The Village of Garapua

Garapua is a small fishing village consisting of two main neighborhoods.  The first is on the beach, and the second is inland about a half mile (A Vila).  It is all sand roads except the main road of the vila entering town.  There are only about 10 automobiles on the island and they are not allowed in the  beach neighborhood, only horses and tractors are allowed there.  We never have to worry about the kids getting hit by a car. :)  The automobiles on the island are small trucks or jeeps and are used to transport tourists between Morro de Sao Paulo, Garapua, and Boipeba.  There are approximately 1000 residents in Garapua.  Their economy comes from fishing and tourism.  Life here is very difficult to put into words.  The people here are the happiest in the world; they seem to have no real demands on time, or stresses to speak of.  They could not understand why we were a little stressed out that we were without internet for a full week.  Brad tried to explain the urgency in the matter, but it fell on deaf ears.  Finally Brad paid the R$200 round trip fair, went to Morro and found the one internet guy on the island and personally brought him to our house to fix the internet.   Garapua has two small markets that sell rice, beans, crackers, milk in plastic sacks, eggs, ice cream, dish soap, super glue, and personal hygiene items, and a few fresh produce items that come in each Thursday. There are horses in the village that roam freely, we still haven't figured out how their owners find them when its time to saddle up.  There is a small 3-4 room school that all age groups share.  School is in the morning for the elementary kids, the afternoon for junior high age, and at night for high school.  School is only 4 hours long for the younger students and 2 hours for the older students; our kids are very jealous.  They don't have a substitute teacher system so if your teacher is sick or out of town, school is cancelled for you until your teacher returns.  The houses are very close together, and small.  Each house is apx. 15 feet wide, like a town home set up in the US.  The houses come out to the narrow street, so no landscaping to worry about and maintain.  People hang out on their front porches and talk to their neighbors.  The people here have figured out that we are here to stay a while so they are opening up to us, and treating our kids like locals.  As you walk through the village you see kids lined up to buy a geladinho, very competitive soccer games on the beach at low tide, stray dogs that everyone feeds, kids playing soccer in the street, horses roaming freely, women talking on their porches, men playing dominos on a table set up on the street, and lots of laundry hanging out to dry everywhere.  Laundry has been a real challenge for us, washing our clothes by hand is very hard work.  We miss our washer and dryer terribly!  There are a few women with washers in the village; it is the item that separates economic status amongst the people here.  We have learned many things from the people here and will keep this place in our minds forever.  They epitomize the word hanging in so many of our homes, "SIMPLIFY".

A very competitive game of soccer between the men of the village, tempers flare!  Soccer is taken very seriously; it's probably the only thing taken seriously.  They are preparing for a big tournament between the villages on the island of Tinhare. The goal posts are large sticks dug into the sand.

In the Vila, main road with pavers

Fisherman making his net, very laborious!

Brad walking down one of the three streets in the vila

The tractor and trailer that picks us up for our Valenca shopping trips

Houses in Garapua

Medical center.  Anyone can go in for free medical care: Socialism at its finest

Sitting in front of one of the local churches...and the neighbors laundry

Bashford family laundry line

More laundry

A tractor in town, the only "vehicle" allowed in the beach neighborhood.  You can see the bar across the sand road keeping out all jeeps and trucks.

The girls on their way home from getting a chocolate geladinho.  They taste just like fudgesicles.

Taryn scrubbing the laundry.

Leaving the house and heading to the vila

One of our favorite stops for maracuja (passion fruit) and acerola (yummy cherry like fruit) geladinho.  These delicious home made otter pops are made from the fruit in her yard.  This is her kitchen on the back patio.

The local market in Garapua.  

Animals and Critters of Garapua

We have daily contact with different critters and animals on the island.  There are 3 huge spiders in the back yard; they make an "X" with their 8 legs, and apparently are very poisonous.  No one at the house seems to be bothered by them, they just told us how dangerous they were and not to mess with them.  We keep wondering why someone doesn't just kill them.  Our house also has a few geckos that have made their permanent residence here.  Like our last post explained, there are several horses that roam the village, they eat whatever they can find including coconuts.  Many people have birds and more specifically parrots.  One day we were headed upstairs and there was a bat just chilling on the tile, weird. There are also crabs everywhere; sand crabs and land crabs.  The land crabs make holes everywhere, it reminds us of our pesky gophers.  Sorry cat lovers, we have not seen a single cat on the island; we are fine with that.

The neighbor's bird.  Her name is Maria which she can say

This is one of the three "X" spiders in the lime tree right off the patio.  They are about 2.5 inches in total length.  This is the spider's back side. 

Horses in the village

Derek with a land crab; luckily the pinchers are tied down.  They make huge holes in the ground everywhere.

Carson with one of our roommates 

Derek with a sand crab

The horses LOVE the coconuts!

This bat was at the bottom of the steps, we swept it outside and it just laid there; We thought it was dead and then it flew away.

Kids chasing the horses away.  They don't want the horses going to the bathroom where they play.

