Lula cuts the ribbon

President Lula came to Ilheus this past Friday, December 10, to sign the work order to start the construction of the first stretch of the east/west railway.  There was a ceremony at the Conventon Center, and the governor, the Minister of Transportation and the president of VALEC (the engineering firm that oversees government contracts in a public-private relationship that may be something like the IRS in the USA) were all in attendance, as well as the mayor of Ilheus, senators, deputies and mayors of the other regions that will be affected by the construction. The governor in his speech said " [it is] a moment of glory to concretize this project that has been in the works for 50 years. An important work because it will bring a lot of development to the east and for all the routes to Ilheus, to the new port."
Hopefully someone at this gathering discussed the highway from Ilheus to Itabuna.  One of the effects of the port/rail/airport activity, during and after construction, should be an increase in traffic between these two cities. The drive, 24 km or so, is beautiful. It is also painful, scary and sometimes fatal. I've been checking into the local blogs and found that people here are very impassioned about the road.
It was Lula's last visit to Ilheus as president. His term ends at midnight on December 31 and Dilma's begins.  Theoretically anyway, but really everybody is on vacation.  Dilma vacationed here right after the election, recuperating from the campaign at a five star hotel in Itacaré.  Hopefully Dilma will visit often, overseeing and initiating the various projects in the intermodal complex, and travel the road to Itabuna and say, this situation has got to be fixed.
I will fill you in on the story of the highway soon. For now, let's see if I can get some pictures up.  No. Aaarrrgghh.

Hub Bub

There is a huge project planned for the Cacau Coast. It involves a new port between Ilheus and Itacaré, an east-west railway linking the port to the north-south line at the juncture of in Tocantins , and a new international airport . The new transportation superfacility will be located in a still sleepy stretch of coast north of Ilheus at Ponta da Tulha. 

Work on the rail has begun, though there were noted "irregularities" with the financing that threatened to halt things, but the project goes on. The first stretch of the railway between Ilheus and Caetité, BA will be done by July of 2011 and is scheduled to be completed by December of 2012. The port and airport construction are set to move on parallel schedules , the idea being that all three be completed and ready to use together. The funds are reported to be in the 2011 budget.

 In January president elect Dilma Rouseff will take office. The project should be safe, Wagner, Dilma and Lula are all of the same party, and the project is prestigious. The port facility will have a public terminal for industrial and tourist use, and a private one as well to warehouse the materials arriving from the mines of Bahia Mineraçao in Caetité ( the end of the first leg of the railway, remember?) BAMIN as the company is known, was a joint Indian/Kazakstani multinational, but the Kazakstan partner has bought the Indian partner's share, and is now the sole owner.  BAMIN acquired the license to mine the iron deposits found in the semi arid interior of Bahia. Their plan is to begin production in 2013 once the rail and port facilities are completed, and to export 19.5 million tons of iron ore a year to China. 

There will be container warehouses for the agricultural products of Bahia as well, like cotton and soy. The area will become a major hub for the national import and export industry, and open up space for more tourism as well. That's the idea.

What will it mean for the Cacau Coast?  There will have to be a great influx of workers, from engineers and architects, to guys carrying sacks of cement.  Ilheus is already hopping with construction, mostly residential. As a beach town it already has seasonal population swells. Traffic can get crazy.  Will there be a real estate boom? Speculation is already beginning on some commercial sites, proclaiming the anticipated rise in property values in the area north of Ilheus. One friend who has a beach house in Tulha says that he, for one, will be relocating to the southern beaches, because he feels he will lose his peace and quiet.

And what about the environmental impact?  Built into the plans are green barriers planted with native species intended to limit the destruction of the ecosystems in the area. The area in question is 1700 hectares, or 17,000,000 m2, or roughly that many square yards. It will be the neighbor to an ecopreserve, Lagoa Encantada. The name says it all, Enchanted Lake.  Environmental groups are very concerned about the impact of the Intermodal Transportation Complex on the area.  A report by the group portosulnao(.org.br) reveals that the private partner in the project, Bahia Mineraçao will be heaping the raw iron material in a vast open air area, and that the runoff will seep into groundwater and pollute the air.  They predict that the impact of the rail terminal facilities alone will be devastating. Then there is the port. Ilheus already has a port it's second, really, and the effects on the shoreline up the coast from it have been dramatic. The sea has encroached upon the land, moved by the action of the ocean on the port facility, creating a new wave pattern, that has taken out a huge chunk of shoreline, complete with two streets worth of houses, and is now menacing the houses that line the beach today.  The new port is supposed to be built 3 km from the shoreline, an offshore affair, but the same kind of land damage to the shoreline nearby is predicted.

The Secretary of Industry, commerce and Minerals, James Correia says, " The South Port complex is an undertaking that opens a new axle of development in the country and is going to integrate the south of Bahia and the rest of Brazil on a new route of sustainable development, stimulating tourism, creating jobs, businesses and environmental activities for the whole region. The complex will principally guarantee local development by generating jobs and income, that in this first phase of implementation is estimated the creation of 10,000 jobs."

We will try to keep an eye on the project as it develops. Nothing has really happened yet, but the promise, or threat, depending on your point of view, is that soon the whole thing will burst into action with a flurry of mad multimodal construction. A lot of hubbub.

