Cachoeria

Last night we sailed away from Brazil. On ship time was 2100 and departure time was 2300 but we actually left and hour and a half early- I hope everyone was on the ship! I spent my last day in Brazil on an SAS trip to Cachoeira- a small town about 2 hours outside of Salvador that has strongly retained the Afro-Brazilian culture. On our way we stopped in Sao Tomato at an outdoor market. There were tons and tons of fruits and vegetables and meat and fish for sale. It was a great opportunity for taking pictures too. There is a crazy looking fruit in Brazil called the jackfruit- it is very large (size of a watermelon) and is green and spiky. The fruit inside is yellow and has nuts- and doesn’t taste very good. There was a little boy sitting in his doorstep holding his new puppy and it was the cutest thing ever! When he looked up at us we could see his amazingly blue eyes!
Our next stop was at an MST reservation. MST, the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra, is the biggest social movement in Latin America, known as The Landless Movement. The members of MST are farmers without their own land. Workers against the private owning of property began squatting on non-productive farmland, building houses and allotting each family a plot in their backyard. We visited an old woman’s home on the compound where she has lived there for 11 years. Now she grows cacao trees and makes coco powder, fudge, and candy from the coco nuts to sell to tourists. (We got to taste all of her treats!) The members of the compound have an obligation to work the community plot one day per week. There are schools set up for the children of every compound. On this compound there was even a Capoeira (dance fighting) school. Capoeria is an Afro-Brazilian blend of martial arts and culture created by slaves in Brazil in the 16th C. It is very popular all over the country.
Out tour guide Paula was awesome and brought us to a convent in the town of Cachoeira that has been converted into an inn and restaurant. They served us an abundance of great food- fried bananas and eggplant, rice, beans, chicken, pineapple and watermelon, fried fish balls and mashed potatoes.
Cachoeria means waterfall. While I didn’t see any waterfalls there the town does sit on the banks of the Paraguacu River. The town used to be a port for cruise ships but ever since the river was dammed the water level is not high enough for big ships to enter.
After lunch we visited the Dannemann cigar factory in the neighboring town of Sao Felix. About a dozen women in uniform hand roll cigars in the breezy building from morning till night. They have three breaks to relieve them of the repetitive work. Some women choose to smoke while they work. The smell of tobacco is overwhelming and I wonder if they women suffer any effects from handling and inhaling tobacco constantly.
Last night SAS hosted a Bye, Bye, Brazil BBQ for us on the top deck. Complete with a festive Brazilian band. My friend Mason returned from her week trip to Lencois and she says it is the most beautiful place she’s ever been. They hiked and swam in the waterfalls and had amazing food. She took a picture of the quaint hostel that she plans to return to and I will have to join her.
We are on our way to Cape Town today and I have lots of work to do before we get there!