OOOOPS - LEFT OUTSIDE IN SÃO LUIS!

São Luis is a wonderful place to have fun. Well, I came here to continue my reseach about so many different locations that I will take my guests, but I also came here to see friends and relatives and to rest...

Everyday was a different marathon...during the day going to beautiful places in the surroundings of São Luis like Araçagi and Juçatuba, or simply going out with my best friends, this people that I deeply love!!!

I always stay at Corina's house, Marcone's mother; sitting in a banch in the gardens of the building is really a pleasure, it is so pleasantly cool outside with the breeze, and I did more than sitting down...I took a little nap...

Marcone was the photographer to show the World my Human Side :))))))

Two weeks in Maranhão again, and I will always come!!!

It was a time to rest as well, and also a time I took for me to have fun and see many friends that I love!!!

I am very grateful to this land! :)

Rafa

MY VERY TINY LITTLE OASIS IN THE SAND

Juçatuba is not THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PLACE IN MARANHAO. I know this State quite alot to tell you with not even a fear to be mistaken, but at least Juçatuba is interesting and really beautiful spot, but it has something that I have never seen in my life!!!

After walking hours and hours under a fierce sun...in the sand when the sea literally is gone, there are some holes in the sand that pops up mineral water from amazing fresh water springs! We spent hours there!

The person who told me this secret is a little boy from JUÇATUBA, he helps his family with the local fishing activities and he decided to show me and Marcone all around, and he knows everythjing about this part of the island!!!

Juçatuba is part of a city called SÃO JOSE DO RIBAMAR, and this city holds the back side of São Luis' island. Next to Juçatuba we can find the beach PRAIA DA MOÇA where the holes can be found, and GUARAPIRANGA where we can find amazing islands, but it will be for the next trip!

Plan a trip to Maranhão...it is your chance to see a real profile of Brazil that very few travellers could experience.

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

donrafainrio@yahoo.es

JUÇATUBA - UNKNOWN PLACE EVEN FOR PEOPLE IN SÃO LUIS

Well, as you all know I am in the State of Maranhão...For brazilian people, Maranhão is still a very virgin destination when they think about a place to go on holidays. For people overseas, Maranhão sounds to be another country where people do not really know not even where it is...

But I am a sort of a traveller that loves going to places that not even locals know about it...this is what I love doing here...but before I start writing about JUÇATUBA, allow me first to explain you where Maranhao is.

Maranhão is one of the States of our Fascinating North-East Region, but the geigraphy of Maranhão is so diverse and so up north that we can also consider that Maranhão is part of the North Region of Brazil, so it is indeed one of the entrances of my fascinating AMAZON AREA.

São Luis is the capital of the State, this is the city where I am right now. São Luis has an amazing fast growing middle class society, the city still preserves its wilderness but it is quite modern and it has a lot of facilities like fine shopping centers, increedible modern neighborhoods by the beach and amazing Coast Line and Tropical Jungles and Fantastic Mangroves.

São Luis is also very famous for its delicious see food and absolutely fantastic culture!



I have lots of friends in São Luis, this is my 7th visit to Maranhão, so I know lots of people. Marcone and I are real travellers and we research a lot about new places and suddenly talking with a firned of us, Shintia, we found out about a very faraway fishing community in the other side of the island....YES, SÃO LUIS IS AN ISLAND.

In fact...Juçatuba is so unique and so exclusive that not even people from São Luis have heard about it.

The access is quite difficult, and we had to use public transportation in a place that PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION is not that efficient, but that was the reason why the short trip to Juçatuba was sooooo amazing.

We had to take a bus to the outskirts of São Luis in a very poor area called São Cristovão, there we took another bus to Juçatuba crossing a real belt of poverty in the east side of São Luis, the way is a real view of the social situation of Maranhão. A very rich state with an up growing middle class but still with an awful grade of poverty in the outskirts of the city…but after 50 minutes we reach a very simple village with very happy and smiling people in a place with no facilities at all; and no buses to the beach and the only way was taking a dirt road (7 kilometers) to the coast.