Happy Thanksgiving from Garapua, Bahia

Happy Thanksgiving to our friends and family back home.  Today is the first day that homesickness has come upon us.  We are missing you all and send you our love!  Since finding a turkey is a little difficult in a small fishing village we decided to treat the kids to lobster, a local luxury item, and clams, plus of course the everyday rice and beans.  Dinner was amazing as usual.  Not sure if we have ever mentioned this but this house comes with a cook.  Amparo prepares all three meals for us and does all the dishes.  This has been AWESOME!  On the positive, she is a very good cook, on the negative, it is weird having someone live in the same house as you while on vacation.  As tradition, we went around the table and stated things we are thankful for.  The items stated were very different from any year's past....carpet, hot water heaters, elongated toilet seats, absorbent napkins, window screens, central air conditioning, strict traffic laws, cereal, garbage disposal, modest clothing, semi-reliable internet, and quilted toilet paper to name a few.  Annette and Brad are very thankful for the opportunity to come to  a foreign country where their children could come up with such a list.   We are truly blessed in the United States, and have so much to be thankful for.

Yummy lobster; we got a lesson of the different breeds of lobsters from a local

Not sure if this looks gross or good???  They are alive until they hit the pot of boiling water.

Flavio, a local who helped make arrangements with a fisherman for our Thanksgiving feast

Our clams dumped off on our very muddy doorstep.  It has rained here for two days straight.

Yummy lobster, clams, potatoes, rice and beans, and limes.

Derek is intrigued by its eyeballs

It may not be turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, corn, and stuffing, but it will do. :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Island Tour of Tinhare Island on "Capitao Pipoca"

On Saturday, November 23rd we toured the island on the "Capitao Pipoca", aka Captain Popcorn.  We waded out to the old wooden ship at 8:00 to begin our journey.  The ship moved at a very slow pace allowing us to really enjoy the large ocean swells. :) The water was crystal blue.  We saw dolphins, and skipping fish.  Our first stop was at the village/beach of Morere.  One of the most beautiful places we have seen while in Brazil.  There were tide pools and reef about a half mile off the coast full of fish and shells.  The water was high enough for the boat to float through.  The water was so crystal clear, we could see the bottom.  While in the village of Morere we met a couple from England that owned a Pousada (bed and breakfast) there for the past five years.  He has written a book entitled, "Paradise my Ass" detailing the difficulties and joys of owning property on the farthest point from civilization on the island. The couple witnessed the tsunami in Thailand December 26th, 2004.  After surviving the experience they decided to live the life they always dreamed about.  They quit their secure jobs in the UK, sold all their belongings and bought an existing Pousada, in complete disrepair, in Brazil.  Their story is pretty fascinating.  Brad and Annette bought the ebook online for $1.99 and read it in amazement, wondering if something like that is in the future.

Our next stop was Boipeba.  Boipeba is the location where the river that splits the island meets the Atlantic ocean.   It is a tourist location full of restaurants, bars, and shops selling local souveniers.  It was okay but not our favorite stop. The kids enjoyed hamburgers while Brad and Annette devoured a large platter of lobster.

Our third and final stop was the village of Canavieiras, up the river an hour from Boipeba, where we pulled up to one of many oyster bars floating on the river.  We pulled the boat over and hopped off as if we were stopping at Sonic for a milk shake.  This was fast food, Brazilian style.  We had raw and cooked oysters, cooked clams, and crab.  Everything was alive in the ocean until we ordered and they pulled the food out for us to see.  The kids weren't huge fans of the raw oysters but were good sports to try them.  The crab was the favored entree by far.

After Canavieiras it was getting late.  We had no desire to head back in the very slow boat in the dark so we were picked up in Boipeba by jeep and taken home on land.  Incredible day!

Leaving Garapua on "Capitao Pipoca" for our day-long journey

The first 45 minutes are all smiles :)

It took us 2 hours to get to our first destination, the boat was very slow and the ocean swells high.  1 hour into the ride the excitement wore off and everyone was flat on their backs, hoping not to get sea sick.

                         

                                                                Waters of Morere

                                                                Crystal clear water

anchoring off in Morere

 

Doing backflips off the boat

                          Playing games of "loser" and "kings corner" to pass our time at sea.

The beach of Morere in the background

Lunch in Boipeba

The tourist town of Boipeba, this is a picture of the river side; kind of ugly compared to the crystal blue water on the Atlantic side.

Enjoying lunch in Boipeba

The oyster bar on the river in Canavieiras

Other oyster bars in the background.

Trying a raw oyster

Taryn not a fan of raw oysters, at this point we asked them to cook them

Capitao Pipoca docked at the oyster bar

Carson holding up live crabs

Overlooking the live fish cages

About to leave the oyster bar; what a great experience.

On our way back down the river.  We are all exhausted

All of us passed out on the boat

Departing our good friend "Capitao Pipoca" and our driver GuGu. (Brazilians are really into nick names)

The jeep ride home from Boibepa as the sun is setting.  Awesome day!