I arrived in Rio with no problems. I immediately discovered that due to only 40% of the expected rainfall last season, electricity was being strictly conserved. Brazil relies upon hydroelectricity almost exclusively. A weak wet season, especially after several years of draught, effects everyone from the large cities to the sertão. Things are pretty bad this year, and the real is down to US$0.41, half of its value from my first visit in 1998.

The transfer to Salvador, Bahia (BA), was almost flawless (just an hour delay), unlike my Portuguese. Thanks to two weeks in Cuba I spoke "Portañol," as they call it here. Claudia was waiting at the Hotel Pelourinho when I arrived, and we immediately began exchanging items we'd brought for each other. After a good meal we met our friend Joalbo for a little party (his birthday).

Sat 16 June

Somehow we managed to make it to the rodoviaria (bus station) in the pouring rain. Marcelo met us in Feira de Santana, and I had an hour to relax in their apartment before getting back on a bus. At 4:30 I caught a transfer to the São Geraldo (bus line) remote station a few kilometers outside of town. At 6:30 my executivo (luxury overnight bus) left for the sertão (the "outback"). I settled in for the 14 hour ride to the State of Ceará (CE). This is the travelling I love —rodoviarias in the sertão, long hours of sleeping in a bus seat, occasional glimpses of civilization through the window— perfect bliss.

At 9 PM we stopped in Campim Grosso BA. When I re-boarded the bus I was struck by the smell I had apparently become accustomed to —organic, to put it mildly. Ahhh, travel in the sertão! We passed through Senhor do Bomfim at 10:50. Just after midnight we made it to Petrolina, Pernambuco (PE), where I had a light meal in the rodoviaria (caldo e cerveja). It was good to be back in this rodoviaria. It brought back a lot of memories.

Sun 17 June

We passed through Salgueiro PE around 5:15 AM and finally made it to Brejo Santo CE at 8. Breakfast was a piece of requejão ("country" cheese) and a cup of stong café. There was no bus running to Juazeiro do Norte until very late in the afternoon, and from there I'd still have quite a way to go. I had to hire a taxi (R$70) for the 60 km trip to Juazeiro. I got a bad car, and the road was in horrible shape, but the driver was good and very friendly (typically kind Nordestino). I had a Kaiser for brunch in the Juazeiro rodoviaria, then caught a Trans-Ceará bus to Nova Olinda (only R$3).

All three "hotels" in the little hamlet of Nova Olinda were within a block of the bus stop (one was the bus stop). I went to the Hotel Central where I met João, who helped me arrange a room. It was not exactly a hotel, but rather a house with a room to let. A lineman for the telephone company was almost ready to check out of it, so I left my bags there and walked down the street for refreshments. I found a spot that had Brahma and took a seat. Across the street was another barzinho where a few folks were dancing to some forro blasting from the back of a car parked on the sidewalk.

When I got back to the hotel my room was ready. It was a nice little room, and I could tell that someone lived there when it was not rented out. The only problem was that the lock on the door didn't work. Fortunately, I was in the sertão do Nordeste, in a very small town. These are among the kindest, most trustworthy people I've ever met. I simply did without a locked door. My equipment and supplies would certainly be safe for a few days.

I took a stroll around to familiarize myself with the town. I found the Casa Grande, where the Fundação Araripe was headquartered. I only wanted to stop by and make arrangements to meet the director, Alembergue Quindins, on Monday. He was there, so we sat and discussed my plans to explore the Serra Arneirós for some forgotten (or lost) rock art sites. After Alembergue understood my research interests, he recommended several sites across the central and southern part of the State, as a means to get an overall idea of the region's rock art. This wouldn't leave me much time to explore the Serra Arneirós, but it sounded like good advice I should take.

He also gave me a brief history of the Fundação Araripe, and a tour of the Casa Grande museum. It is the oldest house in town, and is now dedicated to the local history —from prehistoric artifacts to images of the nearby Karirí village. The last room was dedicated to the rock art. I learned that Anne-Marie Pessis visited the area to study photographs of the rock art. One site in particular, Santa Fé, was quite intriguing. It had several deeply carved dart-throwers filled in with red paint. The site is near the Serra Arneirós where I planned to do my prospecting for some of Tristão de Alencar Araripe's lost sites.

After a good meal I had to call it a night. I retired to my little room and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Mon 18 June

I met my guide, Miguel Barros, at the Foundation at 7 AM and we drove to the nearby town of Santana de Carirí (mostly on dirt roads). We drove into the well watered Vale Tatajuba, past an old cachaça distillery, and half a kilometer up into the serra. Within a hundred meters of the road, Miguel led us up to the site of Boa Vista. It was a small quartzite outcrop with some karst intrusions. The rock art was spread across about four meters of the NNE face, and consisted of mostly zig-zags, "x's", circles, and "arrow" motifs, all in red finger-width lines. Contrary to my original understanding this was the only site in the area. We got back to Nova Olinda by 10:30 AM and the adventure began...

