So, from Manaus we flew to Fortaleza (a city on Brazil´s northeastern coast). We stayed here only one night. A place to recharge from our sleepless night of flying, and a the perfect stop en route to our small town destinations! Stayed at a great hostel that reminded me of the Secret Garden. It looked like nothing from the concrete exterior, but once we entered it was all beautifully painted and lush. We basically spent the afternoon dropping our filthy Amazon clothes off with a sweet older woman who ran a "lavandaria", and catching up on sleep. The following morning we booked ourselves on an overnight bus to Natal, leaving at 9:15p....we had all day to kill. So, we stored our bags at the hostel and once again hit the streets. Spent the morning wandering through the local & free art museum. That afternoon we caught a matinee at the local movie theater that played their films in English with Portugese subtitles. I went back to pick up our laundry, and was about to cross the street when I saw all our clothes hanging along the sidewalk on a clothesline...with the sweet older woman standing guard! Too funny. Took that as a sign that they weren´t quite ready! Grabbed some dinner, then our clothes, and then headed back to the hostel for a quick shower. Off to the bus station for our overnight jaunt.
The following morning we woke in Natal. Switched buses, and headed to Praia de Pipa...a cobblestoned beach village, laden with great restaurants and adorable boutiques. We stayed in a wonderful hotel here. Priced no differently than we´d been used to, but this one had a beautiful pool, and a fabulous breakfast included....score! And the beaches we lined with incredible red/orange cliffs...breathtaking.
Next location....Jacuma (which is where we are presently). Now this is a really REALLY small town. Absolutely no English spoken here. And I don´t believe I´ve mentioned how poorly we squeak by with our Portugese. Where we could get by with Spanish...we are drowning with Portugese. The best we can do is use the fact that we stick out like sore thumbs to our advatage and let those who want to help us...help us! So, we got off the bus, and the bus driver essentially left us in the care of an old man...who we decided to trust. He then made a couple of phone calls, and brought us to a Brazilian/German hotel, run by an extremely accomodating German woman named Janice. It´s rather comical, because she´ll try to explain things in Portugese and when she realizes she´s getting no where she´ll switch to German....as if that´s any better! But, the three of us are getting by with A LOT of hand gestures. Her hotel is gorgeous. We don´t know, but it looks like she is the new owner and is doing quite a bit of work to it. It over looks the beach. We spent today at....the nudey beach! What an experience. We were expecting the clothing aspect of it to be optional. But, as soon as we stepped onto the beach we were greeted by a rather large naked man, who pointed us towards the changing (or un-changing station as the case may be) where one must disrobe if he wants to enter the beach! He also informed us of the beach rules....no photographs of other beach goers, no touching the other beach goers and lastly, no man is permitted on the beach without a woman. So, yes...that sums up today´s activities!
Hope all is well and we´ll be in touch soon. xoxo!
Thanks for all of the updates! My little sis at a nudie beach! Who would of thunk it? Brazil looks way cool. Way. Way. cool.
ReplyDeletelol ~ Love it! ;-) xoxoxo
ReplyDeleteC'mon, don't you remember some German from 15 years ago???? And naked spas? You must have felt right at home :)
ReplyDelete