People who live along the coast of Alagoas say this over and over, proudly: “See that coral reef? That coral reef is the second largest one in the world. It’s second only to Australia’s.” According to an Alagoas-born fisherman, who supplements his income by working as a tourist guide during his free time, the reef extends from the State of Bahia to the State of Maranhão.

I’ve traveled the entire coast of Alagoas, but spent more time in the northern portion of the State. I took a route known as “Ecologic Route” where the beaches are not so exploited for tourism. There, the color of the sea varies: aqua, emerald-green, baby-blue and sky-blue. It’s like the Caribbean, a total knockout!

Along the entire coast we can see, from the beach, the waves breaking at the ocean’s horizon. That indicates the location of the coral reefs. (The two photos above are from the same beach; the one on the top was taken during low tide.) When the tide is low, you can walk over the rocks near the corals and free-dive with snorkels. The water is no more than two meters deep. The “coral” shade mixes with the sky-blue color of the ocean… it’s so beautiful that you could weep.

Some towns, like Japaratinga, have two coral reefs. One of them is near the beach so when the tide is low you can get there by foot—see the boats aground in the photo on the right. The other one is approximately two kilometers away. If you don’t feel like swimming, the fishermen can take you there during their free time. By the way, most of the boat cruises I took during my trip were fruit of this arrangement. The fishermen admit that they make more money with tourists than fishing.

I took this marvelous photo at Croa Island—a sandbank with rocks and corals—where we met an octopus fisherman. He was less than 18 years old and told us that a kilo of octopus was sold for R$12. He would swim to the Island, which is approximately two kilometers away from the beach, catch the octopuses and swim his way back. “There are no jobs in this region, we need to live of the sea,” he said.

In my opinion, two must-see places are: São Miguel dos Milagres and Japaratinga. Set aside three days for each one of these towns, it’s worth it.

The future of Coruripe

Coruripe is a modest little town located south of Maceio. Its inhabitants live of tourism, fishing and commerce. Besides its wonderful emerald-green sea, the coolest thing about the town is that Coruripe’s coral reef is very close to the beach. When the tide is low, the sea creates natural pools. You can see sea creatures without going deep into the water.

Recently, after returning from the trip, I read that a shipyard—which will manufacture ships and oil platforms—in being built in the town. See the article here. I don’t know the project details, so I can’t make any comments. I just think that, for the sake of our economic development, we need shipyards and industrial plants. But that area is so beautiful…

Birds have sown a gigantic sunflower on my porch. It grew up beautiful, strong, vigorous, and got over one meter tall. Two months later, a bud came out and I started to get up earlier and go straight to the window in the hopes that the magic would be done and the flower would have blossomed, revealing its sunny core. One day, it happened: I got up and was greeted by a flower the size of a dessert plate. That was three weeks ago.

Since then, I’ve cared for this plant as if it were a baby, but the flower is dying—and I’m dying of sorrow. I talked to a gardener and he explained to me that plants have a different lifecycle. Some live a short life, like herbs and vegetables in general: even if you devote a great deal of care to a head of lettuce, it will grow, generate a flower, release its seeds and die within less than six months. This is their nature. Trees, on the other hand have a longer lifecycle, but even a jequitiba tree will die, eventually.

Sunflowers live from four to six months, depending on the species. “No matter how much you water or fertilize them or  fluff up their soil, as their lifecycle gets nearer the end they will slowly die,” told me Mr. Juareis. This will be the faith of my bird-sown sunflower.

Ever since he told me this, I’m making sure the plant makes the most of its last days. Instead of cutting off the dead flower, I’m letting the plant decide when it will do it. I’m doing this because it is when the flower fades away and loses its beauty that a secret chemistry happens in its core: it prepares its descendants— the dozens of seeds it will release onto the ground and which birds will sow around.

But if I know all of this, why do I feel like a little light is dying inside me, day after day?

Project led by the architects from NL, reunited 100 trees in 100 shopping carts in a square, for the Urban Play event, in Amsterdam, Holland. The carts were put in a way, to block people from doing their usual way, forcing them to divert and walk in the middle of the mobile forest.

All of the trees, after the event ended (which lasted six weeks), have been donated, so, any person could grab a cart and take the tree home or plant in any urban space.

The Urban Play event is an international project organized by Droog Design, created and curated by Scott Burnham and presented as part of ExperimentaDesign Amsterdam 2008.

moving forest from michael schoner on Vimeo.

Moving Forest
NL Architects: Pieter Bannenberg, Walter van Dijk, Kamiel Klaasse
Structure:
Experimenta Design 2008 Amesterdam
Commissionaire:
Droog Design / Urban Play Event 2
Projects Manager: Maaike Gottschall
Dean:
Scott Burnham
Designer / Project Architect:
General Yamamoto (Design)
Daan Roggeveen (Organization)