We found the only one taxi in the community driven by the lazy Xavier…he is not punctual at all, we asked him to take to the beach and pick us up at 4:00 pm…We got there at 11:30 am and we thought that if Xavier meet us at 4:00 pm we would have enough time to explore the area. But he shown off at almost 6:00 pm.

Meanwhile we walked in the beaches of Juçatuba and Moça…lovely mangroves with a lot of marine life and bird life…very red heruns called Guará, egrets and hawks…the tide is something amazing…suddenly the beach desapppeared, the emptiness was incredible..we walked long distances in the beach with no water at all, and we found spring waters in the sand that really cooled us off, thanks with the help of a little kid who help his family collecting fish from the nets in the place.

I am a big lover of BW photos and just like so many different places in Maranhão..the mangroves of Juçatuba is a wonderful playground for my photography. Despite of the heat i could stroll around and take some images that I am very happy to share with you!!!

The tide is something soooooo interesting there and also all over Maranhão...it reminds me the tide that comes and goes in England or France, or also in New Brunswick in Canada. The sea simply vanishes!

As a result you can take beautiful photos...Juçatuba deserves a tour..one day you spend there you will elarn about the fascinating nature of Maranhão, you will be in touch with a tough reality of some brazilians and you will come across with so many different beauties and also you will learn about the local fauna.

I am glad I could also introduce a new places for the MARANHENSES and I can also provide you an unique experience in your trip to Brazil.

I am from Rio de Janeiro but more than ever I am BRAZILIAN and I am proud to show you my country!!! Maranhão is waiting for you and I will be honored to introduce you this wonderful land!

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

donrafainrio@yahoo.es

NEXT INCREDIBLE DESTINATION ------ RAPOSA!!!! :)

For my conservative friends, do not worry, as a matter of survival this is the code dress in the wilderness of Maranhao: NO DRESS CODE!!!

So I trully apologyze to show you my "innocent stomach"....

The heat can be severe sometimes, the only good thing is that everywhere you go you wiull be always surrounded by water...

Raposa has the profile of the MARANHAO I LIKE and the exclusive way that I do have to show myt country to all of you.


Raposa has everything...desert and real enormous sand dune beaches, a real maze of mangroves and rain forest..it is one of the entrances of the famous gateways to the Amazon Region that head to Pará State, but these ways starts here in São Luis area and it ends way faraway in the heart of the Forest.

This region in my opinion is not only a Brazilian Territory, this region for me is a real planet because the distances are hard to reach...but not impossible!!!

Forget about facilities, here what we can do is visiting the little fishermen village and find a very experience boatman and hire their time and their boat, and believe me, once you made this contact you will have the best guides in the World. And I am happy to say that I learnt alot with this people!!!

I am grateful for two reasons: ONE they show me one side of Brazil that I still don't know and TWO, they play a very important rule in my work to promote a NON TOURISTIC side of such a wonderful country that Brazil is!


So I hired MESTRE RIBAMAR and his son RIBAMAR...Yes, this simple people of Maranhão has something sacred with this name, they are all called RIBAMAR...in honor of Saint Joseph, saint of this Land...Anyway...they were marvelous...we crossed the see to explore the dunes and the beach beyond...nature is sooo wild and we see all kind of ocean birds...the dunes remind us arabian deserts but after crossing the sand...no mirage...you have the whole ocean just for you!!!

I really recommend you to have a huge breakfast before you join me to Raposa...do not expect to find CAIPIRINHAS or to have an ice cream...There you will be blessed by a land still untouchable since way before the french and portuguese navigators. Actually you will feel yourself just like those first explorers!!!

Even when you come across with some locals..they look exactly like indigenous people...so you will have your JAMES COOK moment when you get there!!! hahahahaha : ))))))

Actually walking in the dunes make us realize that comparing to the nature we are just dark spots...and to find the beauty of Maranhao requires well prepared legs and brave spirit to walk...Just think that every sacrifice here is worthy, in the end of every walk, in the end of every challenge you will be blessed by breathtaking spots where god has the best of his Creation!!!

