JUSTIN YOUNG

Brazilian beach goers are pretty interesting. They are not body conscious like many Americans, you will frequently see 200+ pound women in bikinis. One of my favorite things about the Brazilian beach culture is everyone breaks into cheer and applause the moment the sun goes down. It’s amazing, especially when you are on a packed beach with thousands of people. One of the quirkiest things about Brazilian beach-goers is, they want to sit very close to each other. There will be miles of beach and for some reason they want to be right next to each other. I think it has something to do with a primitive herding mentality. This photo is one of my favorites from the trip. These people tried to recruit us into their cult, but we kept our distance.

Our Brazilian friend Adnan who lives in San Francisco said Guarda do Embaú (map) is a must see place if you are in the Florianopolis area. It’s about 50km from the city centre and it takes 1-3 hours to get there. 3 hours in our case, because of course, they were setting dynamite charges in the hillsides along the highway. We spent two hours waiting around with 40 truckers, a few families, and a guy selling car phone chargers. Then finally, they let us pass! We made the turn onto an old cobblestone road and saw the sign for Guarda do Embaú!

We drove into town and checked out the various pousadas for the best place to stay. We chose the Pousada Da Preta, which is right in the center, close to the beach and places to eat and drink. We got a two bedroom place for R$150, roughly $30 per person. All places in Brazil seem to charge you per person, most of them give you a seriously home cooked breakfast included in the price.

The town has a rustic, island style feel, all cobblestone and dirt roads, lots of oxidized painted wooden buildings. Everyone is very laid back in town, and there’s lots of beach goers, surfers, and nomads selling handmade jewelry. Here are some photos of the town:

You can’t walk to the beach in Guarda, you either have to swim or take a boat. A small lagoon separates the town and the ocean. Water taxis shuttle people back and forth for R$2.

When you get out to the main part of the beach, there’s a few stands that sell food and drinks and rent things like chairs and umbrellas. The best surf is directly out front, and this is where i got the best surfing during the week. Local buses from Floripa drop people off here, so the main beach can get crowded during the day, but when you look down to the south, it’s completely pristine beach and sand dunes. Nothing but water, sand, and bird parties. We could have easily stayed here for a week.

And finally here are the post cards:

Jan 25 was a brutal travel day, the kind you might expect when traveling overseas during Christmas in a snow storm. What we thought was going to be an easy flight with one connection from Salvador to Florianopolis (wiki), turned into a turbulent 4 city tour tour that lasted over 15 hours. We were diverted from Rio to Victoria because of bad weather and sat on a runway there until heading back to Rio. Our original flight had left so they put us on another carrier whose flight was delayed by 2 hours. We stopped in another city then finally landed in Florianopolis at 2 am. Wow! Someone told me before we left that when you ask how long it will take to drive somewhere, it’s common for Brazilians to say “it takes 6-12 hours to get there.” I didn’t think that would apply to air travel.

We finally arrived at the Hotel São Sebastião in Campeche (map) at 3am. The place is a little private oasis with two story brick cottages scattered about the property. It’s a short walk from the beach and our travel woes were long forgotten when we woke up to a perfect sunny day.

We walked down the beach a ways and saw a lady selling boat rides out to the lush little island about a half mile offshore. We gave her $R30 each and they packed our stuff up in a plastic bag and shuttled us out in zodiac style rubber boats. The island is called Ihla do Campeche (map), and when we arrived, they told us that it was an ecological preserve and we had to have a guide take us on hikes if we wanted to go. They also told us not to feed the little children that lived in the woods. When the guy finished his welcome spiel, Bella made sure we got the translation right and what he actually said was do not feed the little animals that live in the woods. No one on the island obeyed this order. As you can see, these little animals are very cute and they want your food!

These little Brazilian aardvarks are called Quati (wiki) and they are part of the raccoon family Procyonidae. We were contemplating taking one home because they seemed so friendly, but the waiter at the beach bar said they will bite on occasion, and that most dogs are no match for them. They also have rabies, and fairly large, razor sharp teeth. No one seem to care about this fact though, they kept eating out of peoples hands. Many of them were taking food back into this little opening in the forest, this went on for a couple hours until they all disappeared for a while. I kept picturing 20 Quati sitting at long table in the jungle, with a huge pile of food having thanksgiving. Meanwhile we were having our own feast, we ordered a huge anchovy cooked right there on the beach!

We spent all day at this picture perfect beach and at 4:30 they came to pick us up and shuttle us back to the main island. Here’s the post card…

I finally made it to Salvador (map) (wiki) after a very long travel time of almost 28 hours. My layover in Manaus(post) was 9 hours, so by the time i landed, I was absolutely travel thrashed. Bella and Cristina had a taxi waiting for me at the airport, finally on the ground!

We woke up the next morning and went to the very popular Praia do Flamengo (map). The place has beach front restaurant/bars up and down the beach and what looks like a million umbrellas as far as the eye can see.

We got a beach side table at one of the restaurants and then feasted on pretty much everything that looked good. Crab, fish, fried cheese, acarajé, we hung out for about 6 hours eating, drinking, and floating in the 80 degree ocean. Great first day in Brazil!