Rota Ecológica: A different kind of tourism

From the moment we arrived at the Pousada Patacho, we realized that – besides being an excellent accommodation option – it is very similar to what we imagine, when we think about building a pousada – a place to celebrate the good things of life: to eat and drink well, to love and to admire the world’s beauty.

The Pousada Patacho is the dream-come-true of Christian, a really nice French guy with great taste. He worked for a long time as design director until he got tired of the many meetings and the lack of creativeness and decided it was time to lead a more quiet life. He built his pousada and now takes care of it, and, in addition, continues to work as a designer in an environment that is much more favorable to creativity.

In the pousada several things called our attention: It is small – 5 rooms that are hidden between the coconut palms; all the employees are from Porto de Pedras, the town the pousada is located; and it follows a model of sustainability – the pousada uses solar energy for much of its energy needs, trash is recycled, etc..

The Patacho beach is one of the beaches of the region known to some as the Rota Ecológica (the ecological route). This route encompasses the part of the Alagoan coast between Barra de Santo Antônio and Japaratinga where the main road (AL101) goes inland. Being far off this main road, the region was saved from the predatory mass tourism that can be witnessed in Maragogi, for example, where 100 tourists share a small natural pool on the coral reefs.

Talking to Christian we found out that in this region a new initiative is forming. The owners of 9 pousadas started an association aiming to defend the tourism “de charme” that exists today in this region: the Association of Pousadas along the Rota Ecológica. The association tries to avoid an uncontrolled growth of the real estate sector and the destruction of the current landscape: almost uninhabited beaches and coconut forests until the eye can see.

We got curious and Christian told us to talk to Corinne, the current president of the association. Corinne is also from France, also very nice and quite a character. Our conversation with her was great. We learned a lot listening to her adventures and her immense capacity to realize dreams and break barriers. Corinne and her husband Roger arrived in Porto da Rua (another town of the Rota Ecológica) about 11 years ago and were the first to build a pousada in the region, the beautiful Pousada Coté Sud.

During the construction of the pousada for about 1 year they lived in a fisherman’s house and inserted themselves into the life of Porto da Rua. Since their arrival, they have been active in local politics and in defending the interests of the local population. Corinne became a member of the local development council and together with the population managed to get resources to renovate the cemetery, improve the town’s squares, and buy new ambulances among other projects. Currently, as coordinator of the council she is helping to finalize a land use plan for the town.

As the current president of the pousada association and one of the main promoters of its creation, she told us that the association is a recent initiative that aims to defend some principles that the owners of the 9 member pousadas believe should orient the development of tourism in the region.

These principles are: to offer services of the highest quality (and to charge for them, the daily rates vary between R$300 and R$1000); to respect the environment; and to employ only locals.

Their respect for the environment can be seen in the day-to-day activities: recycling and treatment of trash, water treatment, use of alternative energy, use of organic products, etc.. On top of this, the buildings try to affect the landscape and the ecosystems as little as possible. Contrary to resorts with their imposing buildings that can be seen from afar, the pousadas of this region fit in with the coconut palms, the sea and the houses of the local population.

The association also defends the idea to exclusively hire locals. This means that to maintain service of the highest quality, the pousadas are ready to help with capacity building of their staff. Corinne made the point that nobody will want to spend their holidays in a paradise surrounded by favelas (shanty towns). Instead, everybody wins as the towns near the pousadas become richer and more developed.

A great example for the opportunities the pousadas represent is Dudu, the chef of Pousada Patacho’s restaurant. He started as a mason in another nearby pousada, became waiter, took some classes of the SENAI (public institute that offers professional courses) and today is a grand chef. One of the dishes he prepares is among the best we had eaten in our lives: Lagostim (reef lobster) on passion fruit sauce, accompanied by rice with mango and a salad of eggplant, squash and pineapple.

Another example that called our attention was the fisher Tino, who is still learning how to best benefit from local tourism. Tino offers sailing trips with his Jangada (traditional fisherboat) to the natural pools that form in the reefs near Patacho. He is not the only one offering Jangada trips, but recognizes that a fair share of tourists that come to the Rota Ecológica prefer to go to the reef pools in a boat without motor as it is less damaging to the coral reefs and comes without the smell of gasoline. He is learning that even though the motor is a status symbol among local fishermen, not owning one can be a comparative advantage.

For us, the style of tourism described by Corinne and lived by us in Christian’s pousada seems an excellent business model that we would like to replicate if we ever open a pousada. From the pousadas of the Rota Ecológica we only had the opportunity to know two live and in color: Pousada Coté Sud and Pousada Patacho. In both we could see, however, that the model does work, not only for their owners, but also for their employees and their families.
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Also check out Ricardo Freire’s account of the Rota Ecologica (in Portuguese).

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Desde o momento que chegamos a Pousada Patacho percebemos que ela era, além de uma excelente opção de estadia, algo parecido com o que gostaríamos de construir caso tivéssemos uma pousada – um lugar para se celebrar as coisas boas da vida: comer e beber bem, amar e contemplar as belezas do mundo. From ...