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).

After surviving our adventurous arrival on the coast, we were anxious to enjoy the beach in Barra de Santo Antônio. Unfortunately our bad luck (remember the black cats?) continued: It rained a lot on our first day on the beach! Luckily, there were 3 nice Germans in our pousada (a few times I felt that knowing German is more useful to make friends in the Northeast than Portuguese!) and so we got through the rainy day together. We exchanged travel stories, and in one of them they told us that the previous day men with machetes had robbed a woman as she was walking along the beach where we stayed.

Aiaiai… the black cats, the rain and now this story made us want to leave for our next destination as fast as possible. We did not want to leave, however, without knowing the famous Carro Quebrado (broken car) beach. The following day the sun was back and we went. It is really beautiful, uninhabited and framed by cliffs colored in various shades of red. Yet, despite its beauty, we felt that it was not well looked after and that also here security was lacking. Our guide told us to walk only where there were other people and to not even take our camera with us.

Once the goal was reached, it was time to leave. We left Barra de Santo Antônio for Porto de Pedras, also in Alagoas. We wanted to get to know the beaches Patacho and Lage that were highly rated in our guide books.

On the way (what takes about 1 hour by car, took us about 3 by bus) I realized that I knew very little about Alagoas. The only thing I remembered was that it was the home state of Fernando Collor de Mello, the only Brazilian president who had been removed from office because of corruption.

This is why we decided to find out more about the history of this piece of land, whose waters are so beautiful you don’t want to look away. We found out that the state was called Alagoas because the Portuguese had really liked its lakes (lagoa is lake in Portuguese); that it used to belong to the Captaincy of Pernambuco and that is was also occupied by the French and the Dutch, not just by the Portuguese; that in one of its mountains ridges, the Serra da Barriga, run-away slaves had established the Quilombo dos Palmares, a centennial movement of black resistance against slavery led by the legendary Zumbi.

We also found out that in economic terms little had changed since the times of the sugar mills (engenhos) and slavery. The main economic activities of the state today are the same as during those times: sugar and cattle. What we saw along the roads confirmed this. Starting in Penedo in the extreme South of the state until the Northern Coast the landscape is almost always the same: sugar cane plantations and cattle farms as far as the eye can see!

Crossing the state by bus we saw another similarity with former times: Power and wealth continue to be concentrated in the hands of a few. The villages along the roads and next to the sugar refineries are almost always a mix of small poor houses, half naked children, people without teeth and very little infrastructure. The disparity between rich and poor in Alagoas somewhat explains a very obvious problem: trash.

We were troubled by the amount of trash ever since Maceió. There, we spent one morning riding rental bikes along the city beaches. While the sea presented itself in an almost Caribbean green, the sand beaches were littered with pieces of plastic, PET bottles and many other objects.

Our trip until the Northern shore of Alagoas did not revert our first impression. In the bus between Barra de Santo Antônio and Porto de Pedras a lady passed – without the slightest bit of embarrassment – 2 empty coke cans to her daughter to throw out of the window. Also the streets of the villages were littered with trash.

The scene reminded us of the lesson we had learned talking to Roy: poverty is one of the worst enemies of nature. After traveling through the interior of Alagoas and seeing the trash associated with poverty, we understood that it is not possible to establish a more harmonious relationship between humans and nature without at the same time re-evaluating the relationship humans have with other humans.

When we asked about activities fighting local poverty, we heard lots of stories about corruption, exemplifying that a majority of the upper and political class does not care about the poverty surrounding them. According to locals, a bridge that would link the two parts of Barra de Santo Antônio is under construction for over 10 years and probably cost 5 times more than necessary. In Porto de Pedras the local elections for mayor were nullified because of irregularities… and so forth.

This reality also directly affected our trip through Alagoas. The touristic infrastructure leaves much to be desired and many times there are very few mid-range accommodation options. When we arrived in Porto de Pedras we had to walk about 2 hours with our backpacks to find a place to stay. The town had few options that were cheap and clean and to get to the better pousadas, we would have needed a car.

