Stolen Brazil: Maresias & Itamambuca

I pushed up the shutter and looked out of the plane. The sun was starting to rise over western Brazil and beneath me myriad golden arteries snaked out from the central behemoth that was instantly recognisable as the Amazon. I've seen some incredible sights from plane windows and that spectacular vista was one of the best.

Maresias: blue skies, sunshine & surf

We'd traded our last week in Colombia for a week in Sao Paulo, where we planned to hit the coast. It's winter in Brazil so we weren't expecting blazing sunshine, but we were hopeful we'd catch some rays.

First stop was Maresias, where we spent four days. Heading north from Sao Paulo along the coastline in summer would make a great roadie - luxuriant mountainous jungle to the left, bay after bay of golden beaches with excellent surf to the right. Plenty of beachside campgrounds, abundant butcher shops selling meat and coal for the barbie, bakeries and juice bars in every town, beach bars selling big bottles of beer in generous ice buckets, and sashimi on the menu everywhere.

It's oh so quiet in the quiet season

I can confirm that the beach costume de rigueur for Brazilian women is the g-string. In comparison, my bikini must seem positively Islamic and Matt keeps calling me Granny-pants. Somewhat strangely to my mind (all the women from Cote d'Azur make some noise), bums are okay but breasts are kept under wraps.

Brazil: burkini optional

I seem to remember reading some years ago that Rio operated a zero-tolerance policy on its beaches to anyone with an imperfect body. Every time I had another taco in Mexico or another beer in Colombia, I'd tell Matt I'm definitely gonna get sin-binned on Copacabana. Imagine the shame! Matt thinks it's an excellent idea, and that they should introduce cordoned off areas on the beach and grade people according to their bodies, with only those with perfect bodies allowed entrance into the A pen. I pointed out that he would never have managed to meet me if he was stuck way down in the D pen.

Beaches without borders are nice, aren't they Matt?

Maresias was great. Matt surfed, I lay in the sunshine and we ate barbecue. Those were the highlights. Aside from the cool, relaxed vibe, one thing I noticed about the Sao Paulo coast is that everywhere we went there was something in the air. Everyone seems to smoke weed, everywhere, all the time. Maybe that explains the laid-back atmosphere. 

After Maresias, we headed further up the coast. Itamambuca is another surf beach but instead of being a town, it is a kind of gated community that is called a "condominium" in Brazil. We thought Maresias was quiet, but Itamambuca was virtually deserted. Every restaurant in town was closed, all the houses were empty and we were the only guests in our hotel. The hazards of travel in the off-season.

Pousada Todas as Luas: sans kid on a trike

It was a bit like The Shining, but without all the creepy stuff and in a jungle paradise rather than a bleak snowed-in outpost... so basically nothing like the film apart from being completely empty. 

Itamambuca essentials

As we were the only guests, the staff took special care of us. The hotel has two restaurants. In the low season the pizza restaurant only opens over the weekend, and the sushi restaurant is open Thursday to Sunday. We arrived mid-week so the chef invited his mates over and put a barbie on for us on Wednesday, and on Thursday we had sushi. Great sushi. The best sushi I've ever had. Damn it was good. Mario, the chef, knows what he is doing. And at $15 for a mixed plate of sushi and sashimi, it is also the best value meal we've had in this relatively expensive country. 

Just hanging with my birds

Every morning at breakfast I embraced my twitcher tendencies and marvelled at the array of colourful of birds that flocked to the feeding platforms.

My favourite, apart from the elusive 'Red Velvet'

And that was basically it for the Sao Paulo coast. Quiet times in the quiet season. Next stop: Salvador de Bahia.