........After the famous
Beaches
of Rio and Baía de
Guanabara, with their high-size hotels and bars
spilling onto the sands, the quiet, clean beaches
east of Rio de Janeiro are a welcome change.
..........Saquarema, 100 Km from
Rio de Janeiro, sits between long stretches of open
beach,
lagoons and jungled mountains. The town takes unusual
pride in the natural beauty of its setting. Polluting
industries are forbidden in the municipality, so it's
still possible to find sloths and bands of monkeys in
the jungles. Motorboats aren't allowed to muck up the
lakes and lagoons , which means the water is still
pure and the fish and shrimps are abundant. The long
shoreline of fine, white sand and clean water attract surfers, sports fishers and sun
worshippers.
..........Saquarema is a horse-breeding and fruit-growing
centre; you can visit the orchards and pick fruit, or
hire horses and take to the hills. Adventurers who
tramp the jungle trails in search of the elusive mico-leão
marmoset are sure to discover beautiful waterfalls,
if not the primates. All in all, there are plenty of
things to do away from the beach.
..........Ah, but the beaches...Bambui, Ponta Negra,
Vila and Jaconé,
south of town, are long, and empty save for a couple
of fishing villages. The waves are big, particularly
off Ponta Negra, and three Km north of Saquarema in
Praia de Itaúna, where an annual surfing (WCT)
contest is held during the last two weeks of October
(in 2002).
»History
........On 17 March 1531, Martim Afonso de Sousa
founded a Portuguese settlement here and met with the
Tamoio Indian chief Sapuguaçu. Nonplussed by de
Sousa's five ships and 400 sailors, Sapuguaçu chose
to ally the Tamoios with the French. In 1575 Antônio Salema, then Governor of Rio de Janeiro, decided to
break the Tamoio-French Alliance, and with an army of
over 1000 men, massacred the Indians and their French
military advisers.
..........The next big event in Saquarema's history
was slave revolt of Ipitangas, in which 400 slaves
took over the plantation mansion and kicked out their master. For a few days , the slaves held the
town,
and fought against the cavalry which rode out from
Niterói. The town pillory, Bandeque's Post (named
after the leader of the slave revolt) , was in use as
recently as the end of the last century.
»Festival
........Saquarema hosts the NS de Nazaré mass on 7
and 8 September. It attracts around 150,000 pilgrims,
second only to the Nazaré celebrations of Belém.
USEFUL
PHONES
Polícia Rodoviária: (22) 2665-1123 Delegacia de Polícia: (22) 2665-1384 ou (22)
2651-2080
Corpo de Bombeiros: 193
Polícia (Rádio Patrulha): 190
Pronto Socorro: 192
Secretaria de Turismo: (22) 2651-2178 ou (22) 2651-2254