To not leave Alagoas without getting to know the side that makes thousands of tourists go there every year, however, we decided to spend more money than planned. We ended up spending a weekend in one of the pousadas de charme of the region, the Pousada Patacho. When we arrived (the owner Christian had picked us up in Porto de Pedras), there was no doubt that we had arrived in paradise. Paradise had been very close all this time. We just had to spend more and join the elites of Alagoas and the rest of the country. As if that was not enough and to confirm our feeling, a white cat called Margot welcomed us!

The Pousada Patacho is situated directly on the Patacho beach. This beach and the one called Lage are among the last uninhabited beaches of Brazil and are surrounded by coral reefs and natural pools that form in the reefs. The color of the sea is of a very light green that fills the heart with peace.

On top of its location, the pousada is a show in itself. We enjoyed it for its good taste, great service, the food of its Chef Dudu, its philosophy and the friendliness of its owner Christian. It was worth every penny: if you are ready to spend money, Alagoas is a piece of paradise!

Our arrival on the coast was much less glamorous than we had expected. After Penedo we took a bus to Maceió to digest, write and publish our incredible experience in the Chapada Diamantina. Besides the beautiful color of the Sea nothing special happened. We dove back into urban life and lived three “normal” days: working on the computer from morning to evening, cars, shopping center and pollution.

Once the work was done, it was time to leave. First destination: Barra de Santo Antônio. A small village near the Praia do Carro Quebrado (broken car beach), voted one of the 10 best beaches of Brazil.

Before catching the bus in Maceió, we had a quick snack. Returning to the hotel we encountered the first omen of what was to come: we saw a black cat walking on top of a wall to our right. It looked… waited… and a little bit before we would pass it… HA! It jumped exactly in front of us and ran away.

I have to confess that I am a bit superstitious and so got worried. Hoping to be comforted, I asked Stephan:

“Amor, any black cat brings bad luck or does it depend on the side from which it came?”

“Uai (expression from Minas… Stephan is already Mineiro!), I am not sure, but I think it has to come from the left because in German the expression is ‘Schwarze Katze von links…’ (black cat from the left).

“Great, I always thought this saying was racist anyway. Just because it’s black, it has to bring bad luck?”

We continued to our hotel, and already on our way out of Maceió things started to not go as planned. We had planned to take a bus from the bus station, since it would have been more secure and more comfortable. Yet, as the Brazilian was responsible for the time, we missed that bus and had to take a normal city bus at night. It was a bus that serves the commuters who work in Maceió but live in Barra de Santo Antônio, about 40 minutes away.

We left Maceió with little information about where we would go. Our tourist guides gave a few suggestions for pousadas (guest houses) and we thought that that would be sufficient. We had called the one we had thought the best, but it was closed for renovation. As for the other numbers in our guides, nobody picked up.

Since I am happy, I am in the mood to make new friends, especially, when they can tell us more about the place we are headed towards. So, after a short while, the whole bus was debating our final destination and where to stay for the night.

Barra de Santo Antônio is divided in two villages, one before the river called Barra I and one on the other side known as Barra II. The Carro Quebrado beach is on the other side of the river and to visit it we had to cross over either by ferry or canoe. Since Barra de Santo Antônio is small, many people in the bus believed that we should stay overnight in the previous relatively bigger town called Paripueira, about 6km to the South.

The conclusion we arrived at in the bus, not without dissent (one lady insisted that we get off in Paripueira, and part of me wanted to do the same), was that to cross the river at night was too risky and that even though there are only few pousadas in Barra I, the Pousada of Dona Maria in the Conchas Street*, should do for one night.

To put this discussion into context: Stephan and I, both with two backpacks, are clearly sticking out from the crowd. In addition, our buying power was visibly higher than the average person on the bus, but trying to hide this fact, we said that we were traveling with a small budget and that we were looking for cheap options to sleep.

During this short trip of 40 minutes and also after reaching Barra de Santo Antônio, I could clearly sense the fine line between rich and poor in Brazil. I felt the tension of having a lot in the middle of those who have little, and the fear that some of them, it’d just take one, might be violent and would try to rob us.

