During the course of the week we had picked up a whole coconut to eat, if anyone out there knows the best way to get the flesh out of a coconut, please share it with us!
We had a very leisurely Monday morning as we waited for our rental car to arrive in Cumbuco from Fortaleza. Once the car arrived, Pete stretched his Portuguese to the max trying to sort out the details of payment. ”Do we pay the full amount now or later? Hmm now you say, well what if we return it earlier?” To sort this little question out it took half an hour and two people from our pousada helping to translate to the rental car agent. After a phone call with his boss, we were sorted and good to go...phew!
We opted for a pretty budget car and even though everyone insisted that we need AC, we decided we didn't (it would have been an extra 17R a day). Turns out if you say no to AC you also don't get the super dark tinted windows...oh well I hear dry saunas are good for you. We drove out to Taiba and were surprised at how large the city actually is. We keep thinking that further up the coast we would hit small fishing villages and prices for pousadas would be cheaper....so far it's the other way around, Taiba is much larger than Cumbuco with the prices for pousadas being about the same. Food does seem to be cheaper though, which is a good thing! Surrounding the town of Taiba are giant wind mills. I was able to count 30 from the beach but I'm sure that there are more. I wonder if that means that all the electricity in Taiba is clean? Either way pretty cool to see.
We drove around a bit and decided it was time to look for a place to stay. We followed every sign that there was for a pousada, knocked on many doors and checked out the rooms at many locations. Even though they were all empty, the prices were pretty high. We checked out this super ghetto place where laundry hung as curtains in the windows and there seemed to be lots of drunk locals hanging around...needless to say we didn't stay here. In desperation we came across a place that was a few buildings down from the 'ghetto' and decided to just stay there for a few nights.
The room itself wasn't that bad, but there was a smell that would appear out of nowhere from the bathroom and no, it wasn't created by us :) The smell was so bad that we would have to open both doors turn the fan on and vacate the room for a while...it was horrible. We survived in this room for three days and then moved onto a nicer pousada, which is right on the beach but more importantly it doesn't smell. Pete and I both decided that the smelly pousada was the second worst place that we have ever stayed...the first being a place in Mozambique where we decided to setup our tent inside of the room and sleep in that instead of touch anything in the room itself.
The wind is constant here, I'm pretty sure Pete's been out every day so far. I had my first two days in at the lagoon and ate it pretty consistently! I think Pete had a good chuckle watching from shore.
 |
| Lagoon in Taiba |
Pete's also been getting lots of jumps in at the lagoon and is looking very stylish when he rides
While we were at the lagoon, two local kids came by to kite and showed us how it's done. They were just amazing. I swear, the one kid wasn't a day over 12 but he was doing the biggest jumps and trying the craziest tricks. They ride on older equipment or stuff that tourists leave behind, it's pretty great to watch. Next time we come here, we'll bring our old kites and give them to these kids.
 |
Two days ago, on the way back from the lagoon we took a wrong turn and ended up getting very stuck in the sand.
It took an hour and three additional people to get the car out of the sand trap. The whole incident was pretty funny and the other upside is that we made friends with a Spanish couple who live here three months out of the year. A few Canadian friends of theirs arrived today and we are all heading to the beach for a BBQ later on tonight. They are all sponsored riders and the one Canadian is super good...he's been riding for 12 years now and he's only 21...oh to be young again!
The beaches in Taiba are really nice, and as Pete would like me to point out there are lots of girls in little bikinis :)
There are also signs that translate to no picnics allowed. I'm pretty sure that means just next to the tables that are owned by the pousadas and not the whole beach.
Pete was able to capture a pretty good picture of the moon rising over some sand dunes. As we are very close to the equator, the sun rises at 6am and sets at 6pm on the dot all year around.
