Days 3 - 4... To the Beach! By Carolyn Sauck

  Picinguaba, Brazil
Monday, December 3, 2007

After a 3.5 hour drive from the city, we arrived in Picinguaba right at sunset and took some great photos over the Atlantic.

Sunset from the top of the hill

Islands in sunset

More sunset

From the Picinguaba beach

Rejane and Carolyn at Sunset

On the walk from the village to the beach house (up about 50 steps), we ran into some local boys who offered to help us carry our bags... Turns out they charged R$2 or US$1 per trip, whether they carried a bag with tennis shoes or a 50 lb back pack upside down.  Anyway...

Another nice view

There is a main house on the hill, and a guest suite a little higher up the hill.  Erin was surprised by the fact that the doors and windows remained open most of the day with no screens.  The yard was complete with papaya, avocado, and banana trees.

Alan's Guest House

Alan's House

Stairs from Guest House to Main House

A Flowering Plant Outside the Window

Internal View of Alan's Home

We tried to go for a quick run before dark to begin our NZ rugby training program, but it got dark quicker than expected, so we had to cut the run short (mainly because Erin was afraid of the "jungle animals" that could have run out from the Atlantic forest on either side of the road)...  I was ready to keep going, Herb!  We headed back, ate dinner, and called it an early night.

Daily Fresh Squeezed OJ

Yummy Papaya

Saturday morning we walked from the sleepy fishing village of Picinguaba to Praia da Fazenda,

Praia da Fazenda

the nearest beach... a "short" walk up and down a giant hill (you can tell how high we were from the sunset photo above), down a trail, through a soccer field, down a smaller trail, and a wade across a waist high 40 ft. Atlantic channel).  Erin and I walked all the way down and back the 4 km beach, running into no more than 20 people along the way.  We stopped to swim and cool off in the ocean a few times and to watch a couple of surfers attempt to catch some waves.  Erin was very impressed by the plethora of speedos, worn by men young, old, skinny, fat, hairy, and more hairy.

We ate lunch at a beach-front bar (fried calamari and fish, both fresh from the Atlantic and 3 Brahmas, the Brazilian Bud Light).

Eating Calamari at the beachfront bar

A quick nap and very hilly telephone pole intervals (in the daylight this time) followed.
 
While relaxing on the front porch hammocks that evening, Erin suddenly froze mid-sentence.  She had spotted a giant black spider.  After the initial shock, she threw her legs up into my hammock, mind you, the spider was nearly 8 feet away and not moving an inch.  Erin was really excited, and she wanted to watch its behavior to see how quick it was.  She tried throwing a candy wrapper at it, but it didn't budge.  While she was deciding her next move, Rejane stepped outside and non-chalantely stomped on it with her Croc.  A weird stink filled the air and Erin is still convinced it was poisonious! 

Sleeping that night was not easy, considering a live band started playing down on the beach at about 10 PM and the sound carries right up the hill!  Erin heard dogs barking (think "all dog alert" from 101 Dalmations) somewhere in town in the middle of the night.  She also mentioned that she heard a woman screaming or singing at about 4 am... she had figured some locals may have drank too much down at the beach.  After I woke up around 7:30 (Erin woke me up for an early morning run), she heard the "scream" again.  Turn's out Erin isn't too farm-saavy... the "screams" were actually roosters crowing at dawn.

Picinguaba Bay

After our 8 km run (down and back on the Praia da Fazenda), we had breakfast and paid a local fisherman to take us to Ilha das Coves, a 10-minute motor boat ride away.

Picinguaba Fishing Boat (Shout out to Ari)

A Narrative to Ilha das Coves

We spent a couple of hours having fun on the beach,

Sleep on beach + restless Erin = ...

 

Beach at Ilha das Coves

ignoring the 15 oogling speedo clad men, having a "boys day at the beach" who yelled "look at the mermaids" as we jumped in the water.

Back at Picinguaba, we had a late lunch and hit the road back to Sao Paulo. 

View Ascending the Sierra