Boipeba - an island without traffic, with poor power and no nightlife. It is part of a prefecture consisting of three islands: Mouro de Sau Paulo, Cairu and Boipeba. As in a microcosm, the opposing developments of the Brazilian society are shown here. There are 2,000 people living on Boipeba, they do not want motorized traffic on the island, they pay close attention to the environmental protection and try to convince the few tourists. Cairu has a mainland connection: a bridge. Here the mayor sits in a small office not far from the oldest monastery of Brazil. In Mouro de Sau Paulo cars drive, although the island has no connection to the mainland. Beaches 1 to 7 are at daytime, as nightly in the hands of tourists. Large hotels stand right on the beaches. Loud music darts out into sea. At noon they go into the speedboats and take a trip to Boipeba. Here they try to enlighten the inhabitants in yellow canoes. Please do not get on the corals, do not take mussels or artifacts with you. The tours only smile, and after a while you can see the first ones on the corals. Air line one kilometer away is the beach of Morere small fishermen pushing to the beach a tiny path leading through the mangroves to the deserted beach of Beinema. 3 kilometers long, a coconut palm plantation stretches along the entire beach, and with the exception of some pickers, nobody is on the beach. The people here live from agriculture, from fishing and a little from tourism.
Photojournalist | GERMANY | Dirk Gebhardt
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