Jacaré (Part II)

First note that I often use in my writing the terms Brazil and Brazilians in general. In fact, we only partially visited four of the twenty six States of Brazil and all of them are in the North-East. This is a huge country. It’s almost as big as Canada but with 10 times more people. So what applies to the regions we visited doesn’t necessarily apply for the other regions of Brazil. The same way Montreal isn’t the same as Vancouver. For example, it was very easy for us to get a 90 day extension so that we could stay for 180 days in the country. However, we have heard rumors that the same extension is harder to get in the south of Brazil. Different States, different rules. I will keep using the general terms so please keep in mind I mean the North-East.

As you will see in further writing, an interesting subject in Brazil is the people. We have stories after stories of very generous and helpful Brazilians. For example, in Jacaré, we attempted to return our fresh water maker to the US to have it fixed. I say attempted since we never succeed because of complicated custom rules. It made its way back to Canada in Gaston’s sister’s suitcase. Anyway, to return it, we needed a box, tape, bubble wrap ...

so we set out to find it all. We were very happy to find that all the merchants we visited took the time to understand our very poor Portuguese and answer vvveeerrryyy sssllloooowwwllly so we could understand their response. You might say that is just basic politeness and that might be true but what makes the Brazilians special is that if they didn’t have what we were looking for, they would explain to us exactly were we could get it. To top, now that they knew what we were looking for, they would write it down in Portuguese on a piece of paper so we could show it to the next merchant. Very sweet! Our only regret was to not speak better Portuguese to get to know them better. We also have to mention Francis, one of the marina owners, and his wife, Christine. They go to much trouble to make navigators feel welcome. When Gaston had a tooth ache, Christine set everything up for him and translated. They joined us at the Carnival and the St-John celebrations. Their presence was much appreciated.

A few quick remarks for sailors... Brazil is not a good place to have parts shipped to you. The customs are complicated and the tax on imports is 100%. It’s also not a very good place to buy parts that are not made in Brazil because of the same tax. And, as we found out, not a good place to ship from. Customs will request all sorts of documentation in Portuguese to justify the export. For the navigation on the Paraiba, the entrance at Cabedelo is pretty straight forward. The buoys show the way but ideally, one should go up the rest of the river in day light and on rising tide because of current. It is possible to anchor in front of Cabedelo to wait for light or the tide. A dredger always seems to be working in the entrance of the river. Be careful because it’s big and it changes direction often. There are also some boats that cross regularly for one coast to the other to watch out for. There is space to anchor a bit everywhere in front of Jacaré or you can go to the marina. If you want to get more wind and fewer mosquitos, anchoring is recommended. The marina offers a price to dock your dinghy and use their services. The one annoyance of Jacaré is the bugs that bite. Much bug spay is needed and good nets.

I added another photo montage to the web site. This one is on Jacaré and the surroundings. You can find it at http://bidule.micro.org/Site/Jacare.html.