Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
Crepe Samba Kone
Av Bento Daher
T
27 9952 1195.
Part café, part live music venue, with a simple menu of various
crêpes accompanied by a lively programme of live bossa nova
and “sambarock”. Cover charge after 10pm.
Daily 8pm-4am.
Pousada Casa da Praia
Rua Dercilio F. da Fonseca
T
27 3762 5028.
No-frills but friendly, and blending in
with the environment, this charming i
inn offe
rs seaviews,
a/c rooms and a wholesome breakfast.
R$110
Pousada dos Corais
Rua Maria Ortiz Barcelos 154
T
27 3762 5200,
W
pousadadoscoraisitaunas.com.br.
Central option with clean, simple rooms, a sooth
ing pool,
l, a
balcony with hammocks and a hearty breakfast.
R$220
2
Região dos Imigrantes
The coffee-smothered hills and forests of
inland Espírito Santo
offer an easily
accessible slice of rural Brazilian life, with the most interesting section dubbed
REGIÃO DOS IMIGRANTES
(“region of immigrants”), for good reason. In the
nineteenth century this largely undeveloped wilderness was colonized by boatloads
of hopeful German and Italian peasants who, miraculously, managed to clear
sections of forest and create a viable agricultural economy in just a few years.
Though the towns they created are typically Brazilian today, subtle signs of their
European roots remain - Lutheran churches and vineyards, incongruously squashed
between the coffee plantations, for example - and the
scenery
is magnificent. To the
far west lies
Pedra Azul
, a grey granite outcrop almost 1000m high that's one of the
unsung natural wonders of Brazil.
ARRIVAL AND ACCOMMODATION
REGIÃO DOS IMIGRANTES
By car
You can travel the region fairly easily by bus, though
renting a car in Vitória will give you more flexibility - the
northern loop, taking in Santa Teresa, Santa Maria and
Santa Leopoldina, can be completed in a day, as can the trip
out to Pedra Azul, though you'll get more out of it by
staying the night in one of the local
pousadas
.
Accommodation
The area is a popular destination for
residents of Vitória, so if you plan to stay over a weekend -
in particular in the winter dry season, when hiking trails
can be approached most comfortably, the sky is blue and
there's a chill in the air - pre-booking accommodation
is advisable.
Santa Teresa
Some 90km northwest from central Vitória,
SANTA TERESA
might seem like a typical,
bustling Brazilian country town studded by coffee bushes, palms and mango trees, but
intriguing remnants of its Italian origins make it a good place to start a tour of inland
EUROPEAN ECHOES IN ESPÍRITO SANTO
Other Brazilian states, especially in the south (see boxes, p.549, p.591 & p.621), attracted
large-scale
European
immigration
in the late nineteenth century, but the story of those
directed to Espírito Santo seems particularly harrowing and inspiring in equal measure. The
Brazilian authorities actively tried to woo immigrants here with promises of free land. The first
German
colony was established at Santa Isabel (now Domingos Martins) in 1847 by 39 families
from Hunsrück in western Germany; more came in the 1850s from Pomerania, and in 1859
Italians
from Piedmont first started arriving. The biggest wave of immigrants arrived from 1872
to 1873 -primarily
Pomeranians
, these were mostly poor German peasants (whose homeland
is now part of Poland), completely unprepared for the tropical wilderness that awaited them -
transport was by canoe or donkey through the forest, and many succumbed to diseases and
snake bites. Worse, the promise of free land often proved illusory - unless the colonists could
pay off their “term” in four years, the government could claim back their gift.
Despite all the problems, the colonists gradually cleared the land and a viable agricultural
economy was established by the 1880s, centred on
coffee
. A dirt road between Santa Maria
and Leopoldina was only completed in the 1950s and paved in 1986. The area's German
culture was dealt a massive blow by World War II, when German language was banned in
schools - now very few locals speak it. The
Lutheran Church
remains dominant, however,
and marriages still follow Pomeranian traditions.
