The past is great trophy for the future of the city of Ceará Mirim in the consolidation of tourism. Today its potential is represented by the coast line, formed for beautiful beaches of Jacumã, Porto Mirim and Muriú, but tomorrow its beautiful mansions, some restored, and its sugar cane mills certainly compliment any tourist roteiro, beyond the traditional sun and sea.

Ceará Mirim is quite close to Natal, only 26 kilometers by asphalt highway (101 Br and Br 406). But it has a difference that it could very well be used to advantage soon: railroad tours. It has a passenger train leaving Natal, every day, except Sunday, covering 27 kilometers of landscapes that go from the urbanism of Natal, crossing the Potengi River, the lagoon of Extremoz and the sugar cane fields.

Before being called the Village of Ceará Mirim, on the edges of river of the same name, in the time of Brazil Empire, it was called "Boca da Mata". By the way, this town blossomed in the same land of the Janduís Indians and is where the Indian Poti was born, the great warrior from whose name originated the term 'potiguar', which now identifies Brazilians born in Rio Grande do Norte. In the year of 1855, the town of Boca da Mata was raised to the category of village, with the name of Briosa Vila do Ceará - Mirim that only a few months later the qualifying "Briosa" started to call itself in 1858 the city of Ceará - Mirim.

The narrow roads, that tamed the sertão and the coast for the sugar mills, had already been established along the edges of the river, crossed in that town. The history of Ceará Mirim discloses that, before 1843, the sugar mill Carnaubal functioned, established to the left of the river by Antonio Bento Viana, and in 1845 Mr. Manoel Raposo da Câmara installed the sugar mill Porão do Norte, along the right edge of the same river. During the century XIX (19th century) the region was marked by a sugar cane aristocracy, formed for by a slave-owning society of sugar mill owners, nobles and title bearers of the empire, such as the colonels and barons which entered into decay with the abolition of slavery.

A stroll to the past to this sugar cane aristocracy is the main invitation that Ceará Mirim makes to the tourist who if interested to know more the life of a Northeast of contradictions, where the nobility never crossed the same sidewalk with the poor and slaves. History can be evidenced in books of the Municipal Library Dr. Jose Pacheco Dantas and in the archives of the Guaporé Museum (located in Guaporé) and the Foundation Nilo Pereira

You cannot leave without observing the wealth of the architecture of the large houses that had sheltered that aristocracy such as the Sobrado dos Antunes, the Sugar Mill Guaporé, the College Santa Águeda and the school of the Group Felipe Camarão. Also in the center of the city is the great and beautiful Matriz de Nossa Senhora da Conceição, constructed between 1858 and 1900,considered the biggest Catholic temple in Rio Grande do Norte and the Municipal Public Market, where the typical food as chicken caipira, carne do sol with macaxeira, grude, tapioca, green beans, paçoca, picado (sarapatel), buchada, with milk rice are the "plates of the day". On Saturday, an immense fair if forms there, frequented by the families from the small farms and the neighboring cities.

Ah! If you do not have problems with the scale nor with sugar, then it is a sin to go the Ceará Mirim and not to take garapa or broth of sugar cane with candy bread and to buy and to supply with all the derivatives of the sugar cane, such as rapadura, the sugar mascavo, and the honey from the sugar mills.

Ceará - Mirim is a city whose main economic activity is agriculture in virtue of the great amount of agricultural communities and farms. However tourist activity comes as a new perspective for the economy of the city, together with textile production, agro-industry and fish (and shrimp) farming.

Tourist information for Ceará Mirim

Secretaria - Endereço: Rua Heráclito Vilar, s/n - Bairro Santa Águeda - Cep: 59570-000 - Fone: 84-3274-5924 - Fax: 84-3274-5908.

Access - BR 101 (Natal / Touros), BR 406 (Natal / Macau), RN 064 (Ceará - Mirim / Touros), RN 160 (Ceará - Mirim / Maxaranguape);

Ferrovia (train) - Natal / Ceará - Mirim line.

Transport: Bus companies Unidos, Brandão, Cabral and vans (transporte alternativo), link the city with Natal.

Lodging/Meals: There are small pousadas for those that wish to spend the night and small restaurants, between them a self-service and one churrascaria. For those that like exotic sea foods there is the Bar of the Goiamum (Rua Oscar Brandão, 454 - 084-274-4299).