|
If you want to get a clearer idea of where the Jequitinhonha artesanato comes from, you have to head out into the sertao proper, and Diamantina is the obvious place to start your journey. Travelling into the Jequitinhonha Valley is not something to be undertaken lightly: it is one of the poorest and remotest parts of Brazil, the roads are bad, there are no hotels except bare flophouse dormitorios, and unless you speak good Portuguese you are liable to be looked on with great suspicion. There have been problems in recent years with foreigners buying up mining concessions and kicking out garimpeiros, and unless you can explain yourself people will assume you have ulterior motives. The region is so poor and isolated it's difficult for people to understand why outsiders, especially foreigners, would want to go there anyway. If you need reasons, though, you don't have to look much further than the scenery , which is spectacularly beautiful, albeit forbidding. The landscapes bear some resemblance to the deserts of the American Southwest: massive granite hills and escarpments, cactus, rock, occasional wiry trees and people tough as nails speaking with the lilting accent of the interior of the Northeast. Here you're a world away from the developed sophistication of southern and central Minas.
Your Tip for Jequitinhonha Valley
Help other backpackers! Write your own guides and backpacking tips to Jequitinhonha Valley - they will appear instantly on this page - Please only write a tip/guide to Jequitinhonha Valley - visit the main Jequitinhonha Valley forum to ask a question!
Please do not post links to your site here (they won't work) - please use the Jequitinhonha Valley webguide section below! Thanks.
|
