On Saturday afternoon Andre, Leandro and myself headed off to Ubatuba beach to stay for a few days. It takes about 4-6 hours of driving through Sao Paulo busy city centre, then through beautiful country side then over steep hills on extreme curved roads to get to the beach. By the time we headed into these jungle covered hills/mountains it had started to get a bit dark (around 6pm) and very misty as we were driving through clouds. At one stage we could only see about 10 metres in front! There was another car in front of us so that made it a bit easier because we could see their tail lights.
We met one of Andre’s cousins, Wellington, at the service station where we stopped for some food. He showed us to a nice Chalê that we could rent while we were there. It wasn’t too bad apart from being a little musty smelling and having a padded vinyl ‘cushie toushie’ toilet seat! It was only R$35 each per night so I guess we couldn’t complain!
So we headed out that night with Wellington to check out the town a bit. There were heaps of nice shops and places to eat, and the area was full of people looking to have fun. We bought some tickets to a nightclub called 180º (the boys paid R$20 but I was free J) that we would go to at about midnight. Until then, Leandro practiced on his new skateboard at the local skate park with Wellington and Andre and me headed off to check out the markets. On our way we past a car music competition where a lot of people had fixed up their cars to house huge speakers. There were some amazing cars with really strong sound and some dodgy ones with really bad crackly sound! There were lots of kids around dancing and lots of stalls selling snacks or ‘lanches’ (not lunches, which is almoço, confusing I know!). We got to the markets which were selling things like, jewellery, clothing, bags, sarongs (kangas) and souvenirs. I bought a bag for R$24 and some little souvenirs and one earring for R$8. Over here they have elaborate feather earrings that you wear just in one ear, so I thought I would buy one to wear that night. When we walked back to meet Leandro and Wellington, Andre noticed some kids break dancing. He jumped right in and introduced himself and started teaching them some tricks!
So we went back to the Chalê and got ready to go out. We went and had some snacks and drinks at Sucolandia (juice land). We had huge Pao do Queijo and some Acai juice to give us some energy. The area where all the markets were was like a large bay and on the edge, the land came out on a point, this was were the club was located so it had a beautiful view of all the islands and was right above waves crashing on the rocks below. Most of the club was outdoors with some little tents housing different music and bars. It was constantly raining gently which was nice and there were huge tropical trees and plants everywhere. Andre and his brother had been there for new years one year and had stayed until 6am, they saw the sunrise over the water and dolphins! I really wanted to stay until 6am to see thise but we got really really tired at about 2am and decided to go back to the Chalê. It was getting a bit boring as well as there were lots of younger kids there and some bad music!
The next day me and Andre woke up earlier to check out the coast and I took some photos of some vultures! I can’t remember if I mentioned it before but as soon as you get out of the city there are lots of vultures circling high overhead. It makes you feel a little uneasy in a way… I managed to spot some on the ground eating some dead fish and tried to get as close as I could for a photo. I was a bit scared to get too close as these birds are huge (and ugly)!!! There were also huge teradactyl dinosaur looking birds flying high in the sky but they never came down so I am not sure what they were.
We went back to meet with Wellington and Leandro and headed off the Praia Vermelinha (little red beach). The sand is slightly orange-coloured, which gives it its name. The waves were too crazy for swimming so we sat down to watch Wellington surf. After a while I decided to lie down and sunbathe when not two seconds later a huge wave came and washed up all over us! Everything got wet, and my denim shorts didn’t dry for 3 days because it is was so humid! After changing and showering we went to get some lunch at 100 miseria (which means without misery). It was about R$11 each and we had a huge piece of meat of our choice served with beans and rice and an endless supply of chips and salad.
Every morning we were there we would wake up with beautiful clear skies and bright sun but by every afternoon it would turn very gray and rain continuously! Andre said some people call the place Ubachuva because of this (chuva means rain). We stayed until Tuesday and saw a lot of the many beaches and bays. Ubatuba is a surf capital so many of the beaches have rough and large waves but we managed to find some beautiful calm beaches where we could swim. We drank from coconuts and ate small fried prawns with lime on one of the beaches while we watched Wellington surf some more. He is very good! One one of the beaches we went to Andre showed me to a small cave that crys continuosly. I wasn’t sure what he meant by this, but when I saw it there was water dripping all around the mouth of the cave. It was so beautiful, covered in green plants and butterflys. I saw a huge bright blue metallic butterfly, but it disappeared too quickly for me to take a photo. I have noticed lots of different coloured butterflys everywhere we go.
We also went to see the turtles at Projecto Tartafu (project turtle). They are an organisation aimed at protecting the turtles and tortoise at Ubatuba and they have a small park full of turtles and tortoise that you can view for R$6 each. They were so gorgeous, we saw massive ones and little babies! They are extending the park to make an aquarium you can view from the side and a beach they can lay their eggs on.
We did a little more shopping before we left and saw some more beaches. On the Tuesday before we left Wellington got a little carried away with his surfing which made us leave a little late, which meant more driving in the rain and fog on dangerous curves. Only this time it was a little worse, the rain was monsoonal and there was lightning all around us! The lightning was very close but I never heard much thunder which was strange. I swear at one stage I saw the lightning jump across the road in between our car and the car in front! I also swear I saw it strike a tree not too far away from the road! I was really scared but Leandro drove very safely and soon we were on a straight clear road headed home.
We had a great time at Ubatuba but next time I think we will go during summer so there isn’t so much rain! The only other downside was the infestation of mosquitos (pernilongo) in the bathroom of the Chalê! I came home absolutely covered in bites, so we are thinking maybe we won’t go to Rio this time around because of the dengue!
