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Stumbling Onto a Bahiano Making Dendê Oil in Santo Amaro, Brazil
To escape the humid exhaustion of the city, urbanites arrive to Santo Amaro in droves longing for a day with nature. Near a makeshift one-room hut they stop to rest, slathering more sunblock on their glistening arms and necks, dropping backpacks, thermoses, and other essential gear to the ground. The bright green canopy overhead provides shade from the throbbing heat, and swarms of mosquitoes are drawn to the smell of coconut and sweat. A young man in dusty capoeira pants squats barefoot next to a water pump, grinding pulpy orange palm fruit in a large bowl with a wooden masher. The juice mingles with rivulets of water on the ground, staining the grass and his feet dark yellow and lending a sweetness to the salty tang in the air. Watching the tourists with mild interest, he allows them to fill their water bottles at the pump. In searching for their own oasis, they've stumbled onto his.
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