After spending months planning and researching our trip, one of the things that stood out about this area is a massive great hotel that was built years ago and failed. I finally got to see it in real life (albeit from a distance from the hotel steps). One of those strange feelings you get seeing something in real life that you’ve only seen on a screen.
Today was a short drive to the most Eastern point of the Americas. The first photo is taken when I am standing even further East, being out into the water a bit. It was a bit murky today, the sand is very similar to Takapuna and it can stir up a bit. There is a reef area just offshore that you can take a boat out to and swim, but for some reason none of them are going until next week at the earliest. Maybe the water is just too cold right now. It was slightly cooler than yesterday, an arctic 26c. I absolutely love the practice of having tables, chairs and umbrellas outside of cantinas (I think they are called), and you’re able to buy drinks and food from them. It’s so much more comfortable than arsing about with your own gear that rots and breaks over the winter. Since this area doesn’t really get a winter they probably get used year round.
After a few hours we headed off to Farol do Cabo Branco which is a unique looking lighthouse. It was a bit of challenge getting there, with a loose group of people charging R$5 to park down a ramshackle road and amongst some kind of flat areas and trees. Seems legit. Actually once again it is far more professional and safer than any of the Wilsons carparks in NZ.
The lighthouse is right next to the carpark but is behind a bunch of fences. We discovered, no thanks to some rubbish signs, that to get to it we needed to go through an area with food kiosks, concrete zoo animals and a whole bunch of souvenir and clothing shops. I’m not sure this is all legit, but that seems to be the way in Brazil.
The lighthouse is much larger than I thought it would be, and there were a fair few people there taking photos of, in front of and around it.
The next stop was the bank of the Paraiba do Norte River where each evening the sunset is accompanied by a saxophone payer on a boat. Because reasons.
We avoided the hordes of guys selling tickets to the party barges that take punters out onto the river for awful music and the same view as you can see from shore. We quickly found a restaurant upstairs that had a balcony to view the sunset, complete with powerlines in the way. It was a well lit dinner at this point as well, due to the evening sun coming directly in, which set the scene.
For dinner we chose a bunch of starters, which I will definitely be trying to make back home, especially the first one. Pretty simple but charred beef strips, red onions, crispy bread and gravy is so good! Chicken strips and little beef parcels in a short pastry rounded it off. And no, no salad other than the garnish. They just don’t do that here for some reason.
After a very short while, the sunset kicked in. Being so close to the equator, the sun kind of sets directly downwards instead of an angle so it’s really quick, and early 5:14pm. That means the sun rises at 4:50am, and they don’t do daylight savings here.
And cue the saxophone player on a boat, weaving around the barges.
The after-sunset was pretty spectacular as well, just a lovely evening with a warm breeze and a street market. Fantastic way to be on holiday.
We spotted a tiny ice cream shop that had all sorts of local fruits – here we have morango (pink), açaí (dark brown), abacaxi (pale yellow) and pitanga (orange). Definitely full after this.
Afterwards we took a stroll down past the markets, where I went solo at one point and found some assistants that spoke English, some that said they did but utterly did not and some that didn’t but we managed to exchange tat for cash.
There were also cats everywhere. They cruised in and out of the shops, and were pretty laid back. It could explain why we haven’t seen any local birds or much wildlife around.
Finally on the way back we passed by the traditional October Christmas display in a mall. I guess there isn’t anything else to celebrate between now and December.
Finally I’ve uploaded a video clip from the Uber, kind of shows a bit of the madness that is a constant presence here on the roads. It’s a bit hard to see but the woman on the motorbike in front of us is moving a bag from under her arm to the front of the driver. We were so close to them that if anything went wrong they were going under.