Brazil Day 9: Arraial do Cabo (Village on the Cape)

We flew into Rio last night and came down to Arraial this morning with Queila and Vicente. We first came to what was then an undeveloped fishing village when I was pregnant with Erika I-wont’-say-how-many years ago. (Suffice it to say her son will soon turn 13.) We had become friends with a Brazilian family in Mato Grosso do Sul that was from here. In the end, their daughter Queila came to live with us in the city to go to school and eventually lived with Steve’s folks and graduated from high school in Cambridge, MN. We came here often for summer vacation when we lived in Brazil.

Both Queila’s parents have now died, but the family maintains the house. It hasn’t changed much although the walls are now finished instead of the bare brick we knew ‘in the day.’

 

 

I’ll show more pictures for the sake of family who have also been here over the years.

 

Queila in the kitchen window.

 

Living room that now has plastered walls.

Queila in the kitchen. The wall that used to separate cooking and eating is gone.

 

In the late afternoon we walked to Praia Grande to see the sunset like we used to do. Tourists have discovered Arraial, and it’s a lot more built up than it was.

 

A cement path follows the side of the mountain to an old Salinas pump site. However, since the salt production ceased, it has not been maintained.

 

I used to imagine a castle built on this island.

We sat and watched until the light faded. 

Temperatures are hovering around a hundred in Rio, but we're thankful that it is only in the 90s here with a great breeze.