Friends, I have a problem. I am very hit and miss about manipulating images for this blog. If you have any suggestions for me about putting in pictures from google images or other sources, please leave me a note and let's chat about it. I got the monkeys okay, but couldn't get any of the things I wanted for this piece. Thanks, M

Backyard Monkeys

I was out on the patio the other day and I heard a lot of noise out in the backyard. I went to see, and a little monkey, a golden headed lion tamarin (also known as Gold and Black lion tamarins), went racing across the yard above me. It jumped up into the mango tree and went climbing, scolding. Right behind it was my big grey cat, almost the same size as the monkey. He went up to the tip of the branch that the little monkey had leapt to and sat staring in awe at the little creature disappearing into the treetop. The mate screamed from another tree,  complaining about the interruption.  It followed through the treetops and the pair headed away.
They are concentrated in this area of the coast because it is bordered by a long stretch of the Atlantic rainforest. Thanks to the cultivation of cacau, the area was spared much of the total devastation of other areas of rainforest, because the cacau needs shade to grow. Their habitat is the middle canopy of the forest, eating fruit, large insects and small animal prey. Development, for industry, human habitation, plantations, lumber, cattle, has resulted in a loss of more than 90% of this type of habitat. Recently a highway was built from Itacaré to Itaparica, which cut a swath through more lion tamarin territory. There are crossings for them,  rope ladders, in effect monkey bars, across the road every few kilometers or so.  Michelin has a preserve along the way, near Itubara, where the monkeys have a chance to live in peace. In Una there is a preserve that was established in 1980 for the protection of the species. Thanks to extensive conservation efforts there is more attention to the protection of habitat, and a growing awareness of the delicate situation of this marvelous little animal.
Antonio Pigafetta, the Jesuit who chronicled the voyage of Magellan around the world described them as "beautiful simian like cats similar to small lions."  My small lion like cat, Platin,  loves the hunt, but he is not a killer. He likes to sit under the trees and watch the catlike monkeys dance and shriek. They are there many mornings, attacking the termite nests and the ripe mangoes high up in the gigantic old tree.

We are glad there are monkeys in our back yard.

Indian Day

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWtzBxtLYls&feature=related The Day of the Indian is April 19, the day that commemorates the participation of indigenous people  in the First Interamerican Indigenista Congress, which was held in Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico, in 1940.   Indigenous leaders and government officials from all of the Americas were invited, but for the first few days the of the congress the indigenous leaders boycotted the event, which was dominated by policy makers and politicians of the American states, such as President Lazaro Cardenas, sponsor of the event.  The day April 19 was passed into law as Day of the Indian in Brazil in 1943 by President Getúlio Vargas.  It is celebrated nationally every year, but as the song by Jorge ben Jor says, "Every day was Day of the Indian", before the Europeans showed up with the idea that all the land they saw was theirs.
Yesterday the Indians of the reserves and villages south of Ilheus got painted and dressed and took the highway, singing, dancing and making merry. The southern of coast of Bahia is where Brazil was discovered, and these villages of Guarani, Pataxo, Tupinamba have long had to deal with the encroachment of the outsiders, sometimes peacefully, and sometimes not. There are ongoing land disputes in this land that bears so many names from it's indigenous history: Jairi, Cururupe, Acuipe, Sirihyba. Yesterday what was celebrated was the ongoing vitality of these peoples, walking down the highway past hotels and condominiums,  following a route by the sea that perhaps their ancestors travelled, not just people from the Jairi village of the Tupinamba and the Guarani reserve, but friends and relatives from the outside communities, a joyous throng of Bahianos on a glorious Bahian Sunday.
I wish my camera worked, but no. I have yet to figure out how to get my photos to post, but I will try and leave a video with this post.
Let's celebrate an indigenous relationship to the Earth and our surroundings every day. We live here, let's take care of our home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWtzBxtLYls&feature=related

Primavera

This is the land of Jorge Amado. This is where Gabriela worked her magic, and for all appearances still reigns. The Cacau coast of Bahia, where once the ownership of the land was hotly disputed. The land of the Colonels.  For all who do not know the works of Jorge Amado all I can do is recommend that you read, read, read. Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon is the best known of his books that tell the story of this land, the land where he was born. It is set in the time that the author grew up, the Ilheus and Itabuna of his youth.  Other books that further delve into the tortured history of this region are Showdown and Golden Harvest.  These concentrate on the story of the battles for posession of the land that was so valuable, the fortunes that were made from cacau, and how they were later destroyed. It is Gabriela though, that is the love story to Ilheus.  Ilheus, historic jewel on the southern coast of Bahia.  Founded in 1534, and once the capital of cacau, Ilheus is a surprising little city with architectural beauty, miles of beaches and a laidback lifestyle.  This blog will be dedicated to the tales of life along this stretch of the coast of Bahia, an amazing coastline from north to south. Information about the region, events, and places to stay, as well as being a resource for those who want to explore the area in more depth, or who want to live here. It is Spring. The final weeks before the veraneo, summer vacations. The beach, which is still deserted, will be full. All the holiday cottages will be rented. Parties everywhere. Summer beach frenzy. Ciao. More later