December 15, 2010

Laura´s friend Gabi had invited us to spend a day with her and her niece and nephew at Jujucê beach where her parents have an apartment. She came to meet us at 10am and we drove together up to the north of the island, a trip of about 40 minutes. On our way we stopped at a viewpoint with a great view of parts of the island:

After 2 days of cold and rain it was good to get some good weather again. The temperature was back up in the normal Brazil summer range. Wow, 10 degrees C (18 F) sure makes a big difference.

Here´s the beach bunch ready to go:

The beach was just the way beaches are supposed to be:

We spent our whole day at the beach, only interrupted by lunch. Finally we got one of the beach days we have been talking about since we started the voyage.

We had our lunch in one of the kilo restaurants, where you pay per kilo of what you take from the buffet:

Buffet lunch with a wide choice is perfect when you don´t want to waste time at restaurants.

The girls did not let each other drift apart more than a maximum of a meter during the entire day:

Back at the beach life was hard:

The kids spent their day playing and swimming. The atmosphere was so relaxed I forgot to take pictures.

There were many people walking up and down the beach trying to sell things. Everything from cashew nuts and melted cheese to clothes and ornaments with mirrors (!) to hang on the wall. Gabi spoke with some of them and they said business was very tough, they hardly sold anything. Hopefully business would pick up as tourist season really started. Season here is from Christmas to March.

The most exotic sales scheme was this wagon:

This is a transportable bar. Complete with all the alcohol, juices, drink mixing machines etc. It doubles as a rolling discotheque with loud music announcing its not-so-imminent arrival.

It was great to just sit at the beach and chill out. We did not head for home before 6:30pm. On our way back we stopped at a village called “Santo Antonio da Lisboa” and ate at a fantastic seafood restaurant called “Ze Do Cacupé.” Highly recommended! Helene and I split an out-of-this-world seafood risotto.

We were back home at around 9pm and got the kids to bed. They have been going to bed around midnight the past few days and needed some sleep. After a few protests they fell asleep very fast.

Eirik

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