MARANHAO IN BLACK AND WHITE - RAFA'S PHOTOGRAPHY

A tour guide, I mean, a good one, is also a traveller...And you need an eye of a traveller when you really love photography just like I do. Today I woke up with Maranhão in my mind which is for sure a very unknown State of Brazil and my work is travelling around Brazil and tell to my guests about very special places that I can take them!!!

And Maranhão is an endless source of inspiration for my photography work!!!

I am not a professional so what I do is registering what I see, translating my travel curiosity into images...

This glorious morning....it was exactly 5:57 am I was walking in Tutóia (thanks to my crazy routine doing those walks in crazy time is absolutely normal). We have a big Delta there, the largest delta in the 3 Americas, and Tutóia stands in the right edge, the left side belongs to a State called Piauí.

I would say that our Amazon Trip starts there! Maranhão among many other meanings also means "entrances"...and if you follow the coast of this magic State you will see a lot of the amazon vegetation where the Ocean meets the rivers!

People has a natural happiness, the native of Maranhão are called here as MARANHENSE, and the natives of São Luis are called "ludovicenses"...difficult to pronounce I know...but they have something very unique...their smile...they welcome you with a big smile in the face...well the most famous MARANHENSE in my blog is my great friend Marcone and his smile is famous among every single person I know in this World. But when you stroll around the historical center of São Luis (fascinating thing to do) you will find a lot of parties in the street with lots of music...the drums will make you crazy and you will never be willing to leave this place!

São Luis has a huge bay called São Marcos....the sea is absolutely rough and you will need to discover your adventurous spirit when you decide to explore the area, and in the other side of the Bay there is a very wild place called Alcantara...many french and portuguese explorers met the paradise and the hell at the same time, the wilderness is still there and in the middle of the forest you come across with mystic ruins left there by so many european dreamers...And the dreams continues in the beauties of Maranhão!!!

Alcantara was a very important portuguese settlement, and I am talking about 500 years ago, and it was the starting point where they planned all the strategy to defeat the french and take São Luis back to their control...the whole village is full of story and it feed our mind with a lot of inspiration for very nice shots!

Really, to cross the Bay you feel all the thrilling this navegators felt...you have to be brave to face the enormous waves before reaching the shore.

Get your spirit prepared and have a nice and frank conversation with your stomach...

Maranhão was very generous to me, the State gave me wonderful friends and Carla is one of my best friends there. She has the charming beauty of such an exotic place. She is a History Teacher and talking with her is a lesson of life and a real trip to Maranhao. Just like São Luis, Carla is also a big reason that I have to be in Maranhão over and over again.

This photo I made was in a long beach called Calhau, it is actually a wonderful spot for sunset in the city!

Here is Carla again showing that Maranhão is total happiness. The land is happy, the people are happy, the music is happy...visiting the State is a close meeting to your happiness.

In my photography I try to catch images with feelings!!!

Another photo taken in Calhau beach...

This weird figure is not the Monster of Neptuno...no...it is me playing in the waters of São Luis...this picture was taken by a very dear paparazzi called Marcone Lima, one of your tour guides in Brazil.

This is one of my first photos when I first went to a fantastic desert filled with blue lagoons called LENÇOIS MARANHENSES....Every time I visit Maranhão I have to visit one of the several villages in these paradise... So many images that shows you that life is resistant just like you should be. This photo is hanging in the home of very dear people in Malta.

BIG KISSES TO JOHN PAUL, MARIE AND ELAINE...my wonderful maltese family.

Well, I am doing my best to translate Maranhão in images and make Brazil so close to your hearts!

There will be more very soon!!!

LOTS OF LOVE,

Rafa