Itacaré: day 2: a prainha

17 oct 2009
This morning we tried to get up early to check out of the albuergue so we could go to the one where our other friends were because it was much much better. So we checked out, kind of felt bad because the owner had been really nice to us and as we left he asked whether we were leaving or going to another hostel. And my friend Lana* and I couldn't lie :(.
Anyway we were asking at the Albergue O Farol where a good place to have breakfast was, since the hostel had a kitchen but we had not food. And she told us that everywhere was closed pretty much because people party till late at night and don't open stuff up till like midday.

They are really nice here in Itacare in general. One of the ladies who works at the hostel who is helping us out a lot says she's from Rio de Janeiro, came here for a vacation and ended up staying here. She says she really likes it but misses the anonimity of Rio because here everyone knows you. Translation equivalent "Here if you get pissed drunk one night and fall on the floor, everyone is going to know about it; but when I was in Rio you could do what you want, go out to the market without dressing up, combing your hari--even without brushing your teeth and sure peopel will be like 'who's that strange girl' but they don't know you so it doesn't matter, but here...that is impossible"
She's really funny. but Itacare in general has been extremely hospitable!

So we went out to look for breakfast, and sure enough, everywhere we passed was closed. After walking for a while we finally found some open places, but Lana and I are particular about food and breakfast. We need our protien AND vitamins, and carbs and...not cake. And then we found this place down there where we're eating. it was Maria's ___ or something Maria. I would strongly recommend it.

And at first it seemed like they also only had cakes because there is a huge bakery section but then they have a menu on the wall which had all the juices, smoothing, fruit cocktails, and eggs, etc. on there.
I love that you never have to worry that fruit you'll get is canned. It's always super fresh and delicious. But I was having an indecisive moment. There were two smoothies (vitamina in Port.) that I was interested in but it would have been perfect if two of the fruits included were switched, so after ordering the one that I had settled on, I asked if I could actually order the same thing but with the fruits that I wanted, and the sweet waitress was like "sure :)" and so I asked her to change it, then I realized they had a fruit cocktail, and I decided I wanted that instead with an egg on wheat bread!

The others also ordered either an egg sandwhich and another ordered a chocolate smoothie with a fruit crêpe. So we were all waiting. And the first thing to come was a mixture of finely chopped fruit with yoghurt and granola on top, and my friend asked "is that the #42? the vitamina?" and she was like "yeah" and we were all like "it doesn't really look like a smoothie but I guess it must be it. she was fine with it.


Then another waiter came over with a smoothie #42, but this time it actually did look like a smoothie, so Lana was all worried thinking she got someone elses food. But i guess it was just mine so we decided it was cool if we just traded. the sandwich was good and cheap. Then my vegeration friend, oh what look she has, got a really delicious looking crêpe and then we realized the dominant fruit within all the chopped up fruit had mamão (papaya) her arch nemesis. tun tun tun.
It was kind of hard to get it all out but we managed, and i ate it because it is one of my favorite fruits. ever.

WE also bought sandwiches to go for our picnic (/picky-nicky/ oh one of my favorite english brasilian words) at the prainha. also pretty cheap like 2 dollars but it was on a good wheat bun and had chicken and vegetables in it.
We saw a little vegetable cart come by. mmm.. but we were on a mission. To find "A Prainha" (The little beach) which is rather secluded like 50 minutes away from the main town walking.


We decided to get a guide because we had heard that recently people were getting mugged there AND it was a long way and so many chances to get lost on a 40 minute hike soo...we got this guy in the green shirt who is a part of a little group of guides who you can pay to have take you there and bring you back.
It was a really nice trail.

Diane a bio/env (i forgot which one) major who knows a lot about plants was pointing some stuff out for us. she was also interning at the Botanical garden in Salvador too, so she knew a lot about this.


The view was amazing. I keep saying gorgeous and amazing and awesome, but I really don't know how to describe it. It was just better than what I thought it would be and I was thinking it would be pretty dang amazing.
We had to walk through a coconut farm! Fazenda de côcos
It was a pretty secluded beach. It was really nice. It was good for surfing. I forgot to meantion, Itacaré is known for the surf.

I needed a bay watch picture. But I guess I'm a little more scantily clad than Pamela Anderson. Oh I never thought that would happen. But hey when in Bahia...

climb a palm tree I guess. [Photo credits: Lipoa]
I was learning to boogie-board and I almost died (I almost died in brazil, Part 10-- part of a larger series: "Sonia almost dies: Part 435"). I was practicing diving into waves without the boogie board and I went too far and the waves are huge and strong and I couldn't breath well but I was also caught in a riptide so I couldn't get back to shore even if I was trying to swim towards it but then I couldn't see when the waves were coming behind me and it just kept pushing me down like as soon as I could recompose myself to start swimming again the next wave would come and I really thought I might die there. But finally just swimming parallel to the beach and I just kept trying I guess, and finally I got back.

TIP, if this happens to you swim parallel to the shore!

I just remember that I stood once i could for a while to calm down. But I didn't step all the way out of the water. I actually went back in with the boogie board a few minutes later. I think I might be crazy. In retrospect, dang I'm stubborn. But I just didn't go out that far any more. Thankfully at least right?

Then we did some more photo shooting. Oh poor guide. I bet he didn't know what he was getting into. We were there for like 5/6 hours. We kind of forgot about him actually. He seemed to be doing okay because some of his friends were there, but once we noticed he was getting a little antsy, we're like okay we're done. It was great. Then on our way to dinner--we opted for Meio Natural again because of the quality and good price--we saw this guy.

He is a local artist. He does a lot of landscapes and paints on clothes. also silk screen. I bought a couple of pau brasil seed bracelets. We talked to him for a while and because I am into art as well we had a lot to talk about. He was really chill and smart and cool, he became one of our itacare friends. I asked him if he could custom-make me a shirt and I would pay him extra, and he was cool with that.
He does a lot of landscapes of the place because he's really into nature, but he really likes surrealism too. And it was great. He had some really good like leaves turning into waves and women trees. I dig his style.


At meigo ambente again :) this time I went for chicken and a side of rice beans, and green salad and this time I couldn't finish it. I think it was more filling, but it worked out because we just gave our leftovers to our friend who just ordered soup and bread.

Oh by the way there were some really nice guys who were teaching us some more portuguese. When one guy said I spoke portuguese well I said "'brigada" Then he's like [translation equiv.] "no 'obrigado', is to formal it's like shirt-and-tie way of saying it, you say valéu"

awesome froggy.
For dessert we had all had our eyes on this local gelato place. It was locally pretty popular and they make their ice cream there. Flavors like plum, maracuja, cupuaçú, chocolate mint, vanilla, strawberry, some other fruits but while in Itacaré, we had to have either cacau and chocolate gelato.

Here's mine. It was cacau flavored and I really love the taste of this fruit. it was great! ***** for this place

We later went to a nearby market to get some food for the next day, take advantage of the kitchen in the hostel and save time at breakfast. I was in charge of the fruits, I got some pineapple, mango, and sandwich making stuff to take advantage of the kitchen and not waste too much time looking for food in the morning because we had scheduled a tour of the Mata Atlantica the next morning.
You can organize a lot of things through the hostel and in this case one of the workers at the hostel did the calling and setting up for the special tour. Special because they usually don't do it on Sundays but we offered to pay more, we just weren't on top of it the day before, they end on Saturday and it would have been cheaper then because it's with a bigger group. but oh well.
Oh it was a good day!