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| Looking up at the stairs we were ready to climb to get up to the church |
After cruising through the canyons, we kept driving further and further from civilization until our environment changed once again, this time from caatinga (cacti, thorny shrubs, dry grasslands) to sertão (the semi-arid vast hinterlands in Northeastern Brazil). Heading out to the sertão is like entering the Wild West and in Portuguese, the word "sertanejo" is used how we use the word "cowboy."
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| Old railway station that is now a museum |
It seemed only fitting to make our final destination the tiny town of Piranhas which was founded in 1891 and used to be furthest point people could travel upstream on the São Francisco River. Because of this, Piranhas (named as such because there used to be good piranha fishing there) became the start of a railway that continued transportation upriver by train.
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| At the top |
I wanted to visit Piranhas because of its history with the famous bandit leader, Lampião. In the 1930s, the town was attacked several times by Lampião and his gang because it was easy to hide in all of the rocks and canyons surrounding the town. Lampião became a famous outlaw much like Robin Hood; he resented the government and police corruption and the way that the stole from the local landowners. He was consantly pursued by the police and is still a legend out in the Sertão - there is a whole museum devoted to him! The real name of the famous outlaw is "Virgulino" but he aquired the nickname of "lamp" because it was said he could fire a gun so fast that it looked like he was holding a lantern.
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| Checking out the tiny church |
In 1938, Lampião and his gang were betrayed while waiting to ambush Piranhas and the police executed the entire group. The heads of the leader and his bandits were put on display in the town for everyone to see and were preserved and kept there until 1971 in the museum. Though I didn't get to see any severed heads, I did get to see a lot of Lampião's gear and loot from raids past. Quite a lot of action for such a tiny town in the backwoods of Brazil.
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| The rebel himself (center) |
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| Heads on display |
Great pictures & descriptions