No, my name is not LUKE SKYWALKER and this is not a STAR WARS scenery...this is just the simple and absolutely gorgeous diverse neature of Maranhão, not so far from the city of São Luis; walking in the dunes demands some stops for you to rest and recover your energy to keep walking...

Something for sure, you will have enough places for incredible photos!!!

Back to the boat captained by MESTRE RIBAMAR we entered the amazing World of Manguezais (mangroves) and IGARAPÉ (flooded forests)...or this is the time when you see how incredible men survive...in this large corridors of water the main transportation are only boats...it is a sort of "amazon Venice" but in a veeeeeeeeeeery primitive version.

A little bucket in this situation is a "instrument of life" you cool off our head while you do not get to the virgin beaches of Taputiu.

Taputiu is a hidden village in the mangroves next to Raposa, the distance that we have to win is massive, we spend about more than one hour in the boat...the way is clored by different kind of trees, thick forests and endless quantity of amazing birds of the Amazon Fauna. If you are lucky you can spot some DOLPHINS as well.

MESTRE RIBAMAR never went to the school in his life and his dream is to give chances to his Son (also called RIBAMAR) to attend school. And Ribamar Junior told me in a secret way that he does not want to go to school, he wishes to learn the profession of his father because he is very proud of him...Actually this simple people that we would probably judge them like NON EDUCATED PEOPLE, they have the never ending wisdon of the nature and they know many things that make us "CITY PEOPLE" more ignorants than donkeys....Anyway....

Actually we know that these kids needs a better future...but indeed they love what they are doing and they get some decent money with fishing crab, very abundant in the region, and when the fishing season ends once in a while they rent their boat for very curious people like us to be able to visit and explore these unique and fantastic places that we hardly can find in the maps!!!

Humbly speaking I am one of the guides specialized in unique places...hehehehehe :)

But I would be nothing without the natives and I treat them so well.

I know, it will me more simple for you to remember names like Copacabana or Ipanema, and YOU never heard about TAPUTIU!!!!

Well, when we finally reached our destination, LITTLE RIBAMAR forgot his functions and turned into a normal child crazy to play with the water...indeed this is our only wish after crossing forests and forest under a NO MERCY SUN....

Again, Taputiu...one of the most fascinating beaches I have ever been in the wilderness of the Amazon, the Amazon Region is not only lots of long rivers, it is also the edge of the Atlantic when it bathes the coast of Maranhão, Pará and Amapá State. We can spend some hours having this wonderful wilderness like your own backyard.

When we got there, we found some people bathing their horses in the water just like me begging for some cool water.

Taputiu is for sure one of the most unknown places in my country, but I know how to get there...just one visit to RAPOSA area is a wonderful full day.

Well, it is possible, just write to me and we will discuss all the details and how to get there!

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

donrafainrio@yahoo.es

ARAÇAGI - LONG BEACH IN SÃO LUIS

Well, that is their conception of an "urban beach", Thanks got is not that urban, Araçagi keeps its "wild profile"....It is still very interesting though Maranhão has way better attractions!!!

It is also one weekend destination for the people in São Luis...actually another city claims Araçagi as part of its territory, the pilgrimage town of São José do Ribamar!!!

One day there is quite interesting for you to see how local people have fun!!!

The beach is very long, clean though the water is brown because of so many rivers all around that ends in the Ocean...Maranhão has so many mangrove canals and estuaries, that is what makes the State simply fascinating!


One of my favourire spots in Araçagi is the restaurant MIRANTE DAS DUNES, they have a wooden deck on the top of the dune that provides such a breathtaking view of this corner...Araçagi is the far endings of São Luis, this is also the natural way of the beautiful and very wild RAPOSA.

The greenery is very lush and intense..the weather is hot but when you are close to the beach of if you are lucky just myself to have friends with great swimming pools, you will survive! It is amazing the number of coconut trees all around, for those who love COCONUT MILK (OR WATER), Araçagi is the best place to go.

