Cáceres Highlight Reel

Yesterday I took the bus from Cáceres back to Cuiabá.  During my five weeks in Cáceres, I researched at three different archives, enjoyed a trip on the Paraguay River and a day trip to Fazenda Jacobina, sampled some regional cuisine, and met some wonderful people.  I was a little sad to leave, but because of the friends and professional contacts I gained, I'm sure I'll be back more than once in the coming years.  Here are some highlights of my time there.

1. Research at three different archives - UNEMAT/NUDHEO, Arquivo Municipal, and Arquivo do Fórum de Cáceres

 My work space at the Arquivo Municipal de Cáceres

Original home place of Alexander Daveron.  He purchased the property in the early 1950s intending to build a lodge that would serve as a base for hunting and fishing expeditions in the Pantanal.

 Renovated and re-purposed after his death in the late 1980s, today it houses the local cultural/tourism ministry, SEMATUR.  Hanging from the ceiling is Daveron's old fleet of American-made canoes.

 

A back-porch work space

 A view of downtown Cáceres from Daveron's property

2.  Paraguay River boat ride and Fazenda Jacobina day trip

A bridge over the Paraguay River wasn't completed until the 1960s.  Before that it was ferries, boats, and rafts.  Today, the bridge and highway running to the border connects eastern Bolivia with the rest of Mato Grosso and beyond.

 A view from the river of the church on the main square, downtown Cáceres

 River banks at the end of the dry season.  Rising waters during the rainy season will spill over these banks and flood the surrounding countryside until about April when the rains end.

 Capybaras.  In the 1930s and 40s, hunters killed tens of thousands of them annually.  Most of the hides ended up on the market in Montevideo or Buenos Aires or were reexported to Europe or the United States

 In the background, hidden within the trees, you can see a house built on stilts to avoid the annual floods.  In other parts of the Pantanal, rural populations practice transhumance, seasonally migrating between the river's edge (fish) and the higher grounds where they cultivate small plots of land. 

Fazenda Jacobina, the oldest cattle ranch in the region, dating from the 18th century.

 Relaxing with my housemates, Ingrid and Socorro.

3. Trying new foods, including Amazonian fruits that I'd never heard of, staples of the Brazilian northeast, and regional cuisine from the Pantanal.

Jaca (pictured above) and cupuaçu were the strangest.

 Tapioca nordestina, courtesy of friend, colleague, and housemate Socorro.  Gummy and manioc-based.  Can fill them with salty (cheese, lunch meat, carne seca, etc) or sweet (chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, fruit sauces, etc)

Trying caldo de cana (sugar cane juice) 

at the local market

I even got the chance to go to a local food festival featuring things like pintado (fish), pacu (fish), and carne de jacaré (farmed caiman meat)

4. Friends - I met some great people here in Cáceres.  After only a week there, a history professor that I met offered me a spare room in her house.  It was much better (and economical) than staying in a hotel for a month and gave me a chance to benefit from her vast knowledge of Brazilian history.  The friends I made in the law department showed me all over town, helped me gain access to the judicial archives, and pushed me to think more critically about the theoretical underpinnings of my research.

Socorro's house

My room

  Out with friends on my last night in town.