Link to photos: Boa Vista

As I have done every other year in Brazil, I relied upon the local Banco do Brasil to access my money (rather than carrying a few thousand reais around). Since I only brought about R$50 with me from Salvador, I had to make a withdrawal to pay for my lodging, food, and transportation. After waiting in line at the bank for over an hour and a half, I learned that they could not process my transaction. The gerente (manager) said I could only do this in the larger city of Crato, about 45 minutes east of Nova Olinda.

I caught a R$2 ride in a lotação (private commuter pick-up truck) to Crato, and the driver arranged for a friend to walk me to the Banco do Brasil in the city center. Unfortunately, the story was the same there —no way to process a withdrawal on my card. I asked if they knew where I could do this, and I was told to go to the even bigger city of Juazeiro do Norte. I made my way to the central plaza, very low on cash by now, and caught a 70¢ bus to the Shopping Carirí (mall) in Juazeiro. They had a Banco do Brasil branch office, but it had closed early due to energy conservation (all banks had to do this). Through a little window I was able to talk to one of the guards, who spoke to the gerente for me. Not only were they also unable to process an international card, but they couldn't even exchange the emergency US$50 bill I found in my wallet (the minimum was US$300 for an exchange). I was told to try the central office in town.

By this time I had no money, apart from my US$50 -not even a few centavos. I talked a moto-taxi (motorcycle) driver into taking me to the city center so I could change my money. I showed him the 50 and said I could pay for the ride after the exchange. He agreed, and after talking it over with the other motos came up with another option for changing the currency —a big tourist hotel (since the banks were all closed). As my luck would have it, they could not help either!

After riding around in rush-hour traffic (exciting on a motorcycle, to say the least), and talking to several shopkeepers, the moto took me to a small alley full of vendors selling a myriad of nickel and dime trinkets. In the heart of this ramshackle bazaar we found a man willing to exchange the currency. Having no idea of the current exchange rate, he took my word that as of a few days ago it was 2.35 reais for 1.00 US dollar (and the way the Brazilian economy was going, it was certainly no less today). He gladly gave me R$117 for my Ulyses S. Grant, and I immediately bought water and a cold guaraná.

The moto took me to the plaza to catch the bus to Crato, and I paid him the standard one real, plus another four for his very kind help (again, typical Nordestino kindness). In Crato I waited past dark at the post where the lotação had brought me earlier that morning (a dark street corner near the canal). After a couple of hours it was apparent I'd missed the last run to Nova Olinda. I took a moto to the rodoviaria, got a ticket for the 8:30 bus, then waited until 9:55 for it to show up. By 11 I was back at the hotel, and exhausted! My hosts had become very worried about me, since I basically disappeared with no word.

Tue 19 June

After the ordeal with the money, I had to drastically re-arrange my plans for Ceará. My week here had to change to two days. I could visit one more of the sites Alembergue recommended, but I'd have to arrange the cheapest transportation possible. I went by lotação to Crato, then caught another one to Juazeiro. From there I took an ônibus (Pernambucana) east to Milagres, arriving around 2:30 in the afternoon. At the little terminal on the outskirts of town I learned that there were no buses to the next town (Maurití) until the evening. From there I'd still have to go to Coité, and a taxi would run more than R$80 for the round-trip.

With considerable trepidation I decided to go by moto-taxi, the entire 40+ km to the site (which I only had rough directions to). After a garrafa of courage, I mounted the little bike with my equipment on my back we took off. I ate a few bugs until I learned to tuck my head down behind my (short) driver's head (helmets were obviously optional this far out in the sertão). We passed through Maurití and headed up a dirt road to Coité. We stopped in "downtown" Coité for refreshments (the only "barzinho" in this town of maybe 30 houses), and to give my rear-end a much needed stretch. From there it was another 5k up a rough dirt road to the site, but since neither I nor Ratinho (the moto) knew where it was, we ended up passing it. We came to a little fazenda at the top of the serra and asked for directions, then back-tracked about 2k to the site (through a lot of thick sand where we had to push the bike).

Pedra do Letreiro is a solitary sandstone outcrop overlooking Vale do Letreiro. From the site we could see the serra to the east in the State of Paraíba. Practically all the painted surfaces faced west, so photography was a bit difficult in the late afternoon sun. The main panel had at least three distinct styles of painting: a quasi-representational group; a refined geometric group; and, a group of rough geometric motifs that included a stylized anthropomorph. I scouted around the outcrop, but did so in a hurry. The sun was getting low and we had to leave.

