Explore The Northeast
João Pessoa, capital of the state of Paraíba, is the most attractive of the smaller northeastern cities, with some of the finest town beaches in the area, a beautiful setting on the mouth of the Rio Sanhauá, and colonial remains, including one of Brazil’s most striking churches. Not enough foreign travellers make it to the city for the pessoenses to have become blasé about them, so you’re likely to be approached by smiling kids who are anxious to practise their hard-learned English.
Out of the city, there are even nicer beaches to the north and south, while the highway inland leads to Campina Grande, a market town strategically placed at the entrance to the sertão. The main target of the interior is the fascinating pilgrim town of Juazeiro do Norte; while it’s actually in neighbouring Ceará state, it’s covered here because it’s most easily accessible from Paraíba.
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Inland to Campina Grande
Inland to Campina Grande
The BR-230, a good-quality asphalt road, bisects Paraíba and leads directly into the sertão. The green coastal strip is quickly left behind as the road climbs into the hills and the second city of Paraíba, CAMPINA GRANDE, linked to João Pessoa by hourly bus (2hr). It’s a large town, similar in many ways to Caruaru in Pernambuco: even the slogan you see at the city limits – “Welcome to the Gateway of the Sertão” – is the same. Like Caruaru, Campina Grande owes its existence to a strategic position between the agreste and the sertão proper. It’s a market town and centre of light industry, where the products of the sertão are stockpiled and sent down to the coast, and where the people of the sertão come to buy what they can’t make – at a large Wednesday and Saturday market, you can see this process unfolding before your eyes.
