Over the weekend the Portuguese traditional music called Fado made the official UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Today the net is alive with postings of everyone’s favorite Fado video.
Fado, a song derived from the longing that piles up when sailors are a long way from home plying the seas for new lands. It was poor people’s music, with a type of controlled emotion you don’t get from rich people’s whining.
The UNESCO video gives you a wonderful look at the history of the genre.
The video mentions the Fado Museum in Lisbon, which I really enjoyed. See more on the Fado Museum including a map.
Arouca Geopark, in Portugal’s Norte region (see: Region Map) was the site of a recent conference on Geotourism in Action.
National Geo’s Jonathan Tourtellot has written a fine primer to the concept of Geotourism after returning from the conference. He describes an interesting nook in northern Portugal:
Arouca Geopark itself is a good example of how this works. Its several “geosites” include a slate quarry rich in fossils of giant trilobites and a curious formation seen nowhere else: “Rocks giving birth to rocks”—granite that releases nodules of biotite as it erodes. According to folklore, local women thought the puck-size nodules promoted fertility.
But Arouca’s other cultural and natural connections are just as interesting: wines dependent on the terroir, flavorful beef from cattle raised in the mountains, lots of scenic hiking trails, a magnificent monastery made from local granite, and striking village roofs of free-form slate. You might not visit Arouca just for trilobites, but you would for the whole experience. ~ UNESCO’s Geoparks “Clarify” Geotourism
The town of Arouca is interesting for tourists not only for its unique geography, but for the Monastery of Arouca, founded in the 10th century and dedicated to Saint Peter. The monastery is considered to be one of the richest Cistercian monasteries in Portugal. It belonged to the Order of Cistercians, and is built from the local granite.
If you’re interested in active vacations in rural areas where learning about the geology and how it’s been used is part of the fun, the the area around Arouca may be just the place. There are many important cities close to Arouca, including Braga, Guimarães, Chaves Porto (and the Douro valley) is only 65 km away.
Fado is generally perceived as sad music. As in blues, folks at one time exorcised the sadness of lost love by continually reminding themselves of it until they were sick of it. And thus it disappeared and one’s life could continue. Magic.
Today we’re in the crowded arena with the “Don’t worry. Be happy” posters lining the padded walls. Remembrance? There’s an app for that.
Fado, even, has taken off in a new direction. Forget all your troubles and cares (the bailout is coming!), make sure at least one foot is free to tap, and listen:
Perhaps you’ve never heard of Jose Berardo, born José Manuel Rodrigues Berardo. He’s a bit of a hero in Portugal, especially Madeira Island where he was born to a family of modest means and turned his intuition and sense of adventure into a fortune. Along the way, he collected art, minerals, and ethnographic objects, which he’s displayed for everyone to see.
You should read his bio: The Man behind the Collection. He left on his first adventure for South Africa with a boatload of men looking for greener pastures after Salazar closed the brothels in Portugal.
From then on, cleverness, insight, and intuition brought him wealth.
He’s a kind of rich person you can actually like. In fact, I’m going to spoil your biography reading and quote the last sentence:
And this open-ended story began on 4 July 1944 with a man’s desire to go down in history starting from the principle that nothing really belongs to us in this life.
For those of us who push tourism as a means of learning about the world, its people, and the clever solutions for social problems that folks have come up with across the globe, this is the kind of thing we like to hear, especially coming from a place (the US) in which petroleum is (the only) king, because people there have seemed to have lost their cleverness in finding energy solutions like this:
His latest investment is in the energy sector, involving a volcanic power station, a project currently restricted to Nicaragua, but which may extend to the whole of South America. Remaining loyal to non-polluting markets, he has continued to invest in tourism associated with culture as the best way of creating jobs.
But this article is about what the man has built, repaired and collected—and how to see them. You can see Jose Berardo’s collections in a variety of places in Portugal, including the Alianca Underground Museum & Winery in which Mr. Berardo is a majority owner.
“On display is a unique and fascinating collection of art and geological pieces. Featured in the archaeology collection are 1500 year old terra cotta figurines from ancient culture Bura-Asinda-Sika, Niger, in Africa. Also from the African continent is a large collection of ethnographic objects used in rituals and everyday life. On display are masks, statues and weapons, as well as jewelry, cooking utensils and items of prestige.”
He also restored the Quinto do Monte Hotel. The adjacent gardens are spectacular, and include the Monte Palace Museum, where you’ll see the African carvings and Brazilian mineral collection as you see in the pictures on this page (click them to see them larger. The hotel has amazing food, an amazing view over the island (from each room), and if you want a romantic and almost tropical paradise for your romantic vision—this could be the place for you.
And you’ll get to know Madeira’s hero Jose Berardo just by taking it all in.
What goes with great wine? Great and tasty food, a given—but there’s also fine arts, and there isn’t a much better place to take it all in than the Douro valley.
The 2011 version of the Douro film festival runs from 5-11 September 2011. Each year the “Ruby Selection” highlights films from one of the world’s major wine producing regions. This year it’s Brazil. Brazilian director Carlos (Cacá) Diegues picks up the “Tawny Tribute” for Lifetime achievement in film.
Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris, a film that’s getting raves from folks in the US, will also play here.
There’s lots to do at the festival besides watching compelling films; the auditorium in Alijó will host an exhibition celebrating Fado on opening night in support of fado’s candidature for World Heritage classification.
About the Douro Valley
The Douro is the third largest river in the Iberian Peninsula, and reaches from Porto to Miranda do Douro and into Spain.
The Douro Valley is an off the beaten track delight for tourists, and you don’t have to enjoy wine to enjoy the territory. One can easily visit Guimarães, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that is going to be European Capital of Culture in 2012, while lovers of wine oddities might seek out nearby Boticas, where Vinho dos Mortos, the Portuguese Wine of the Dead is produced.
Get Information on the Douro Film Harvest 2011
The official site has a very well done component in English: Douro Film Harvest
