Blogs from Maranhão, Brazil, South America - page 7

Chapter Twenty: São Luís I have been looking forward to São Luís for weeks. Following the coast north of Recife, past colonial Olinda, the situation has shifted from historic to an exclusively tropical beach culture along the coastline. São Luís is the Northeast’s last significant remnant of what the Portuguese left behind when they departed Brazil for good in 1822. Given my appetite for Portuguese colonialism and its urban vestiges, with heightened anticipation and expectations, this is precisely where my time in Brazil should come to a fitting end. Tragically, no city in Brazil boasts of more potential, yet fails to live up to it like São Luís. The “once-upon-a-time” timeless historical center could be Brazil’s greatest colonial treasure, outshining even the great historical towns of Olinda and Paraty. Sadly little of that potential is realized ... read more

"On the road again, goin' places that I've never been, seein' things that I may never see again, and I can't wait to get on the road again..." Fortunately today we are only heading 300km northwest to the town of São Luís. We enjoyed our time in Barreirinhas, but we were glad to be heading to a different location. So without further ado… January 21, 2006 Day 7 - Jesus Juice São Luís is the capital of Maranhão and is located two degrees south of the equator. The city is full of history, it is the Brazilian capital of Reggae and has many old buildings that have been well maintained, so well that São Luís was named a World Heritage Site by Unesco. Our first stop in town was to eat some lunch and Samuel ordered ... read more

Similar, but less intense than my disappointment at finding no small dogs in Chihuahua is the lack of those big nuts in Brasil...tempered by the fact that I like small dogs and those nuts are only fillers in the mixed nut collections!...however, too early to digress! And this is the 2nd attempt as the fcuking computer just bombed and dropped a few pages of gems!...ahh cést la bloody vie! So, reflections of Manaus I´ll publish later, suffice to say a great intro to brasil..so the boat ride..the fabulous Amazon Star...3 levels of fun and excitement...after 12 hours wondering if I´ll survive the endless re-run of re-runs of the jungle banked scenery and apart from getting bogged on a sandbar for most of the first night..not much happening! But then you get into the way of life ... read more

From the tranquility and beauty of the small towns on the coast we made our way 4 hours north to our next stop, São Luis. We were looking forward to the city because of the historic centre where a number of buildings have been restored. Well its true that some have indeed been restored but its also true that most havent. The Lonely Planet describes São Luis as "one of Brazil´s architectural gems" - i have got to be honest - i have seen better architecture elsewhere in Brazil - more colonial and better preserved. I know that this is one of the few places in Brazil where they tile the outside of the buildings but not enough have been done - and some have been restored very poorly. But we made the best of it ... read more

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