terms of economic development or population bourgeoning, so it remained in a far way place from the big cities. But I think this made an advantage for keeping the place very authentic and historically protected. 

Goiás Velho - GO - Brasil

As it is far away from big cities, and also there is no big airport nearby, it remained protected from massive tourism or major economic booms, so the historical buildings are very well preserved. 

Goiás Velho - GO - Brasil

The mountais surroundig the city make it like a portrait. Humidity is high compared to the surrounding cerrado areas (the brazillian savannah), because there are many rivers near the city. 

Goiás Velho - GO - Brasil

Goiás Velho - GO - Brasil

And during the holly week, Goias hosts a major festival with a famous procession, called the procissão do fogaréu. I hope furthermore to write about it. 

The Dom Bosco Sanctuary

The Dom Bosco Sanctuary (Santuário Dom Bosco)

The Dom Bosco Sanctuary at Brasilia - http://brazilguide.blogspot.com.br/

Out of the mainstream tours in Brasilia, there´s this incredible many shades of blue-windowed church at W3 south street, just in the begining of Asa Sul neighbourhood. 

The Dom Bosco Sanctuary at Brasilia - http://brazilguide.blogspot.com.br

Far less known than Brasília´s Cathedral, there´s not a single person who doesn´t express a wow! once entering this astonishing place. 

It is realy worth visiting. According to sunlight, the colours inside may vary, and even by night the place is gorgeous, with its huge chandelier almost flying over the audience. 

Dom Bosco was an italian priest, who lived in the XIXth century, and he had a dream of a prosperous place, close to a lake, from where land would provide milk and honney, in between the paralels 15 and 20. In italian (text taken from wikipedia):

Tra il grado 15 e il 20 grado vi era un seno assai lungo e assai largo que partiva di un punto che formava un lago. Allora una voce disse ripetutamente, quando si verrano a scavare le miniere nascoste in mezzo a questi monti di quel seno apparirà qui la terra promessa fluente latte e miele, sarà una ricchezza inconcepibilie. (Memorie Biografiche, XVI, 385-394)

Many people claim he foresaw the building of Brasilia, so he was chosen as the city´s patron saint. 

Crossing the lake, in the outskirts of the city, there´s also the Dom Bosco shrine (Ermida Dom Bosco), from where the city can be seen. See previous post about it, but don´t mistake the two places: they´re quite far away. 

Floripa (6) - Ribeirão da Ilha

Floripa (6) - Ribeirão da Ilha

The church at Ribeirão da Ilha village, in the southwest side of Santa Catarina Island

One of the colored old homes, at Ribeirão da Ilha village, in the southwest side of Santa Catarina Island

 In the southwest of Santa Catarina Island, there´s this small fishermen´s village, called Ribeirão da Ilha. The most famous and maybe traditional oister restaurant is located there, and it is called Ostradamus, among many others in the same region. 

The beach at Ribeirão da Ilha village, in the southwest side of Santa Catarina Island

The restaurant has a pier over the beach, where you can eat all their seafood plates, from many kinds of fish and shrimps to lots of oister, made in various ways. 

The Ostradamus Pier at Ribeirão da Ilha village, in the southwest side of Santa Catarina Island

The beautiful blue tiles, remembering the portughese colonization, adorn the walls outside the restaurant. Inside, just behind the bar, you can see the oister treatment system, after they´re taken from the sea. 

The Ostradamus wall, full of blue tiles, at Ribeirão da Ilha village, in the southwest side of Santa Catarina Island

Besides, Ribeirão da Ilha has old and colorful houses, built years ago, giving a nostalgic atmosphere to the place.

The oisters are grown on calm seawater farms facing the mountains of Serra do Mar, the mountain chain which separate the coast of the Brazillian highlands, from Santa Catarina up north to Espírito Santo states.   

One of the colored old homes, at Ribeirão da Ilha village, in the southwest side of Santa Catarina Island

One of the colored old homes, at Ribeirão da Ilha village, in the southwest side of Santa Catarina Island

After eating, you can go to some coffee place or buy some souvenir at a local craftsman shop. 

One of the colored old homes, at Ribeirão da Ilha village, in the southwest side of Santa Catarina Island

I really recommend to take the sunset at this place and having dinner there, speacially for couples and groups of friends. Also, if you want to escape from the parties up in the north side of the island, it is a very nice place to chill out. 