Link to photos: Pedra do Letreiro

We bolted down the trail to Coité, and got to Maurití at sunset. We paused to wet our windpipes at a corner barzinho and chatted with a couple of locals who spoke English (Cicero Araújo Tavares and Olavo Barreira). On the road to Milagres the headlight went out. After 30 minutes of fumbling around in the dark, Ratinho fixed it and we continued through the cold night air to the bus stop. We were a little late, but so was the bus to Nova Olinda. I was back in the hotel by 11, again, and recounted my adventures to my hosts before heading off to bed. Another long day, but a good one.

Wed 20 June

Since my money was almost gone I had to retreat back to Bahia and the creature comforts a big city. I barely caught the 10 AM bus to Juazeiro. I had a 5 hour layover at the Juazeiro rodoviaria, so I had a chance to chat with my friends at the Launchonette Pinheiro. I caught the Itapemirim commercial (no air conditioning) at 4:30 and was off to Feira de Santana.

Thu 21 June

Thirteen hours later I got to Feira (5:30 AM). I spent the day working out my money problems and working on some papers in the comfort of Claudia and Marcelo's apartment.

Fri 22 June

Since I cut short my time in Ceará, I had the opportunity to catch up on reading and writing here in Feira. After taking it easy all day, we all went to a São João party at Rubi's house (this is an annual festival in the Nordeste, similar to other mid-Winter corn festivals in the Americas). It was fun, but these parties are better in the sertão than in the city.

Sat 23 June

Another day of writing, reading, and São João festivities. I also treated myself to a good shave and haircut.

Sun 24 June

After yet another day of luxury, our guest from Minas Gerais, Loredana Ribeiro, arrived. Claudia reviewed a pile of slides and photos with her, then we caught the overnight bus to Central.

Mon 25 June

The bus arrived in Central around 5 AM, and I got about an hour of sleep in the Hotel São Francisco. We met our driver (Francisco) and guide (Carlos) and drove about 46k to the trailhead for two canyons I'd wanted to visit for a couple of years. There was some confusion with the names. Apparently the map has them reversed. We hiked about 6 km up into the serra, then descended into the head of a canyon. Within 100 m we found paintings. I scouted ahead (down-canyon) to find where the art started. About 250 m from the head, the canyon widened and the vegetation got thicker. This was the lower limit of the rock art, as far as I could tell.

For the most part the paintings were the typical regional mixture of Agreste Tradition geometrics, zoomorphs and anthropomorphs. Some were similar to those at Canyon Fonte Grande, and others were rather unique to this area. Along a tight S-turn in the canyon there were several compositions in radically different styles: one panel with handprints, one with fine-line geometric motifs, and one large (1.05 m) outlined anthropomorph (very weird looking). We shot photos for about two hours then hiked back down to the car. The hike up took about two hours. The return only took an hour.

Link to photos: Central Sites 1

Lore and Claudia waited at the car while Francisco, Carlos and I hiked up to the next canyon around 4 PM. We had to hike fast (no problem for Carlos) since it was getting close to sunset. I was only interested in one particular panel in the canyon. We bypassed most of the paintings and stopped at a little cachoeira (waterfall) in front of the panel (pretty much the last panel heading up-canyon). I shot the small group of anthropomorphs I'd come to see, as well as Maria Beltrão's "mastodon" (actually just a standard, nondescript quadruped with it's neck and head obscured by accretions and water damage —the hind leg was mistaken for a mastodon's "trunk" leading to the published misinterpretation). After about 30 minutes of shooting we high-tailed it back to the car. After hiking a total of 20k, my doggies were screaming. We got back to Central rather late and I had no problem getting to sleep.

Link to photos: Central Sites 2

Tue 26 June

Claudia and Lore went to Canyon Fonte Grande, and I caught a taxi with my old friend Paracelso to Irecê. From there I took the 10 AM Aguiabranca to Morro do Chapéu. I arrived around noon, had a big lunch, and began looking for transportation to the field. João, the owner of the restaurant (O Mukekão) got a friend to drive me west to a canyon I've been waiting to explore. None of the guides or researchers knew about any sites there (they flat out said there were none), but I had a gut feeling (and a bit of experience in the area). I found an access road and a trail and hiked a couple of kilometers up into the canyon before turning around and heading back out (too late in the afternoon to go any farther). The canyon was well watered and had a very clear trail —much better than I expected. The bad news I had to pay R$50 for the short ride (absolutely outrageous).

Claudia and Lore arrived later in the evening and tried to negotiate cheaper transportation to our next local destination, but as soon as the drivers heard my American accent the prices doubled. We re-arranged our plans with the hope of getting a better price later. After a hearty dinner we retired to the wonderful Hotel Diamantina. Luydy Fernandes (O Capitão) arrived around 4 AM.