I would say that Araçagi is one of the most beautiful and best beach in São Luis for you to get the real spirit of the city, but if you like adventures stay tuned until one of my next postings about JUSSATUBA, I promisse great images and information about it.

Just click in the picture above and it will enlarge, then you will see the beauty of this place!

Everything is enormous, everything is giant, everything is endless in Maranhão...countless miles of incredible beaches. Some populated some others with not a single soul.

I am already organizing tours in Maranhão, you can just write to me and plan in advance, we can have a blast here!!!

Araçagi is just one of the endless surprises of Maranhao...I am talking about one of my favourite States in Brazil.

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

THE CRAB GENOCIDE IN ARAÇAGI

Sea Food is a local institution in Maranhão...for the sea food lovers this is the right place to be. We spent one afternoon in a friends' beach house in a beautiful oceanside of São Luis! Our friends Laura and Carol invited us to join their family in a typical SUNDAY LUNCH in the beautiful beach of Araçagi. And in a brazilian home in Maranhao we had the famous CARANGUEIJADA.

Crab in portuguese means CARANGUEIJO....

And the what is popular here is the famous CARANGUEIJO TOK TOK

I am sure that everybody loves crab and here in Maranhao you will find it not only in the local homes, but in every good restaurant in town you can really try these delights.

The coast of Maranhão is full of mangroves region and it is really interesting to see how the locals go fishing.

That deserves another tour....

The torture has to be done with your OWN HANDS!!!! Marcone and Carol spend hours devouring these poor crawling animals....seems to be delicious, that's for sure!!!

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

ANTIGAMENTE - A GASTRONOMY TRIP TO MARANHÃO'S HISTORY

Again, this blog is my space to express my thoughts about Brazil, it is also a way I have to write about me and make you getting to know more about me. Well, I will be your guide when you come to Brazil, no matter where, most of the time I will be your guide in Rio de Janeiro, but I am an expert in so many different destinations in Brazil specially in the State of Maranhão which is the great start of my Amazon Tour.

And I am always in Maranhão to find new places for you to explore in Brazil and the capital of the State, São Luis has amazing restaurant where you can have the best of our RICH brazilian cuisine and São Luis also gives you the chance to eat in places where many generation also had the incredible chance to get crazy with such extremely tasty food....

Maranhao has so many different colors, spices, smells, tastes and varieties of Food, specially sea food. The Coast of Maranhão is enormous and stunning...Their specialty are dishes with schrimps, crabs and so many ocean fish like anchovys, snappers.., and SHARKS!!!

ANTIGAMENTE is the main "pitt stop" for all travellers that stop in São Luis, the starting point to explore our glorious and troublesome portuguese past, and also to find out one french side of our culture. São Luis was invaded by the french navigators for some years and this gave to the city a slightly charming french influence. And Strolling around the historical center of Reviver, narrow streets full of colonial and barroc architecture, a real maze of history, wonderful restaurants and very funny people. .

Right in the front window of Antigamente we can play with the NAMORADEIRAS, lovely piece of our local craft...when you travel the countryside you will find these beautiful MORENAS watching the life goes by...In every brazilian home in this vast Brazil you will see it...Very easy to find in São Luis. People love making fun for some cool photos in every trip to São Luis!!!

Marcone is always comfortable when he comes to São Luis, he was born in this ancient brazilian city!!!

We are two tour guides who focus only the funny and happy side of Life and he was the one who introduced me this fascinating WORLD OF MARANHÃO. We research places here together. He has the local knowledge and I am the curious traveller who goes everywhere looking for strong emotions and exciting adventures for you to visit in Brazil.

And of course we always stop at ANTIGAMENTE for a lovely VATAPÁ,. a yummy cream of schrimp with brazilian spices!

And of course, drinking a fresh and cooling BACURI Juices!!!!

Soon my blog deserves a special posting about the tropical fruit juices of Maranhao

ANTIGAMENTE IS LOCATED AT RUA DA ESTRELA, IN THE HEART OF THE HISTORICAL NEIGHBORHOOD OF REVIVER, that is the main cobbled stone walk in the center of São Luis.