To get there, the best option is to rent a car, or take a cab. There are city buses too, but it can take a long time to arrive there, in spite of being the less expensive option. 

A walktour through São Paulo´s graffiti

Walktours through São Paulo´s graffiti

Urbanoids and lovers of urban art can be amazed by the graffiti in São Paulo. Now there are two walktours offered by this site, acoording to a news published today at the Folha de São Paulo, the cities´most read newspaper. 

http://www.streetsofsaopaulo.com/

They basically offer two tours, one in the north zone and another one in the central/west zone.

Graffiti is controversial in São Paulo, though the city, known nationally as the stone-jungle, is in fact the perfect environment for pixações: the spray-made drawings, phrases and codes, sometimes impossible to be understood by people outside the scene. 

The drawers (known as pixadores) were since the 70s always trying to escape from the police and private guards. It seemend they wanted to put their sprays at the higher or most-difficult-to-get place, as an untold competition between themselves. High-rises with white walls and highways were always their main target. 

However, it is clear this kind of manifestation evolved, and graffiti nowadays is manytimes colourful and inspired, and it is becoming to be recognized as an art - not as a common opinion, let´s say. 

But some artistis like Osgêmeos ("The twins") and Kobra have some pieces exposed or even made abroad.

It is for sure an authentic popular and street art that is now getting international museums and the consent of many condos in São Paulo, which are accepting the panels made of graffiti. 

The Kobra´s panel in fronto of Shopping Paulista, at the beggining of Paulista Avenue, is one of the most famous graffitis in the city. It was a tribute to Oscar Niemayer, Brazil´s most famous architect, who died in recent years.

A peculiar restaurant in Boipeba

A peculiar restaurant in Boipeba

Guido´s Restaurant at Boipeba island: shrimp and farofa, a mix made of manioc flour and other ingredients.

A very famous restaurant amongst brazillian tourists is Guido´s restaurant or kiosk, at one of the beaches at Boipeba Island. 

Lobster, fish and shrimp, done in the bahianian way, are very good. The farofa, a mix of manioc flour (or wheat or rice flour), combined with bacon or sausage, is almost always present at the northeastern dishes in Brazil. 

Palmtrees at Boipeba Island, close to Guido´s restaurant

The simplicity of the place, surrounded by gorgeous palmtrees at one side, and by the sea, at the other, makes the shack where Guido makes his cousine a very pleasant place. 

Palmtrees at Boipeba Island, close to Guido´s restaurant

Just the peace of this magic place makes company to food lovers, who flock after a morning bath or ride to Guido´s restaurant looking for a good food. 

Palmtrees at Boipeba Island, close to Guido´s restaurant

Palmtrees at Boipeba Island, close to Guido´s restaurant

Guido´s Restaurant at Boipeba island

Guido´s Restaurant at Boipeba island, is recognized by the 4 roads magazine

Boipeba

Boipeba

Boipeba beaches and island, at Bahia, Brazil

Boipeba beaches and island, at Bahia, Brazil

The Boipeba island is located between Morro de São Paulo and the Maraú Peninsula, however closer to Morro de São Paulo. In fact, a river separates both islands. 

Boipeba beaches and island, at Bahia, Brazil

Boipeba is harder to get than Morro, as it is further south; from Maraú, it is possible to get there by the speedboat, but it is not a quick, neither cheap trip. 

Boipeba beaches and island, at Bahia, Brazil

The community has a web site, not only in portuguese but also in some other languages. Here is the link for the english version: 

http://www.ilhaboipeba.org.br/en/boipeba.html

Boipeba beaches and island, at Bahia, Brazil

They even explain all the options on how to arrive there:

http://www.ilhaboipeba.org.br/en/comochegar.html

Boipeba is a very beautiful spot where humpback whales come in the search for warmer waters during the months of july to november. Some tour operators offer the ride to viewing the whales. 

Boipeba beaches and island, at Bahia, Brazil

Natural swimming pools are also available in the middle of the ocean, formed by the coral reefs, common in the area. The watercolours is also amazing and rare in Brazil, as it is more similar to the caribbean sea. 

Boipeba beaches and island, at Bahia, Brazil

Boipeba beaches and island, at Bahia, Brazil

Boipeba beaches and island, at Bahia, Brazil