NORTHEAST BRAZIL - Brazil - page 233

Sailboats, known as jangadas , on Tibaú beach, one of the beach-villages along Costa Branca
Costa Branca 9
Rio Grande do Norte. @
n Catavento Turismo, (085) 3433
6999.

The largest village on this
coast, Areia Branca has
around 20,000 residents
and offers the best tourist
facilities for those wanting to
spend a few days exploring
the region. Tibaú is the last
village in Rio Grande do
Norte, right on the border
with Ceará. Its beach is
mostly used by residents
of the inland city of
Mossoró. Local artisans
use sand from the
colored dunes to
make artistic and pretty
designs inside small
glass bottles.

of the northeastern interior.
The main places of interest in
Mossoró are connected to
a glorious moment in history
in 1924, when the towns-
people fought off an attack
by the legendary bandit
leader Lampião and his gang
of outlaws. The event is still
commemorated every June
13 with great ceremony.
Mossoró is an ideal
jumping-off point for visiting
the Lajedo de Soledade , an
archaeological site. Its lime-
stone rocks were formed
more than 90 million years
ago. Tours begin at the
visitors' center, at the Museu
de Soledade. From here,
visitors can depart on a
guided walk featuring 10,000-
year-old rock paintings, and
impressive fossils containing
the remains of extinct
animals, including saber-
tooth tigers.
T Lajedo de Soledade
Tel [phone]. # 7am-5pm
Tue-Sun. & 8

The Costa Branca lies in the
extreme northwest of Rio
Grande do Norte. Starting
at Porto do Mangue , it
stretches across the
villages of Areia Branca
and Grossos and ends at
Tibaú . The name “Costa
Branca” refers to both
the white dunes and the
salt works found along
this coast. The region
has not yet been discov-
ered by mass tourism, and its
beaches, mangroves, dunes,
and lagoons are blissfully
devoid of crowds. Praia do
Rosado , just west of Porto
do Mangue, is famous for its
pinkish sand dunes. The red
soil underneath the shifting
dunes mixes with the white
sand of the beach giving
the dunes an unusual and
distinctly soft, pink hue.

Sand design in
glass bottle

Mossoró 0
Rio Grande do Norte. * 225,000.
~ @ n Secretaría de Turismo
[phone]. _ Batalha do
Mossoró (Jun).

Located 34 miles (55 km)
inland from the coast,
Mossoró is, in many ways,
the archetypal sertão town

REPENTISTAS
Repentista is a popular form of entertainment in the
interior of the Northeast. Its singers engage in a two-
man musical duel, making their rhymes up on the spot,
trying to score points off their opponent. Singers some-
times accompany themselves with a tambourine or the
melodious viola nordestina , developed from the
Portuguese seven-string guitar. The singing duelists take
turns singing out a stanza, trying to win the favor of the
audience by making fun of their opponent, preferably
with a clever bit of rhyme. The adversary's manhood,
sexual prowess, and ancestry are common topics, but
politics and day-to-day events also play into the mix. In big cities with significant nordestino
populations, such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, repentistas make money on the
downtown streets by creating impromptu songs to entertain homesick migrants.

Repentistas performing