Mangroves- Saquaira

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Mangroves

I am Doing Wonderfully here!! Today Rafael and I went with our friend Cabo and his wife in his river canoe through the Mangroves. Cabo is an old man somewhere in his 70’s (so they say…) he acts like he is forty. Cabo doesn’t stop. He is the one that built our house, he fishes, canoes, he takes care of god knows how many acres of land. And he climbs 100ft trees and gives Raf (my monkey boy) a race to the top. He has had an amazing life, Cabo and his wife are incredible kind, gentle people and have a happiness that is humble but shines through their very being.
Cabo his wife, their grand son, Raf and I, walked through the village (which I have not actually seen until today!!) and fields ( every where I have been in Brazil has some sort of soccer field I have seen them in what seems to be the middle of nowhere. I was wondering why Saquaira is different. Well on my walk I found out its not… it doesn’t have 1 soccer field it has 3!!)…. and jungle, to the other side of the peninsula, (a shorter walk then I thought It would be) and we came to a river opening. For those who don’t know mangroves are both fresh and salt water. these are actually ocean water, the trees have found their way into the sea and made a maze of water ways.
Rafi and Cabo walked into river and disappeared, about 2 minutes later they came around the river bend with a canoe. We all jumped in and started our adventure… Honestly it was amazing.. I felt like I should have been shooting a documentary! There where hundreds of river canals, I was lost in amazement, but Cabo knows this place like the back of his hand. Its neat watching the crabs climb the trees and either scurrying higher or plunging into the water as you cruise by. After paddling through smaller water ways we came to a wide main water way, about 15mins of paddling later we came to an island Cabo takes care of, we all got out We had a 5 gal paint bucket and Cabo had a machete, we wandered over the land cutting our way through the thicker parts. I learned how to collect exotic fruits and veggies and Cabo showed us what we have to do to keep the vegetation producing. “did you know that a banana tree only produces 1 or 2 big bunches then it has to be cut down for it to produce again!” I learned how to find jungle sweet potato, a fruit called genipapo and we filled our faces with a fruit called Jack fruit, nothing short of amazing!!! With a full 5gal pail and 10 full hands and the talented Mrs. Cabo with A Bunch of bananas balanced carelessly on her head, we made two trips to the canoe. We paddled our bounty down the river, me with my new found inner “Jungle Jane” and our weighed down canoe, made our way to another island where we drank from an old artisan well and watched the monkeys play in the palms above. We started our journey at about 7am and ended around 6pm. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have had. Words can’t describe it. We stopped at Cabo1s house on the way home, and he gave us a home made bottle of genipapo fruit liquor. Sure smells good… and strong!! We plan on having those of you who will join us at some point here to share this amazing experience with you!!

All Our Love,
Larissa & Rafael

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