Escape from BA

Brazil is continuing to provide eventful weekends, I must say. On Thursday afternoon, I accepted an invitation from some friends to catch a bus to a beach further south called Praia do Forte and spend the weekend there. The hostel and bus ride were cheap so I agreed, thinking it would just be a few people. Unbeknownst to my knowledge, a group of girls who have already decided I’m weird got to come too. Lots of them fought each other and started all this drama. Luckily only the girls were really lame and the guys who invited me were cool and weren’t standing for their Real World shenanigans either. We decided to bail on all that and have fun; I know lame people in the USA but don’t ever have the chance to explore South American beach towns.

So once we decided we’d catch Laguna Beach on Tivo, we found the town was really cool. It was definitely designed for tourists but it was kind of nice to have tourist comforts after being in the city for so long. The air felt so clean and the water was blue and beautiful. The palm trees jutted into the water just like a post card, it was amazing. There was a small crowd by the entrance to the beach but you could easily walk a little father down and have the whole place to yourself. When I went exploring with my two white friends, Cole and Riley, we went unhassled by any employees in the really expensive resorts and we were able to get to some pretty cool remote spots. Finally, my unnecessarily vast amount of freckles has come in handy. We found some pretty cool palms hanging over the water by one resort and Cole taught me how to climb palm trees. He is one of those robot guys who is just naturally good at everything and therefore was shocked that I didn’t know how to climb palm trees. “Dude you are from Mendocino, how do you know how to climb palm trees?”

There was also a crazy tide that sucked out in the morning about… well I don’t know a very far distance and left some pretty cool tide pools in front of a lighthouse. There were old Brazilian men fishing off the edges and you could swim out to boats pretty easy. We caught crabs (yes, yes jokes) and found some awesome live coral that looked like octopi (grammar check) spread over rocks. The hostel we stayed at was also really nice and had very comfy hammocks that were being fought for by the end of the weekend. They also gave a wristband for free entrance into this sea turtle restoration project that was part of the town. The project had a bunch of huge sea turtles but we are all pretty disappointed to find out you couldn’t touch or swim with them. Some people claimed they swam with some in the wild later in the day while I was eating but I’m choosing not believe them. It started to rain when we were debating to go making the decision to leave much easier. Overall, it was a pretty cool place and definitely a relaxing break from the crowds and noise of the city.

So to sum up this weekend: jerky girls, cool beach, tide pools, hammocks, sea turtles.