When you walk around the old streets of São Luis you will find lots of surprises, you will find out more about Brazilian History in a very funny way and your stomach will be very grateful if you stop by at Antigamente. The house has about 300 years, very well preserved and the restaurant is there for more than 20 years!!! It is a wonderful eating option that I hardly recommend.

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

donrafainrio@yahoo.es

THE TEMPLE OF CULTURE - BAR DO LEO

From outside in a very local neighborhood of Vinhais, it is just a simply veggie market, but in the evenings it is a famous meeting point among the population of São Luis. Simply very unusual!!! The whole city love to go there, it is a very dmeocratic environment from the poorest to the richest, they all love going there to listen to great music coming from the amazing OWNERS COLLECTION OF RECORD PLAYERS AND CDs. People say he has one of the biggest music collection in Brazil.

Bar do Leo is for sure the most interesting bars that I have ever gone, most of my best friends in São Luis love going there to hang out and we stay there for us! The bar has its name because of the owner, his name is LEO, he is an old am who is an excentric music collections and he loves to be challenged. You have to write a note with the music you like, it has to be brazilian and quite rare and he will be really happy to find it in his collection and play it for you.

He will say not to dance, his music is to be listened...but the ambience is soooo exotic, full of old pieces of locals' art of Maranhão.

In my first night in São Luis in this trip, my good friend Shintia and Marcone's mother which is also a great friend of mine too, invited me for a great time at Bar do Leo. It is really a wonderful place for long conversations.

Going to Maranhão is a great opportunity I have to rest my mind and always experience local stuff which I do appreciate.



Shintia is my adorable friend and a very important reference in Maranhão, she knows places that she knows it will be interestings to my tours and she is the one who keep me updated about new places in the city. São Luis is growing faster than I thought and I strongly recommend all my guests when they come to Brazil not to miss this vibrant city!

As it is a very popular bar, Leo allows street arts to express the rich culture of Maranhão!

I am a great fan of local art and specially to see people's work, these artists who are not famous or recognized by these "arts expercts". I prefer to be an "amateur" admirer and see so many fabulous work, in the walls of Bar do Leo I can also practice my black and white photography and I can show you a little bit of this State's fantastic daily life and costums.

This whos the image of a SANFONEIRO, in the north east and north of Brazil this figure is very important, this is the main musical instrument of a very national rhythm called FORRÓ, played all over this part of Brazil. "Sanfoneiro" means Acordeon Player, and Sanfona means Acordeon in Brazil.

Leo was painted in the wall of his own Bar. He is a real character, very simply old man and very moody. The working time of his bar depends on how good he is or how bad he is. If he is angry for some reason be ssure that you will spend a very few time in his place. If he is happy you can stay there with your friends until late by 5:00 am!!! :)

He is indeed very proud about his music collection, he has more than 10000 long players, very old and rare ones. There are millions of LP collectors in the World, I can assure you that meeting Leo will be very important for you to change ideas about some rare pieces in Brazil and South America.

Bar do Leo has a big space in the Market...it is a sort of a very interesting "local museum" in São Luis. But it is indeed one of the most important cultural reference in the city. During the day it is a very interesting market in the neighborhood of Vinhais, together with another district called COHAMA, it is another very important middle class districts of the city!

Bar do Leo is by far my favourite bar in the State and it must be really one of the places that you cannot miss in any trip to Maranhão.

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

donrafainrio@yahoo.es

VERY CUTE STREET CAT IN SÃO LUIS - THE CAT LIVES AT BAR DO LEO

Everyone knows that I love cat, wherever I am if I see a cat I stop and I try to play with. I simply can't help. This one was soooo sweet, she lives in a very traditional place in São Luis where people go to experience one of the best cultural bars in the city and also one of the oldest. BAR DO LEO.

I think it is the greatest meeting point in the city for people who really like good music, the owner has MILLIONS of old record players and also CDs, and the place is all decorated with traditional art figures of São Luis.

