Endless Warmth
By B. Michael Rubin
I’ve just returned from a trip to the north of Brazil, the state of Maranhão. I stayed in the capital, São Luís, which is an old city with centuries of history written into the narrow cobblestone streets. The entire city is classified as a Patrimônio da humanidade and much of the downtown area has been beautifully restored.
I was impressed that the city and its endless beaches are patrolled every day by the city’s army of trash collectors, much like the “orange men” of Curitiba, who are so important in maintaining the high quality of life here. Every morning around 8 am, a team of men with rakes brush the beaches, gathering the debris from last night’s parties. They even collect the discarded coconuts and huge fronds that fall from the coconut palms in the persistent wind. Later a dump-truck and backhoe saunter down the beach to complete the garbage clean-up. Most mornings, I was on the beach early enough to praise these tireless workers, who wear heavy green jumpsuits despite the equatorial heat.
While relaxing on the clean beaches, I enjoyed listening to the locals with their singsong northern accents, like the repentistas, who write instant songs, complete with humorous rhyming lyrics specifically about you. The waiters in the seaside bars, which are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, were polite and efficient, offering whole, chilled coconuts with protruding straws to sip coconut milk, as we Americans call it. I also sampled the ginger-flavored Jesus soda, mass-marketed by Guaraná. Courteous beach vendors strolled by selling fresh shrimp, henna tattoos, and homemade jewelry. The vendors walked slowly over the hot sands, stopping only if they were beckoned.
I loved the slow pace of life in the north, which probably results from founding a city 300 km. from the equator. The relaxed pace also reflected the informality of life in São Luís. It’s acceptable to eat in a fancy restaurant wearing shorts and flip-flops. I found the easygoing lifestyle of the locals exhibited also in their no-nonsense honesty. For example, the large suite I was staying in, which faced the ocean, was advertised on the Internet as including a jacuzzi. I chose the room for its beachfront location and affordable rates not the jacuzzi, but I did feel inclined to ask the owner one day why the jacuzzi wasn’t working. Instead of inventing an excuse like the maintenance man is on vacation, or she didn’t realize it wasn’t working, she replied, “No, it doesn’t work.” That was the end of the conversation: no excuses, no explanation. Simple and straightforward.
I also had the pleasure of visiting the national park, Lençóis Maranhenses, about three hours by bus from São Luís. Without exaggeration, the park was a revelation. There is no doubt that the more than 1,000 square kilometers of sweeping sand dunes are a Brazilian national treasure. Perhaps there is nothing in the world to rival such sandy beauty outside the Sahara Desert.
If the pace of life is slow in São Luís, it’s nearly stationary in the largest town near the park, Barreirinhas. The wide river that flows through Barreirinhas and empties into the ocean is actually called the Lazy River, o rio Preguiça. The pousada where we stayed in Barreirinhas had its own horses and cows and chickens, who were so lazy they didn’t need to be tied up, yet they never wandered away. And in case the motorcycles, which are also taxis, were considering picking up the pace, there were speed bumps everywhere, as if the bumpy dirt roads weren’t slow enough. Of course, the slower speeds meant most riders weren’t wearing helmets, and I saw fathers with infants perched on their gas tanks. There were teenage girls driving motorcycles in bare feet, and I even saw a family of four riding on one bike.
It was delightful to meet the friendly and accommodating people of the north, and seeing what attracts Brazilian tourists from the south, like one couple I met, who were comfortable enough to visit Maranhão with their one-month-old baby.
On my way home, my flight from São Luís to Curitiba had a stopover in Brasília. I’d never been to Brasília before, and I was intrigued by the modern design and spotless condition of the airport. It was the first time I’d taken a flight in Brazil that departed precisely on time. My wife, who has traveled to Brasília several times on business, told me the flights are always on time there. Flying over the residences, I noticed how many of them have swimming pools in their yards, a common sight in the US, but not in Brazil.
It’s easy to be content with ocean breezes filling your lungs, and cold coconuts delivered to your chair, and cigarettes that cost R$4 per pack, when they cost four times that much in the US. It’s easy to be comfortable in equatorial air-conditioning in a restaurant or taxi or movie theater, with the temperature set at a reasonable level, as opposed to the US, where people bring sweaters to the movies in the middle of the summer because the air-conditioning is too cold.
Can there be a better place to relax than a seaside bar that never closes, watching dutiful men sweep the beach for trash, even on Sundays. It’s the kind of place where the farm animals live such an easy existence they don’t even realize they’re domesticated.
Michael Rubin is an American living in Curitiba. He can be contacted at rubin.brazil@gmail.com
