ODO: 356,372
Oooooo wee, we wake up slow. Today’s adventure is to drive to a coastal town known for its snorkeling, so fingers crossed. Once we arrive in the town, we know this place is not for us. The vibe is really weird, there is no beach, and everything feels sketchy. After doing a quick bit of mapping, we decide to try for a bit of, what looks like beach, just south of town. There are several roads that go where we want to go, but we cant go down them because there are so many thick, low hanging cashew tree branches crossing over them. We finally find a clear path, the steepest path, and make it onto the beach. Well, overlooking the beach. We are up on a small cliff above the beach. It’s quiet, and cool with the ocean breeze, and there are windmills on the other side of us. It’s fun getting to a beautiful camp before the sun goes down.
The view we wake up to is just as lovely as when we arrived. Until we learn we are camped in a tourist vista. A couple of quad and beach buggy tours roll through, and some stop to take pictures. We cant blame them, this spot is incredible. Down on the beach, the water is as perfect a temperature as it looks. There are some people pulling fishing nets in, and a couple going for a run together along the sand. There are some restaurants down the beach, so we decide to give Brazilian food another shot. So far, we don’t love the seafood here, and today is no exception. It looks lovely, but isn’t for us. And then we’re off to find another beach. It takes us several tries to find a nice one, partly because our 4WD is acting up again, so we have to make more conservative driving choices. But we get there! And in enough time to go for a nice sunset walk along the water.
We wake up to fishermen fussing with their nets on the beach. It’s very peaceful here so we pack very leisurely. Fun surprise, the 4WD works this morning! Along our route today is Natal, another giant Brazilian city we’ve never heard of. Every city in Brazil seems to be like this, something we’ve never heard of, but literally millions of people live in it. Our beach town destination, where we were hoping for calm, is madness. We crawl through traffic to a parking lot, before fighting the crowds to get to an Italian place just off the main drag. It’s a cute little place with room for about twenty, with decorative plates covering all the walls. We wait an hour of a table, and it is worth it! We enjoy the heck out of some bruschetta, some lasagna, and some Bolognese. By the time we finish, town is dead, so our walk back is delightful and we can see all the art. Incredibly, there is a quiet beach spot under some palm trees, on the very edge of town.
It rains hard twice in the night. We know this because both times it rains in the tent. The downfall of having to sleep with the windows open. This beach is also filled with sand buggy tours in the morning, so we pack and continue heading south. The goal is a more deserted beach, and after a lot of traffic, we manage to find it! Technically, its a campground run by a beach front hotel, and we love it. While we’re setting up, we discover the common marmosets living in the trees. We are beyond excited, we haven’t seen wildlife in ages. One of the monkeys is more curious about us than scared, making for a fun photoshoot. There are also several cats here, one of which decides it loves KoKo. While we wait for food from the restaurant, she cries every time KoKo stops petting her. Being Saturday night, we discover there is a karaoke bar nearby. Not by visiting it…Our fellow campers go to bed promptly at 10:15pm, so we follow suit.
Ahhhh, a long overdue rest day. The camper gets a good cleaning. We swim in the ocean for the first time since Berne hurt his knee. KoKo pets the cat a lot. We also learn the cat does not like having her picture taken. We even do a little bit of work. We try to coax the monkeys back, but they are not interested today. On Sunday, the campground goes to bed at 9pm. This is fine by us, we made a very early dinner, and take advantage of an early night after a relaxing day.
The last thing we do before leaving is change the sheets. We have a hotel night in front of us, which means showering, which means we’ll be clean when we next get into our clean bed. Back on the road, we are starting the final push to Sao Paulo, sort of. We have ten days to go 2500km, daily minimum of 250km. Berne’s knee is feeling great after the swimming, so we go 400km. Starting out strong! The drive is all long straights, typical Brazil. At least they are in good condition, and the driving is easy. Our go to hotel in Brazil is a chain called Ibis. They are cheap, reliably clean, and very comfortable. And thus far, always have parking the truck fits in!
Back onto the long straights again. For reasons we don’t know, there are very few coastal drives in Brazil, so we just do our best. In the late afternoon, the check engine light starts to flash, and the engine starts to misfire. Berne thinks its the one coil we didn’t replace last year, when we replaced all but one of our engine coils. We have some spares, and Berne thinks this could be a quick parking lot fix, so once again, we hotel it. While KoKo checks in, Berne heads off with the parking attendant, who assures us the truck will fit inside the hotel parking. At first it seems to, and then things go south…At the top of the steep entrance ramp is where Berne learns he had just enough space to get up the ramp, before the ceiling over the parking spaces drops low enough that he doesn’t fit. When he turns around to exit, the ceiling for the exit was also shorter, and he takes some plastic off the top of the gas can exiting. They find a nice spot for us right out front instead. This is the closest we have come to getting the truck stuck in a bad way. We decide never to let a stranger help us park again. An nearby Italian restaurant will have to be our de-stressor tonight.
