Guia Cultural da Costa Verde

Emerald seas and a radiant sun over the Costa Verde Cultural Attractions

The marine engine’s muted rhythm as the boat cuts through the emerald waters still echoes in my ears, and I can feel the fresh breeze that brings back memories of flavors, scents, music and breathtaking Costa Verde landscapes. The region is a paradise replete with natural attractions, with its people that value traditions and culture, and convert this legacy into fun, festivities and commemorations.

We enjoyed a close view of these cultural awareness expressions during the field work involved in preparing the Costa Verde Cultural Guide: the quilombo community member who hospitably showed us his vegetable patch and his fish; the caiçara familiar with ciranda dance circles; artisans who carve small boats for an income or build boats to sail from one island to another; folk theater reviving traditions.

From the sea we viewed the formidable green barrier formed by the Atlantic Coast Rainforest with towns near its foothills; an intense traffic of boats of all kinds and sunset and sunrise. Incidentally, the sun god chose this part of the coast to make its home. How often have we watched as it painted the sea, boats and centuries-old colonial roofs with silver and red? Visitors in ecstasy with this spectacle will be unable to forget.

The experiencing and selection of a region’s attractions is a unique task. We are not impressed by commonplace facts, everyday events and passing fancies, and are intent on showing visitors what the region has to offer that is pristine, out of the ordinary and unique. The municipalities visited – Paraty, Angra dos Reis, Mangaratiba and Itaguaí – all have the exceptional ability of combining in one location water, mountains and the background of their inhabitants.

Different waters: seas, waterfalls, islands and rivers dot the region. The intense traffic of boats of differing sizes sail across the bays of Sepetiba and Angra dos Reis, carrying the inhabitants of this natural feast to and from beautifully preserved venues. Hundreds of islands and beaches serve to harbor caiçara canoes as well as luxury yachts. Plentiful fish and seafood are unloaded on the docks to feed the population, to be made into the caiçara region’s well known combination: fish with plantains.

The multiple mixture of origins: Portuguese, Azoreans, Indians, Africans and more recently the Japanese, have endowed inhabitants with a typical calendar, which at times has a resemblance to devotion such as the Festa do Divino in Paraty and Angra dos Reis, with typical Portuguese dances that have been subjected to changes across the centuries, and adapted certain aspects from other cultures that arrived on these shores. In addition, a tour through the region reflects knowledge of multiple cultural expressions: theater, literary fairs, handicrafts, caiçara cooking and an excellent production of cachaça in award-winning stills. All of this wealth can be witnessed in Indian villages, Japanese colonies, quilombo communities and caiçara fishing activities, found in the hills and islands and of which the largest among them may be highlighted. The imposing Ilha Grande that we view from the continent serves as a geographic barrier to protect the bay and its emerald waters.

Visitors in possession of this guidebook will be able to experience numerous cultural attractions, ranging from ciranda dancing to theater performances, participating in processions and enjoying visits to historical sites that remain unchanged after 300 years, or simply to feel the silence, listening to their own footsteps on stone-paved streets, viewing reflections by the moon and by street lamps on the water, which creeps up along century-old streets with the rising tide.

Domestic or overseas tourists hiking inland close to the foothills will marvel at discovering toucans, green-headed tanagers, curassows and diverse fauna, in addition to admiring the Atlantic Coast Rainforest’s intact vegetation that clads massive mountain ranges. There are roads and flagstone paving put in place by slaves, which in bygone days were covered by strings of donkeys carrying gold, coffee or sugar. Stretches of the Caminho do Ouro close to Paraty and Angra dos Reis, trails that cut across Serra do Piloto in Mangaratiba and footpaths in Itaguaí that can take travelers to the region’s highest points, are surrounded by the exuberance of forests in the safety of environmental protection areas and state parks.

At sea, grey nose dolphins, turtles, schools of fish, fishing boats moored to quays spread out in the region and that compete for space with herons, seagulls and cormorants in the late afternoon. They are possibly further embellishing the famous Costa Verde with its history going back to the discovery of Brazil, with its important monuments, centuries-old rural estates and cultural values that are visited and enjoyed during their feast days by the locals and international tourists, who flock in large numbers to take part in these grandiose celebrations.

The printed or digital Costa Verde Cultural Guide is an excellent travel companion in a class of its own. Its entries and photographs will enable tourists, researchers, visitors or anybody traveling through the region to locate wonderful cultural attractions that only a combination of sea, mountains, forests and idyllic fauna is likely to offer. The region’s hospitable and generous people will receive you with open arms for this natural and sunlit feast that was appropriately named the Costa Verde (Green Coast).

Aloysio Clemente Breves Beiler