| Mar 10, 2006 - Itacaré, Brazil
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 | Leftovers of massive banana-chocolate pancake breakfast
| | Hanging out at our house
| | More people at our house
| | The long walk from entrance to kitchen
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 | The first beach at Itacaré
| | The road leading to the beaches
| | Martin in front of the first beach
| | Getting settled into beach 1
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 | Long shot of beach 1
| | Looking out onto beach 2
| | More of beach 2
| | People chilling on beach 2
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 | A surfer at beach 3
| | More of beach 3
| | Still more beach 3
| | Back at beach 1
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 | Dan and the water scene
| | Tanner on the beach
| | Self-portrait on beach 1
| | Another self-portrait on beach 1
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 | Dan, on the walk to the hidden beach
| | Some Itacaré coastline
| | A view from the cliffs
| | Another view from our walk
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 | Scene from hidden beach
| | Looking the other direction
| | A capoeira photo shoot
| | More of hidden beach
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 | The sea and the jungle's edge
| | Tanner heading out to the waves
| | Tanner body-surfing, Dan waiting for a wave
| | He caught one...
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 | And I swear he rode this one, I was just too impatient with the camera
| | More surfers, a typical Brazilian beach scene
| | Another typical Brazilian beach scene
| | Tanner and Dan in the water
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 | Dan in the distance, Tanner mid-view, and my shadow close up
| | Tanner and Dan again
| | The full moon at hidden beach
| | Close-up of the full moon
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 | The moon and waves
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| | On the walk to Ongiork beach
| | More of that coastline
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 | Another view from the walk
| | Me, during the walk
| | Still more coast
| | Ongiork beach in the distance
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 | Ongiork again, still from the pathway
| | Chilling on a cool curved tree
| | Interesting sand patterns
| | Me on the beach
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 | One of the large falcons we saw circuling on our walk back
| | Falcon soaring
| | Two at once
| | Closer up, but blurry
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 | | In better focus
| | A tree had fallen across the path, high above it, so I sat on it
| | You can see the path better in this one
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 | | Playing around on the first beach
| | Dan almost catching a wave
| | The falcons on the other beach
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| Friday morning we said goodbye to Ash who was leaving on a flight to London. Then Carmin, Tanner, Dan, Brian, and I went to Itacaré to meet up with Martin and some other friends there for Martin's birthday.
Itacaré is about 8 hours south of Salvador on the coast, but it takes 10 hours to get there since you need to first pass through the slightly inland city of Ilheus, and then catch another bus heading back north up the coast. We finally got into town late, and were again shown an amazing house to rent, with tons of extra unnecessary space, two bathrooms, a nice 6-burner stove, and most importantly where the 5 of us could each have our own beds so we didn`t need to sleep on the foor.
We put our stuff down, and met up with Martin who was with Sjan, Karen, and Patrick from Holland who I had originially met at the Rolling Stones show. The next day we would also run into Ellen and Pia again (our neighbors from Carnaval), Claire and Helena, and still more people from Rolling Stones, Carnaval, and other points on our trip. We all stayed there different amounts of time, but fell into a nice routine once again. Like Morro de Sao Paolo, Itacaré also has a string of beaches which all have proper names, but we referred to them as beaches 1 through 4 (Resende, Tiririca, Costa, Ribeira). In fact, there are even more beaches all over the area, but we didn't frequent those, except at night since there was some nightlife at Concha beach where we met some of the locals. And these glorious wonders surround a very peaceful slow-moving town. Itacaré basically has one or two main streets running through it, with a whole bunch of residential side streets and outlying neighborhoods. We stuck primarily to the touristy main drag, where foreigners and locals alike could be seen hanging out in swim wear and sandals at all hours. Itacaré also has really good surfing though, so that helped to add some activity to some of our days, and we had more space to throw around a frisbee as well.
Otherwise, the routine wasn't very different from our Morro de Sao Paolo routine. That is, beach bumming all day long, cooking great dinners, and then deciding what to do with our nights. Although we did have one rainy day, and that put us even more out of commission. But I'll give some highlights and explain some of these pics. First off, the very first morning Brian conjured up some incrediblly good and incredibly thick chocolate-banana pancakes, and I just had to give them mention here. Our first full day there we explored the string of beaches, since they are all real close to each other, and spent plenty of time playing in the waves and lying in the sun. I borrowed a board from someone we met there, so got my first taste of surfing again, but not for long, and not with any success. The waves there were just a little too strong and a little too crowded.
On Tuesday, 4 days after arriving, most of the crew left for yet another beach town further south, but Tanner, Dan, and I remained. So we used this day to rent a surf board to share between the three of us, and went to the Hidden Beach (Siriaco). Its not really so hidden though as it is secluded. As you get to the end of the main strip and reach beach 4, you arrive at the edge of some jungle-type rain forest woods, and a trail leading into them. Follow the trail for about 30 minutes and you arrive at a cliff with an amazing lookout over the ocean. Then drop down and to the right a few minutes, and you arrive at paradise. A perfectly curved beach cradled on three sides by the woods and facing out to the open ocean. The sand seems smoother, the water nicer, and the sun warmer. There are still a few people there, though not nearly as many as the other beaches, and the waves are tamer, more consistent, and thus perfect for beginner surfers. We spent the entire day here, stayed for a bit as the full moon was rising, and then realized how stupid we were. The walk through the woods in our sandals in the pitch dark carrying a surfboard was quite a funny, though at the time nerve-racking experience.
The next day we decided to check out a beach a few kilometers outside of town called Engenhoca. You take a bus out there, again walk through the woods for a while, and can then decide to go right to one beach, or left and on another path through more woods to Engenhoca. I know its getting redundant, but again the scene was amazing. More perfect water, more picturesque rocks and palm trees, more inviting sand to stretch out on, just another beach on the Brazilian coast. At one point on the walk back at a cliff we saw a group of circuling falcons, so I snapped some pictures.
The next day was our last, and we spent most of it on beach 1 again, getting our last kicks of body-boarding, frisbee, and lounging, before leaving for Ilheus at night. The following day I would have to meet my parents in Sao Paolo airport, but rather than take the 30+ hour bus ride, I decided to spend the extra money on a flight and have one more day in this paradise. But my flight was from Ilheus early in the morning, so we headed out and spent the night there. Taner and Dan were also heading out on a long bus trip, so being in Ilheus made more sense for them as well. In all we were in Itacaré for just about a week, and I loved every second of it. It was one of those places that I had never heard of before, wasn`t planning on going to until just a few days before arriving, yet now can`t imagine skipping it. There are probably 1,000 beach towns just like it up and down the coast, some much less touristy and crowded even, but Itacaré will always be synonymous with tropical heaven to me.
To give you an idea:
http://www.itacare.com/english.php
Check out the "beaches" link, though their picutres of hidden beach Siriaco are not of the same place that we went to. Strange. |
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