Country feel
Old houses.
Ilha dos Marinheiros, «Sailors' Island», is a rural island in the south of the great Lagoa dos Patos, part of the city of Rio Grande in Brazil's far south, about one and a half kilometres from the mainland at its nearest point and some 39 square kilometres in area. It is the largest and most fertile island in the lagoon, home to about 1,300 people, most of Portuguese descent, and is counted among the city's heritage for keeping the culture of its Portuguese settlers. It once supplied the town of Rio Grande with water, firewood and timber, and it still grows about 80% of the vegetables the city eats. Emperor Pedro II visited it in 1845. Visitors come for its quiet country feel, old houses, orchards and gardens and its lagoon beaches, with a line of dunes in the south.
Old houses.
The city's vegetables.
And southern dunes.
Southern Lagoa dos Patos, Rio Grande municipality, Rio Grande do Sul state
About 80% of the vegetables eaten in Rio Grande.