Arriving in Barra de Santo Antônio was not very reassuring. The town is poor and small and in a matter of minutes everyone must have known that we had arrived. A guide with strange and not very trustworthy eyes welcomed us. And, to not leave any doubt that things were not going well (believe it or not) another black cat crossed our path. This time, so we would really understand, the cat followed German customs: is crossed our path from left to right.

Despite the tension, we were still full of hope. We knew exactly where we had to go: the pousada of Dona Maria in the Conchas Street. My god! The Conchas Street was a small favela street. The pousada did not have a sign; children played with sewage; and 4 half-drunk men with tattoos closely watched every one of our movements.

Dona Maria was in Church. Her grandson of ca. 9 years received us and showed us the pousada and the room. The roof was missing in parts of the house, the bed was a mixture of space ship and the bed of a cheap motel, and the bathroom had a strong smell of mold.

A mix of everything, the immediate environment, the black cats, the men on the street, our vulnerability, shouted for us to leave running! But that did not appear to be easy. There were no taxis and we were by foot carrying all our belongings.

Lucky us, on the way to the pousada, we had seen a woman with good eyes. We went back to her and she took us to her brother, who took us to a close village with more accommodation options. We arrived at the Tabuba beach in the Pousada Tabuba, and finally felt certain that we were well and secure.

Finalmente na praia do Carro Quebrado - Finally on the Carro Quebrado beach

Part of me felt guilt for my discomfort. I would have liked to have had more tolerance towards the poverty surrounding us and to move with more ease between the two sides of the fine line. But I clearly sensed that we were not welcome.

To get to the other pousada was a relief. We had a beer to celebrate and relax and decided that from then on we would only travel in the morning, with a reservation for a pousada at the next stop. If it were not possible to uphold these rules, we would stay where we were.

Relieved and covered with sweat (it had been very hot), we just wanted to take a shower and sleep. Just, when everything seemed to be almost perfect: no water in the room! We did not worry. If the bad luck brought by the black cats was just lack of water to take a shower, we did have a lot of luck! We found a sink outside with running water and washed ourselves there, happy as we could be!

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* We changed the address of the pousada and the name of its owner.

After a long stay in the Chapada Diamantina it was time to move on. After all, we still have the whole coast of the Brazilian Northeast ahead of us. Our first stop was Penedo in Alagoas. Penedo is a colonial town founded in the beginning of the 16th century. Its streets present a mixture of colonial buildings, some preserved, others not, and a mishmash of small stands selling a little of everything. What makes Penedo special is that, on almost every corner, the city is surrounded by the Velho Chico (an endearing name Brazilians use when they talk about the São Francisco river).

For us Penedo was a transition point from the interior to the coast and the city’s geography helped. Not very far from there, in Piaçabuçu, is the mouth of the São Francisco river – the main reason for our visit.

The river if also known as the “river of national unity” because it allowed the first settlers, who had arrived in Brazil on the Northeast coast, to send supplies to the Southeast where precious stones and minerals had been discovered. In the Sertão, a semiarid and very poor region, the river is considered a gift from God to compensate for the suffering caused by the dry climate. In short, the Rio São Francisco is strongly present in the imaginary of most Brazilians, and I am no exception.

It was not the first time we visited the Velho Chico. About a year ago we got to know its spring in the Canastra ridge in Minas Gerais (this is where we took the photo you can see in the header of this blog).  Getting to know the river mouth was a similarly special experience. The landscape is beautiful and the riparian vegetation is habitat to various animals that can easily be seen during a trip on the river to the mouth. We were lucky to share all this with two dear friends, Renata (or Rê), and Ana Paula. Rê, partner in many dreams, revolutions and discussions, was also with us in the Canastra ridge.

Two other things marked our stay: we ate Jacaré (alligator) and visited the remote village of Marituba do Peixe. Yes, right, alligator! In this region, people eat Jacaré like they eat fish, chicken or meat. It was not the most outstanding taste ever, it was something between chicken and fish. Marituba do Peixe was a nice surprise, a hidden flooded area blessed with a large diversity of fauna and a cinematographic sunset.

From here we had initially planned to follow the river to get to know Piranhas and Xingó, where Lampião (a revolutionary of the region) died and where the river passes through a famous canyon but after almost 3 weeks in the interior we felt it was now time to get to the beach.