Brasil 2

Whales on the way to Morro Sao Paulo & Cairu

Morro Sao Paulo & Cairu

Despite its reputation Morro Sao Pualo would not be a place to visit again for us. A nice quiet river with considerable current, absolutely unspectacular. Cairu is a run down village which claims to have a history of higher importance than Salvador. It is hard to find any traces of it. Its publicity results only from its easy accessibility by ferry from Salvador for weekend tourists who don’t care for culture and history but for the beaches which are just at the mouth of the river. We had a nice invitation to talk to the head of the local monastry where also a german monk explained some local issues, but very discouraging and complaining about the locals. We met Rowland and Miki in the monastry, who we had met in Salvador, south african sailors with their wonderful catamaran, which caught some damage from an outrigger of a dragging local fisher boat while they where at anchor here. Going along the coast together heading south we will see them at several places in the future and become friends. The most unexpected experience have been the first local whales, mostly males tail-clashing on the surface to attract females. Click on the image to start the slideshow.

Peace, views and nature in Rio Camamu: Click to start slideshow

Rio Camamu - peace & nature: Click for slideshow

Baía de Camamu & Rio Marau Atmospheric Impressions

A quiet river absolutely without any tourist impact when visited out of season. We were the only ones for many days and were enchanted by its peace. Just anchoring there and watching the day go by fills up batteries. New views every hour, local dugout canoes. Small islands waiting to be discoverd. Another world so close to Salvador. Here just some atmospheric impressions. Not too easy for anchoring in tidal and river currents, partially uncharted and moving sandbanks, but we would go there again if we came along. Recommendations in widely used cruising books proved to be very wrong redarding depths. Click on the image to start the slideshow.

Rio Camamu Coastline: Click for slideshow

Baía de Camamu & Rio Marau Coastline

We were lucky and had perfect weather. But anyway, Brasil is blessed with great weather. And those places are the best to enjoy it. We hate motoring, but in river currents there are not often chances to sail. Here we slowed down just being amazed from a marvelous scenery with only few signs of civilisation. No traffic noise because every street is far away. Click the image to start the slideshow.

Rio Camamu Locations: Click for slideshow

Baía de Camamu & Rio Marau -Locations

Caught by non-sinusoidal tides and exploring uncharted waters anyway, the tidal current pushed us on a muddy sandbank after high water. No problem with our strong boat but we would like not to repeat this exciting experience. We were invited to visit a mule driven olive oil mill and ecofarming on a small island and got coconuts brought by local canoe fisher men. We spent a week at the most islolated place behind a shallow barrier far behind Marau where several rivers merged in deep enough waters. Click the image to start the slideshow.

Rio Marau - Tremembe: Click for slideshow

Baía de Camamu & Rio Marau -Tremembe

Muddy mangrove rivers, local fisher boats, birds and monkeys, sweetwater shrimps at the Tremembe waterfall and the conscience of being far away from civilisation. Sooner or later we wanted to continue our voyage because the brasilean coast is so huge and the 6 months visa was not waiting to expire. We will come back some time. Click the image to start the slideshow.

A short time in Ilheus: Click for slide show

Ilheus

First just a stop on the way south. Ilheus is a middle size town quite south in the state of Bahia, not as black as in the north, not as poor as well, and we liked it very much. The whole coast from Ilheus itself and another 80 km south is a huge wonderful beach. The bigship harbour is not protected against northerlies and we were rocking and rolling at the anchorage behind the breakwater. We got a nice invitation from Willie and his family. Our invitation for dinner on the boat had to be discontinued because of the sudden seasickness of our guests (at anchor!). The first time where we asked ourselves wether we could imagine to stay in Brasil. But time flew and we had to continue. Click the image to start the slideshow.

Archipelago dos Abrolhos: Click for slideshow

Archipelago dos Abrolhos

Nature reserve, whale cradle, riff desaster, diving and snorkeling paradise… there are many memories to this wonderful place. It is not recommended in all weather conditions and a bit difficult to approach at midnight as we did. But in this season it was quite calm. Hundreds of whales giving birth to their babies and raising them there for another couple of months before returning to antarctic waters had magnetic attraction to us as well. It was out of season, not crowded and we had Miki and Rowland again anchoring next to us and wandering with us on the only approachable island, all of them being national park and protected by rangers. The Boobies were breeding at the time. While they are walking around quite awkwardly and have babies so ugly that we felt sorry for them standing one giant feet on the other, they are some of the most elegant flying species and fun to watch when sky-diving from 50 m height vertical into the water when fishing. At sea we had whales around every ten minutes, some of them just 10 m away, enjoying us with their fouly breath. Sometimes we even were fearing collisions. The water was the only crystal clear water we had seen so far in Brasil because it is far out in the atlantic 50 km away from the coast. The other places yet were muddy from mangrove rivers. A mystic place hopefully not discovered by mass tourism soon. Click the image to start the slideshow.

Vitória - Approach & City: Click for slideshow

Vitória - Approach & City

Not many sailors go there. Somehow it reminded us of the new and modern Brasil. Divided in a more older part and a modern busy city. Like all over South America, 20 floor apprtment towers are the dream of many people. Different than in Europe where only poor people would live there, they are quite comportable here, with security, underground parking, pool, sauna and fitness. A huge beach and promenade with nice and safe jogging lanes, tennis courts, football fields and many other sport attractions are frequented by many people in the morning and evening. It was difficult to approach because 2 reefs in the middle of the bay leave only narrow entries. The first time we learned that brasilean social live of the more well-off people takes place in clubs, where we could stay for free a couple of says. The paperwork was a desaster and took us 2 complete days because the authorities are spread all over the region and hardly ever see sailors. Click the image to start the slideshow.

Excursion in Espirito Santo: Click for slideshow

Vitória - Excursion Espirito Santo

We crossed the state of Espitrito Santo for 2 days until the border to Minas Gerais and visited one of the biggest nature attractions here, Pedro Azul, and some small villages founded by former german immigrants 150 years ago. In short: We did not like it. Very obviously these people came from Europe and have not made their fortune. Everything but brasilean, we had a very sad feeling there. Square framed architecture was faked with concrete. Click the image to start the slideshow.

Rio de Janeiro - Niteroi: Click for slideshow

Rio de Janeiro - Niteroi

While mooring it is extremely expensive direktly in Rio, many sailors go to Niteroi and enjoy the hospitality of the navy sailing club with semi-olympic pool, sauna and cheap restaurant. Suzy and Renato, a brasilean couple who circumnavigated long ago are happy to support all arriving sailors. As it is at the same bay as Rio but on the opposite side, this place has phantastic views over the bay to the sugar loaf and Rio. BTW Niteroi has 600.000 inhabitants and is not a small village. Unfortunately we could not enjoy Rios nightlife because the last ferry is at 11pm. Click the image to start the slideshow.

Rio d. J. - Approach & Skyline: Click for slideshow

Rio de Janeiro Approach & Skyline

We had slowed down when arriving to avoid an approach at night. In the morning we had to accept that we would pass the sugar loaf without sunshine. It still was impressing. Rio has a lot of green and is quite hilly. Click the image to start the slideshow.