3 beaches

I have decided to take a day tour going to 3 beaches: Morro Branco, Praia das Fontes and Canoa Quebrada, the last of which was on my to-visit list. By doing it as a day tour, I avoid having to travel there, stay overnight and and travel out again since it's a little off the main highway. As it turns out I didn't miss anything by not overnighting there.

The tour van picked me up from the hotel. The hotel has arranged for me to have an earlier breakfast to make the tour. The guide and passengers are Brazilian and I can only catch a small portion of the commentary, but that's ok. Three old couples and two young couples. They are from all over Brazil, São Paulo, Curitiba, etc. One of the old couples is retired and perhaps the others too. There is a lot of internal tourism in Brazil.

At the beginning of the beach trail, we have to move from the tour van to a buggy (pronounced boogie, and of course, driven by bugieros) because only buggies can drive on the sand. These vehicles seat 4 passengers, 3 in the back and one next to the driver. They also make quite a racket.

Morro Branco (White Hill) is where wind and wave action have combined to create cliffs of sand cut by deep ravines. The wind generators you can just see in the top left testify to the constant winds in this area.

There are many colours of sand and local artisans use the sand to make intricate sand pictures inside glass containers.

Praia das Fontes (Beach of the Springs) is just a boogie, sorry, buggy ride along the beach. Fresh water (aqua doce) filters through the dunes and emerges as springs. This one is inside a sand cave (gruta).

They take us by buggy to a lagoon in the dunes where there is a kiosk and they will sell you barbecued cheese on a skewer and coconut juice. You can go dipping if you feel like it.

After you drink the juice from the young coconut, they will split it open so that you can eat the flesh. Notice the clever "scoop" made from slicing off a bit of the shell.

After that we are driven to Canoa Quebrada (Broken Canoe) which is separated from the other two beaches. The name Canoa Quebrada commemorates the spot where a Portuguese landing party's boat had an encounter with a rock. The rock won.

The town is up on the cliff and the buggies take you to the edge of the cliff, where a flight of stairs leads to the beach restaurants (barracas)

A bowl of caju (cashew) fruits on display.

After lunch we had free time to do our thing. Some went swimming, others just walked along the beach. If you want a drink while on the beach, this donkey propelled drink cart may just be your saviour.

You can see here a jangada, a type of fishing boat of this region, but now offering rides, in this picture. Kitesurfing is also popular.

After that it was back to Fortaleza in the van. Thanks to my Portuguese lessons, I was able to hold simple conversations with my fellow tourists and even express my admiration for Jamie Lerner, the mayor who introduced many impressive and much studied urban reforms and innovations to the city of Curitiba, in the south of Brazil, which I have blogged here.