Camamú

so, the boat did not go to Ilheus, but to Ilha da Itaparica, from where we took another bus to Camamú – a small town, where Kelly had a meeting with one of her projects, that I had a chance to visit in company of Kelly boss Serge and his family (his wife Mariselle, and three lovely daughters Marissa 10, Soline 7 and Thais 5) from Switzerland. The project in Camamú is financed by the organisation Terre des Hommes (www.terredeshommes.ch) and is one of the three projects Kelly is responsible for (the other two are in Salvador and Ilheus – we will visit on Thursday).

This project consists of a support to the settlement of Dandara dos Palmares, developed by SASOP (www.sasop.org.br) – which provides support and training to local agricultors on eco-farming. The settlement is located on marvellous hills next to the coast with a tropical climate apparently similar to Amazonia. Here we discovered the cacao plantage mixed together with the Pará rubber tree (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Para_rubber_tree), as rubber protects the cacao from the sun in summer, and leave enough sun for the cacao in winter (when rubber losses the leaves).

This amazing forest was full with: canelle/cinnamon trees, coffee trees, cupuaçú trees (same family to cacao with fruits offering also a delicious juice), guaraná bushes, Açaí (the amazonian delicatesse), tabacco bushes, the natural indigenous body and food red color plant Urucúm – http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urucum or in English annatto – without the picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annatto (Diana, am sending you some for your body makeup project!!) and many others I cannot remember at the moment..

We were guided through the busges by Luciano, a social and agri-worker from the project on an exiting jeep, who explained us the eco-system and showed us the plants. We also visited the house of Déu, a 37 years old woman active in the community, working also with medicinal plants and taking care of the seeds. She prepared for us a lovely brunch full of local specialties from cacao, bananas and manioc.. and introduced us to her work.

her daughter Sara accompanied us later to the local cachoeira for a bath 🙂

we also met other community workers who told us a bit about thier lives, challenges (especially in relation to health and safety) and the community..

in the evening we had a quiet walk in the local port with a marvellous view on the mangroves and palm tree horizont in the waters of where river joins the sea, and later a nice dinner in a local kilo restaurant with Kelly and Serge´s family.

Tomorrow at 7,30AM (ouch!) we are taking all together a boat to some local islands and beaches, before taking the bus at 3,10PM to Ilheus…

so more then dd

PS: no pictures, as computer and cables left in Salvador. Also my computer recharger unlike any other of my electro instruments does not fit most of the plugs, so need to look for a converter for it 😦 hope I will manage..