Blog: Beaches, Caipirinhas and Brazil

Its monday afternoon in Brazil, and today i’m in Paraty, 150km west of Rio de Janeiro. Its been a while since I’ve sat down to write a post, and because I’ve taken so long, i have far too much to write about. As a result, im just going to try as much as i can…

We met Cam and Kyla in Rio, as was posted before, and our short stay (3 days) there was mainly spent on the beaches. The first month and a half of our travels was spent racing across 3 countries to make it to Rio in time for Cam and Kyla to arrive, which we accomplished with about 5 hours to spare. For this reason – along with the 4am nights out to Lapa – we spent the majority of our time on the beaches. The night before we left Rio, we got a chance to go see a futball match, between Botofogo and Flamengo (two of the four teams, and cross town rivals of Rio), and lets just say the seats were as much as a show than the field. When we scored, people were pouring beers on their heads and thousands of people would sing their songs, jumping up in down, in a way that i have never seen before. It was truly something everyone should experience. Unfortunately “our team” (ie, our section) – Flamengo – was winning 2-1 up until the last minute of extra time, when Botofogo scored, and our section stormed out of the Stadium (the worlds largest, with over 100,000 seats) kicking seats and throwing beers in the general direction of the field.

The whole purpose of Cam and Kyla’s 2 week vacation was to go to Brazil and live it up on the beaches. So instead of the over-crowded beaches of Rio, we hopped on a bus and headed 100km east to Saquarema.  Let me first start by saying that Caipirinha’s are one of the most wonderful things ever invented. Its a mixture of sugar can brandy, lime juice and more sugar. Lets just say after a few of these, your night just kinda falls into place. The only problem with them, is some places make them better than others, and as a result, when you find a good one, its hard not to have 5. Now that you have at least a breif background of Caprihnas, you can understand our stay in Saquarema. The town is a little fishing village crammed inbetween the Atlantic and a series of lagoons. We arrived mid afternoon in the center of the town, and with no idea where our hotel was, we went walking in the direction we thought looked best.  It must have been 30 degrees when we got off the bus, and we had to walk 1.5km to the hotel, but once we arrived it was well worth it. We were greeted by Allan, a 24 year old surf bum, and from this moment on the tone was set. Our rooms were secluded arround the back from the main part of the hotel, and we had our own patio outside our rooms. This patio extended out to the back of the hotel property, which merged into the  white sand of the beach, and from the back patio we were able to sit and watch the surf breaks.

The town normally serves as a summer vacation resort for residents of Rio and other surrounding times, but in the off season (when we arrived) is definitely more laid back. Half the restaurants were closed the week, and it wasn’t until friday that we even knew the beach had any sort of life other than the surfers who arrived during the daylight hours. Our first couple of days here we did nothing more than relax on the beach all day long, or surf the waves for a couple hours and at night sit on the patio drinking beers and playing ‘asshole’ (a card game used by travellers to kill time in order to get drunk.) There was a restaurant, less than a 5 minute walk from our hotel, Pipicoes, which had the best (and cheapest) caipirinhas in town. [Up until 2 days ago, they held the title of best caipirinha’s in Brazil, but fortunately in Paraty we have found one that has surpassed Saquarema]

On our third day in town, Allan was able to round up the other guests and organize a boat tour of the surrounding beaches. We didn’t think much of it before hand, but this was one of the highlights of the trip. We drove an hour to Arraial de Cabo, another fishing/surf town to the east situated at the furthest south-eastern tip of Brazil. We got out of the cramped van and walked in the water to the boat, and in no time we were off cutting across the bay into the clearest and greenest waters i have ever been in. Allan then surprised everyone by bringing out a couple joints, which we all happily passed around (everyone including Allan’s mother – who joined us for the trip – and the captain). Our first stop was a massive cave on the outside edge of the island that protects the bay of Arrial de Cabo. We drove the boat right into the cave, and did a full 180 before exiting again. After a quick swim to cool off, the captain decided to take us to the warmer water, and for almost an hour we took turns snorkelling and watching the tropical fish or lazing about on the deck. We cruised the bay the rest of the afternoon, with a few stops here and there, and ended up at a floating restaurant, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We were treated to a $5 seafood meal, and knocked back a few beers and Caprihnas. Exhausted and full we returned to port. The last stop of the day was the hills above Arraial de Cabo, where we arrived just in time to watch the sunset over the Atlantic Ocean. Our perfect day complete, we returned to the hotel, had a few more beers and went to sleep.

…to be continued…