NORTHEAST BRAZIL - Brazil - page 249

Pillory, restored mansions, and ruin of a church in Alcântara

the regional center for the
surrounding sugar and cotton
plantations. It was the place
where wealthy slave-owning
aristocrats built their splendid
city mansions. When slavery
was abolished in 1888, the
local economy crashed, the
white upper class departed,
and many of the fine man-
sions stood abandoned.
Appreciation of Alcântara's
heritage value began as early
as the 1950s, but restoration
has been slow and quite a
few of its churches and
mansions remain as ruins,
giving the city its own charm.
These ruins are now the
town's main tourist attrac-
tions. Day-trippers from São
Luís come here to stroll the
quiet cobblestoned streets,
peer among the ruins, and
admire the often brightly-tiled
mansions of this former
colonial capital.
The Brazilian Heritage
Institute, Iphan, has restored
several of the old mansions
as museums. The best is the
Casa Histórica do Iphan ,
featuring period furniture
and glassware. Informative
wall plaques and well-trained
guides make getting around
easy in the museum.
Another attraction to
Alcântara is the Festa do
Divino Espírito Santo, a vib-
rant religious festival held
in May every year.

Reentrâncias
Maranhenses 7
Maranhão. @ from São Luís to
Cururupu . g from Cururupu.
n Sematur, Praça Joao Lisboa 328,
São Luís, [phone].

life, including sea turtles and
manatees. Many species of
fish and crustaceans are also
found in the Reentrâncias.
The region is geographically
diverse and consists of a
complex riverine system of
extensive bays, coves, and
rugged coastline covered
mainly by mangrove forest.
Many low-lying islands are
also found here.
In order to protect the flora
and fauna of this region, the
Reentrâncias Maranhenses
was designated an Area de
Proteção Ambiental (Area of
Environmental Protection)
and was also made a Ramsar
site (a wetland site listed
under the Convention on
Wetlands of International
Importance) in 1993.
One of the more popular
destinations here is the Ilha
dos Lençóis , to the northeast
of Cururupu. The island's
geography somewhat
resembles the Lençóis
Maranhenses (see pp250-51) ,
with its endless landscapes
of dunes and lagoons.
A small community of
300 people live here and still
practice subsistence fishing.
Some of them are descen-
dants of the Filhos da Lua
(Sons of the Moon), an albino
community that settled here
in the beginning of the 20th
century. The isolation and
flooding was harsh on the
residents, and not many
survived. Some of the
fishermen work as local
tour guides for a small fee.

One of the world's largest
wetlands, the Reentrâncias
Maranhenses is also one
of Maranhão's more off-
the-beaten-track natural
attractions. The small town of
Cururupu to the north of São
Luís offers the best access to
the Reentrâncias Maranhenses,
with boats departing regularly.
Spread over an area of
10,350 sq miles (26,800 sq
km), the Reentrâncias
Maranhenses forms an impor-
tant habitat for shore-birds
such as scarlet ibis, spoon-
bills, whimbrels, egrets,
willets, ruddy turnstones,
and black-bellied plovers, as
well as an array of marine-

E Casa Histórica do Iphan
Praça de Matriz s/n. # 9am-5pm
Tue-Sun. &

Scarlet ibis, one of the shorebirds
found in Reentrâncias Maranhenses