| During the late-nineteenth-century
coffee boom, the interior of the state of São Paulo was synonomous with
coffee, with the area around São Carlos, today a bustling
university city 150km northwest of Americana, a particularly important
producer of the commodity. Today the farms around the city are largely
given over to sugar cane and oranges, and little evidence remains of the
area’s coffee-producing past. However, the Fazenda do Pinhal, one
of the oldest surviving and amongst the best-preserved rural estates in
the state of São Paulo, is well worth a visit. |
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| It’s an easy day-trip
from either Americana or Campina, but you’ll need your own transport.
The fazenda is located off the SP-310 highway: at Km 227 take the
exit for Riberão Bonito and then turn immediately onto the much smaller
Estrada da Broa. After about 4km you’ll see a sign marking the fazenda’s
entrance. It’s essential to call in advance (tel 016/272-5683); the
entrance charge, including an excellent two-hour tour, is $30 – a fixed
fee for either a large group or an individual.
The casa grande – the main house – was
built in 1831 and, typical of the period, was modelled after the large,
comfortable Portuguese city dwellings of the eighteenth century. Although
the house was enlarged and renovated several times over the following
century, its basic structure and appearance have remained much the same,
and it retains its original furnishings. For several decades Pinhal’s
main source of income was cattle raising, and it only switched to coffee
in the late nineteenth century; the large terreiro, or terrace for
drying coffee beans, is evidence of this. There are numerous outbuildings,
including senzalas (slave quarters), warehouses and a simple, but
very pretty, chapel.
It’s not possible to stay at the Fazenda do
Pinhal, but 47km to the northwest at SP-310 Km 274, just outside
Araraquara, there’s another fazenda, which, although
architecturally not nearly as important as the Fazenda do Pinhal, has been
developed into a superb hotel, the Fazenda Salto Grande (tel
016/222-4169; $50–70 full board). Developed as a coffee plantation in
the late nineteenth century, the main house and outbuildings of the estate
now form the basis of a luxury hotel, with two swimming pools, horse
riding, comfortable rooms and excellent country cooking. |