![\"IMG_1307\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/IMG_1307.jpg\")
<\/a>Sunday morning\u00a0 \u2014 after a long walk you can get fresh green coconuts.\u00a0 They cut open the top and place a straw for drinking the coconut water inside.\u00a0 If you wish, they can crack the coconut open later so you can eat the soft flesh.\u00a0 These \u201cgreen\u201d coconuts are much different from the mature brown coconuts known outside the country.\u00a0 They are still filled with fluid that is reputed to be full of electrolytes and is restorative on a hot day.<\/p>\nLiving near the beach in Sao Luis, Maranhao means beginning and ending each day with a walk on the sand.\u00a0 Here we look to the north and west where freighters wait in anchor further out in the bay.\u00a0 One by one they will circle to the north and then west to pick up their load of iron ore from the Itaqui that services the Vale mining enterprise.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n We see the early life of the beach, including these men who work each day to put the beach \u201cback where it belongs.\u201d\u00a0 Each tide brings in more sand, and the prevailing strong winds from the east move the dry sand toward the dunes to the south \u2014 where the restaurants are.\u00a0 To keep the tables from disappearing requires constant shovel and wheelbarrow work.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The bombeiros<\/em> are a rescue and life-saving squad.\u00a0 They are often garrisoned in a military-style facility.\u00a0 At the Calhau beach in Sao Luis they have a headquarters where they train.<\/p>\n This is a late afternoon soccer game with spectators.\u00a0 By 6:00 pm the sun has dropped below the horizon.\u00a0 Being on the equator means roughly 12 hours of sun a day throughout the year.\u00a0 When the sun is up, it is fierce.<\/p>\n Morning and evening walks are the most comfortable when the sun is low and there is a bit of an overcast.<\/p>\n Evenings are when the egrets (called garcas<\/em> in Portuguese) visit the shallow tide ponds.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n With a little careful framing of the photo the beach looks a bit more deserted that it really is.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n On days like this we walk on a running-bicycling sidewalk above the beach.\u00a0 This takes us past the bars and restaurants.\u00a0 In early morning some of the kite surfers are getting ready, and the boot camp has moved to the high ground. \u00a0 As the photo below shows, the supports are exposed during low tide and much of the day.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The bars all have similar engineering.\u00a0 Here, early in the morning, the heroes of the beach (in orange) clean things up for another day of humans.\u00a0 They wear full orange suits with hats and neck covers, looking a bit like a disposal crew for hazardous waste (which is not entirely untrue).\u00a0 Each morning they take a break in shade of one of the bars on stilts.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In late October we moved to another temporary apartment a bit further from the beach and more to the west along its trajectory.\u00a0 We still visit it once or twice a day, but new location changes the view a bit.\u00a0 In an earlier post I described the physical sensations of living at the equator and … Continue reading Some more thoughts about the beach<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-images-of-sao-luis-and-maranhao"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1175"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1411,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1175\/revisions\/1411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.meredithwwatts.com\/MWBrazilBlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>The dunes shield the beach from the south side (where the road and pedestrian walks and restaurants are).<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>Some days the tides are high.\u00a0 This day was one of heavy overcast and the night before one of a full moon.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>