I know this blog is meant to talk about travels, tours, my guests and also my thoughts about places in Brazil, but I also use my blog to express my daily life...this is one of the wonders of having a blog. And I love writing here!

I am glad to share with all of you my side that loves cats!!!! Once I posted something about cats in Barra da Tijuca in Rio.

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner

THE NEW TRIP TO MARANHAO - ALSO A FANTASTIC DESTINATION FOR YOU!!! :)

Glad to be back to this wonderful land, a land that all my traveller friends hardly know, a land that I am working hard to promote as one of the most fantastic destination of Brazil.

MARANHAO IS A LAND OF ENDLESS WILDERNESS WITH SO MANY INCREDIBLE SECRETS FOR YOU TO FIND OUT, AND OF COURSE I AM HERE TO SHARE WITH YOU SO MANY FASCINATING SURPRISES THAT MARANHAO CAN OFFER.

Maranhão is an amazing destination in Brazil, people from other countries may not have heard about it, but this is where I start my Amazon Tours offering incredible places in the ocean, in the countryside, jungle and many great things to do.

Maranhao is one of the States of NorthEast region, a region where the famous Recife, Salvador and Fortaleza are located. It means when you think about Brazil you will always think about Rio, but when you are at least a smart traveller these destinations will be named...but you will be a UNIQUE TRAVELLER when you think about Sao Luis...THE CAPITAL OF MARANHAO.

São Luis will be the city of the future, it is amazing the residencial buildings they are constructing here, and they deserve it, the State is Modern and it is filled with incredible natural beauties, full of nature and full of business!!!

I am proud of Maranhão!!! :)

Maranhao has no Copacabana, Maranhao has no Iguazu Falls...The only name that you must have heard that can be found in Maranhao is for sure AMAZONIA, because getting closer to the limits of Para States, part of its territories really reaches the Amazon Region which also can give us great surprises. but for the traveller who recently steps on the incredible lands of Maranhao, he or she will come across with names hard to memorize, and very exotic names like TAPUTIU, RAPOSA, BACANGA...


Places with spectacular sand dune beaches, endless mongrove roads and little jungles close to the capital city. Surprises are countless in Maranhao and I hope I could help all my friends to explore more and more of this lovely State.

MARANHAO HAS A LARGE VARIETY OF WILDERNESS, places that not even the locals have any idea that they exist, places where wild animals can be spotted everywhere, places that not even the television had reached. It is a great cvhance that we have to know more about brazilian coulture.

MARANHAO HAS EXOTIC BEACHES, LARGE WETLANDS AND INCREDIBLE AMAZON JUNGLES...

Not to mention, but the State has the largest DELTA in the World: PARNAIBA DELTA...Leaving behind the enourmous delta of the Nile and the Mississipi.

Maranhao is a personal destination for me, there I have fantastic friends and I am in love with the local traditions and all the environment of such a free State. They call themselves as the MIDDLE NORTH...Not exactly northeast, not exactly north...MARANHAO HAS ITS UNIQUE PERSONALITY...

It also takes an important part of our portuguese language, the portuguese spoken there is said to be the closest to our mother language in Portugal. They really speak in a soft and clear way, and they are more efficient with grammar.

YOU SHOULD COME AND SEE...Maranhao is my opinion is a awaken dream!

Here I have many different new destinations for us to explore, it is my favourite gateway to the glorious Amazon, but not only the rain forest. The dunes of Lençois Maranhenses...the very long coast line dictated by the movement of tides (as impressive as the tides in Europe, like France or England), so many long rivers with stunning wild life.

For photography lovers as you can see in the photos taken in OlhoD'Agua by Calhau beach. this is a real SHANGRILAH...

The nature is a great friend for Maranhao....Here in this spectacular state I have my work, I have my family, my wonderful friends and it is one of the most beautiful states of my UNFORGETTABLE BRAZIL.

Rafael Torres Lopes

Tour Guide and Travel Planner